Westside tv pilot3/30/2023 ![]() ![]() However, in his absence, everyone’s lives have moved on, with Rita raising Wolf alone and having an affair with her Welsh neighbour, while the gang has turned to simple robbery and knocking off TV sets. He’s reunited first with his wife Rita (Antonia Prebble reprising one of her roles from Outrageous Fortune) and son Wolf, and then with the other members of his slightly stupid gang. Tonally, the show is a sort of combination of The Almighty Johnsons, Life on Mars and even Widows, with safecracker Ted West (David de Lautour) coming out of jail after being grassed up to the cops during a robbery involving some Krugerrands. So with my level of knowledge established, you’ll understand that my enjoying the show despite my ignorance means that the average Outrageous Fortune fan must be in some sort of state of nirvana while watching Westside.įor the rest of us, though, there’s a whole lot to commend. …had it not been for pretty much the entire mise en scène shouting “THIS IS AN IMPORTANT MOMENT” at the viewer, I’d have never have realised how hugely important it was. For example, when a certain house is unveiled in the episode… Now I’ll readily admit that almost certainly, a lot of references to the original show went over my head. It’s a fun and smart crime comedy-drama in a great period setting, with some good characters. ![]() A consistent ratings winner, the show achieved cult status and critical acclaim at home and abroad and to date has won more than 50 awards.ĭespite knowing shamefully little about Outrageous Fortune, its characters and its plot, I have to say I did enjoy Westside rather a lot. Over six seasons between 20, Outrageous Fortune established itself as New Zealand’s most successful television drama series. Westside is a prequel to Outrageous Fortune. Combining real events and the rich folklore of the West family and associates, this is rollicking history, and a tempestuous romance, set at a time of great social upheaval. This six-part series tells the story of legendary safe cracker and career criminal, Ted West and his fire cracker of a wife, Rita. So will the story of safecracker Ted West, his wife Rita and their son Wolf, the future prison-bound patriarch of Outrageous Fortune‘s West family, stand on its own two feet or will it simply be a piece of fan service from a creatively bankrupt team that have run out of ideas?įrom Rachel Lang and James Griffin, the award-winning creators of Outrageous Fortune, Westside will take the West family’s large and loyal fan-base on a journey back to where it all began. As a result, there’s a potential new audience for Westside that never saw the original and who might be looking forward to Rachel Lang and James Griffin’s latest production. All the same, that finished five years ago and wasn’t widely known in its original form overseas – indeed, these days it’s perhaps better known as the show that the creators of The Almighty Johnsons ran before venturing into matters more fantastical and theological. Now, I’ve already gone into the history of its progenitor Outrageous Fortuneelsewhere, so I won’t bother here but suffice it to say, as esteemed New Zealand shows with a huge fan base go, you couldn’t find a bigger one than Outrageous Fortune. The show formerly and cleverly known as Westside Story, but which is now presumably for copyright reasons simply Westside, has these two issues to juggle. However, unless you want ever-reducing audience numbers, you have to ensure that the prequel is of interest to a wider circle than just the fans. You typically only get a prequel to a show if it’s been popular and has a strong fan base, and those fans are going to want everything to line up nicely with whatever’s already been established in the original story. As we saw recently with AMC’s Better Call Saul, prequels can be tricky things.
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