First Review: Love My Way

You'd have to be living under a rock not to have heard of the string of awards lauded upon Love My Way.

Now three series old, new episodes screen on Foxtel from Monday night.

Famously co-produced by Claudia Karvan and John Edwards (both from Secret Life of Us), the new series picks up with Frankie (Karvan) and new husband Lewis Feingold (Ben Mendelsohn) setting up house, together with his teenage son Dylan (Sam Parsonson). Frankie has swapped her ocean views for a backdrop of the Sydney suburbs.

As part of the extended LMW family, Julia (Asher Keddie) and Charlie (Dan Wyllie) return, with their eye on an adjacent property. But it's a little too close for comfort. Lewis isn't sure he wants familiar friends quite so familiar.

Meanwhile gay son Dylan fends off admiration from his close female friend, who is the apple of his best mate's eye. Circling above him is a custody tussle between his father and estranged wife, now living in a gay relationship herself.

Once again, the relationships of LMW are the heartbeat of the series. They rise and fall between joy, honesty and tension. Steeped in subtext, the emotions of the central characters are frequently suppressed by what each thinks they should say, rather than by a resolute directness. And then they blurt out their feelings, fuelled in anger or the heat of the moment. It's a behavioural observation that is entirely believeable, and entirely Australian.

As with previous seasons of LMW the performances are roundly excellent. Mendelsohn shines in a role that reminds us he is all too rarely seen. Keddie's Julia teeters on the brink of vulnerability and anal-retentiveness that shows she is no one-dimensional performer.

Joining this series is Justine Clarke as Julia's ignored sister, who worked so wonderfully in Edwards' The Surgeon.

Foxtel has been criticised for moving LMW to the Showtime Channel, not readily available in basic Foxtel packages. Slated in 2 hour double episodes, the upside is that this series has a filmic throughline not pandering to commercial breaks.

This shows every sign of maintaining the quality achieved by the first two series. If you have cable, don't miss it.

Love My Way screens Mondays 8:30 on Showtime.