So Seven's new flagship dramedy, Winners & Losers, debuted on Tuesday to 1.6 million viewers.

Those are the sorts of figures that, recently, wouldn't have even been mentioned in the same breath as the terms "debut", "original" and "local production", so it's an impressive start for the show, Brought To You By™ the same crew as Packed To The Rafters.

The 411, if you're not up to speed: four friends, former "losers" in their high school years, prepare themselves for their 10-year high school reunion.




It's a solid premise that everyone can relate to.

I attended - nay, for some reason that remains unclear to modern science, organised - my 10-year reunion; the lead-up was a heady mix of anticipation and simmering resentments from my teenage years, and the event itself was almost underwhelming it was so pleasant.

Everyone was gainfully employed and had grown into the best version of themselves. We all hung out in a beer garden and talked about how someone from our year had gone to jail for "murder and fucked up shit."

(Then I got really stoned and ate a Raspberry Cornetto on a nature strip.)

So, in other words, we all know what the characters are going through.

The cast is comprised of the sorts of Australian actors - particularly the lovely Virginia Gay, and, believe it or not, Blair McDonough - who you've frequently seen pop up in smaller roles on other shows and thought "That person deserves a bigger gig".

Lo and behold, that wish has been granted, only I wish it wasn't Winners & Losers.

The problem I have with the show is in its execution.

Let's put aside the fact that most of the sets look like sets (i.e. Bec's house looks like a Frankie shoot about people who collect retro curios) and that it's shot in the permanent daylight of the Rafters oeuvre.

What - or rather, who - I want to talk about is the character of Jenny, played by Melissa Bergland.



Bergland's a terrific actress and she does her best with what she's been given as Jenny Gross (which is not much).

As I've noted in the past on this blog, Australian television suffers from a real dearth of size diversity, so it's great to see a fat chick on prime time. (Also she's a spunk and her hair is excellent.)

However, WAY TO PLAY INTO EVERY STEREOTYPE YOU COULD POSSIBLY HAVE PLAYED INTO, WRITERS OF WINNERS & LOSERS!

Yes, Jenny is big - and, it follows in TV logic, she's also nervy, suffers from a lack of confidence, sleeps with a teddy bear, has a dead-end job, is single, and lives at home.

The other "losers" on the show escaped their teenaged hell of being "dumpy" (read: fat) and became 'successful'; Jenny stayed fat and kept on losing.

Because fat people are losers! Amirite?!

The thing is, it didn't have to be this way.

How brilliant would it have been if, instead, it was Jenny - not Melanie Vallejo's Sophie - who was the sex kitten of the show?

Wouldn't it have been funny if the smart and business savvy Frances actually lived at home with her mum?

(The less said about Frances' snappy gay offsider Jonathan the better. At least Anthony and Stanford on SATC had inner lives beyond their hysterical one-liners.)

(Also: LOL! Everyone thinks Frances is a lesbian! How embarrassing for her!!1)

(ALSO: it's the ten-year reunion, which should make everyone about 28 or 29 - the characterisations seem to run from mid-teens to late-forties.)

Look, it might get better. Who knows, perhaps Jenny will become outrageously successful in the next few episodes. Perhaps the writers came up with something for Bergland that doesn't involve being a teary drongo trapped in an eternal childhood.

Perhaps we'll get a fat person on Australian TV who isn't flailing through life but is instead defined by their strength of character rather than imprisoned by the stereotype of their size.

She probably won't though - and that's Winners & Losers big loss.