The Wests are a one-family crime wave with a proud tradition in thievery, larceny and petty crime. Or at least they used to be. At the beginning of the first series of Outrageous Fortune, family matriarch Cheryl West decided enough is enough - the family must clean up their act and go straight.
They tried. Sort of. Well, most of them gave it a bit of a bash, but it’s not easy to be a saint when you have the DNA of a sinner. Despite much opposition from her husband, Wolf; and the occasional temptation to veer from her chosen path, Cheryl led by example. Sure there were a few laws broken along the way in the name of the greater good and she did end up falling in love with a policeman, but even she is not perfect.
The third series of Outrageous Fortune sees Cheryl still battling to keep her family (and herself) on the straight and narrow. Both the men in her life are inside – Wolf after turning himself into the cops as part of his master plan to frame Judd; Judd because he fell in love with the wrong woman -Wolf’s woman.
As Cheryl ploughs on regardless, balancing the needs of family with those of Hoochie Mama, her burgeoning naughty knicker business, her offspring are going their own merry ways. Van is still managing the Lucky Dollar Store and planning his dream wedding with Aurora. Jethro is branching out from defending the scum of the earth (and his family) to working for property developer Gary Savage – whether this is a step in the right direction remains to be seen. Pascalle is enthusiastically embracing both her new-found vocation in caring for the elderly and her new-found love for Dr Bruce Khan – although this whole ‘I’m a virgin, let’s wait until we get married thing’ has some major drawbacks, especially for a girl like Pascalle. Loretta is happily ensconced with her older man, Hayden, and is gleefully plotting her directorial debut, helming the next great erotic film, especially for women.
So apart from Cheryl, struggling to make ends meet and to get her bloke (the Judd one) out of prison, there is happiness all around.
That state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue, as Series 3 of Outrageous Fortune will go to show.
Outrageous Fortune is a comedy-drama series about the wrong sort of people trying to do the right thing when the rewards for going straight are neither immediate nor bountiful. It is a bold, fresh comedy-drama which is by turns bawdy, action-packed, satirical and trashy - but only ever a heartbeat away from reality.
Created by James Griffin (Sione’s Wedding, Serial Killers) and Rachel Lang (Maddigan’s Quest, Mercy Peak), Outrageous Fortune won the award for Best Drama Series and Best Drama Programme (single episode) at the 2006 Air NZ Screen Awards and was also named Best Drama in the 2006 TV Guide Best on the Box People’s Choice Awards. In 2005, Outrageous Fortune won six awards at the Qantas TV Awards, including Best Drama Series; Best Actress (Robyn Malcolm as Cheryl West) and Best Actor (Antony Starr as Jethro and Van West).
The third series of the top-rating and critically acclaimed show is now in production.
Outrageous Fortune series three is available on DVD from March 21, 2008 at all good DVD outlets. Distributed by Roadshow Entertainment.
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