Newly arrived to Hulu, the brisk four-part series stars Aisha Dee of “The Bold Type.”
Aisha Dee (“The Bold Type”) stars in “Safe Home,” now on Hulu, a brisk Australian miniseries about domestic violence that blends a few formats, sometimes to powerful effect.
Dee plays Phoebe, a communications pro who leaves a job at a prestigious law firm for one at an underfunded domestic violence legal clinic, partly out of a vague sense of altruism but also because she is having an affair with her boss’s husband (Thomas Cocquerel). But this is a fancy contemporary drama, and you know what that means: That arc is told in flashback because in the present, a teary, weary Phoebe is in a police interrogation room, explaining her connection to a terrible crime.
Also woven in are other devastating portraits: Diana (Janet Andrewartha), a shell of a grandmother who has lived under the domineering control of her husband for 36 years; Ry (Tegan Stimson), a young woman whose need to escape her violent mother makes her vulnerable to the advances of an unsafe co-worker; Cherry (Katlyn Wong), a mom who speaks only Cantonese and is struggling with the unhelpful legal bureaucracies that protect her abusive husband.
Each facet of the show is, on its own, dialed in, and Cherry’s tale in particular illuminates the compounding aspects of suffering. In one scene, she and her elementary school-age daughter listen by speaker phone as the school principal scolds Cherry for her children’s tardiness. “You need to try and put your children first,” the principal says, with an edge in her voice. “She says you’re trying your hardest,” the daughter translates. “You’re doing a good job.”
But sometimes that potency gives way to well-intentioned but lifeless patness. The least effective arc finds Phoebe reciting all the talking points for the clinic to government employees and journalists, and some of the dialogue feels closer to an educational pamphlet than to human or artistic expression. Luckily the soapier side of “Safe Home” brings a needed momentum to the series but doesn’t cheapen its sense of overwhelmed despair. If you want something that lands between “Big Little Lies” and “Maid,” watch this.
Source: Television - nytimes.com
