User Reviews

I absolutely fell in love with this show from the start. Although I wasn't super-impressed by the promos leading up to the premiere, I was so pleasantly surprised when the show started - a great mix of comedy and drama, and the show's quality has been so consistent through the first three seasons.

Nina Proudman is an obstetrician in her 30's. Although she is extremely capable and respected at her job, she has a difficult time getting her personal life in order. Enter her family, consisting of an older sister Billie who isn't afraid to say what she thinks, a chilled-out younger brother Jimmy who loves his carefree irresponsible life, the matriarch of the family Geraldine who is searching for her identity after splitting with her husband Darcy Proudman, who although still loves his wife has a weakness for other women as well. Mick is a shoeless musician who is also Jimmy's best friend and Billie's ex-boyfriend. Add in to the mix a range of co-workers including nurses Cherie, Zara and Kim, who get great pleasure from commentating on Nina's life whenever they get the chance; and Dr Martin Clegg, the eccentric boss who is just a bit too interested in the personal lives of his staff. And don't forget the range of other doctors passing through the unit, including Chris Havel the dreamy paediatrician, Patrick Reid the brooding anaesthetist and Fraser King, the starry-eyed obstetric registrar.

Each character in the show is easy to relate to due to their individual quirks. There are no 'bad guys' or troublemakers, but rather just regular people interacting, clashing, making mistakes and trying to make amends. Nina particularly is refreshing as the heroine of the story, as although she is beautiful and incredibly smart, she is clumsy, rehearses things over and over in her head and still gets it wrong.

I've heard this show compared with other popular comedies such as Ally McBeal and Scrubs, however I feel this show is much easier to relate to. Funny, yes absolutely, but Nina's daydreams are more realistic than dancing babies or exploding heads, and the characters don't speak at a rate of a million miles per hour! The cast seem to have a great on-screen dynamic and the music soundtracks are also great featuring a number of great Australian tracks.

I can't wait for season 4!

Every reviewer of this show turns me off. If I listen to them it is everything I wouldn't enjoy. However the same thing happened with "The Alice", where every review and Nine's own promos made it look like "McLeod's Daughters". It's only through catching a few episodes by accident that I have realised how quirky this show is, and how well it balances comedy and drama (exactly like "The Alice").

Perhaps that's our real problem in Australia: we can make these shows just fine, we have the talent, but if it isn't a cop show or soapie we don't know how to sell it. Perhaps many people who'd enjoy it are being turned off by the advertising and reviews, which are in turn attracting the people who don't like it after all.

It has what I like: well written, well acted stories with original characters. The fact it is technically great (camerawork, sets, lighting etc) is a bonus. The characters are ordinary people without being ordinary clichés, and not everyone looks like a model with a six figure wardrobe.

Sure some of them give me the irrits no end with their stupidity - who agrees to a surrogacy arrangement without thrashing out the details *before* any sperm goes anywhere?! I want to bang their stupid heads together. But people are like that, some are stupid and annoying, and sometimes you're related to them. The show would only be unwatchable if the stupid and annoying were *the* core of it, which thankfully they aren't.

The comedy is varied and at times unexpected, while very intense dramatic moments (such as informing a couple of the death of their child after a car accident) are handled with subtlety while still managing to be confronting and difficult to watch. The fact that these extremes can be found within episodes, and yet it still flows and works, shows how good the writers are.

This is well worth a look, and I would encourage the sceptical who are turned off by the "babies and love" reviews to give it a shot anyway. You might be pleasantly surprised. Then go to a video store and hire "The Alice" and be pleasantly surprised again.

When Offspring started in season one, we are introduced to Nina Proudman (Asher Keddie) who is a daydreamer and doctor at St Francis Hospital with her colleagues Kim (Alicia Gardiner), Zara (Jane Harber), Martin (Lachy Hulme) and her object of desire Chris Havel (Don Hany) but that soon ends as he is married which by season two we are introduced to her short lived romance with young registrar Fraser (Jay Ryan) before her realising her heart is meant for Patrick Reid (Matt Le Nevez). Her family life can be chaotic, parents Darcy (John Waters) and Geraldine (Linda Cropper) have divorced and Darcy became a father for the fourth time who the mother of the child Nina works with -Cherie (Deborah Mailman), younger brother Jimmy is an eternal young at heart while older sister Billie (Kat Stewart) can be neurotic. Life in Nina's world is never dull, whatever comes her way, Nina handles with class and dignity.

I just found this show on Netflix. I had seen it advertised on TV but never watched it because it was aired so late at night. However I have to say - I am totally and utterly hooked. I have laughed, cried, cringed and smiled. The actors are lovable and quirky and remind me of a lot of people I already know in real life. The family is so outrageously dysfunctional but seem to work through all their issues because of the love they have for each other and their interpretation of what "family" is and means. Nina is lovable and funny although at times I have wanted to shake her but for the most part she is the show and without her it would be nothing. I give this 9 out of 10 because it has made me "feel" which a lot of shows have lacked lately. Big props to the writers and the cast. You truly have a hit on your hands.

I've binged watched Offspring since I noticed it on Netflix earlier this year, including the most recent 7th season that was just released a few weeks ago. In general, I enjoy Australian TV a great deal more than US network TV shows. Part of it is probably the Australian over-the-air networks can get away with a lot edgier material than the US nets. In that sense, shows like Offspring resemble US shows on cable networks like FX or HBO, and those are the ones I tend to gravitate towards.

Overall, I've enjoyed Offspring, even though I typically don't watch the hospital type shows like Grey's Anatomy to which I've seen some compare this too. There is a fair share of melodrama and tragedy, but it also has a much lighter air than shows like Grey's, which I appreciate.

Don't read any further if you don't want to be spoiled on key show plots. But I feel like I need to address some things I liked, and things I didn't, in order to properly review the show.

I do find the Proudman clan just straddles the right side of the line from being too cartoony...they each have their own struggles and demons, especially Nina and Billie...they make progress only to regress at key moments...they rebuild only to fall again. If the characters weren't likable this would get tiresome. But for the most part, even as they make the same mistakes, I found myself engaged with the Proudmans. But its a very thin line, and the show has been in danger of crossing it too far several times.

I do think the show struggled a bit in the 5th and 6th seasons, after the death of Patrick. I don't have an issue with the writers killing him off (though I can only imagine Australians' reaction watching that live), and I thought the actors did a wonderful job portraying how heart wrenching that would be.

It just felt one step too far in pulling on the viewer's heartstrings. To have Patrick die a week before his child was born, when a big reason for his struggles was the stillborn birth of a child with his first wife, was a bit too emotionally manipulative for me.

So I think the show struggled finding a footing after that. By killing him off in such a tragic circumstance, the show has lionized Patrick as the "one great love" for Nina, when as others have pointed out, their relationship had as many downs (maybe more) as ups over the 3 seasons he was on the show.

I just think they've made it hard to root for any of the subsequent men in her life; for instance her current love interest through the 7th season is probably a stronger (and healthier) relationship for her than Patrick. But as one of her ex-boyfriends comments to her in an episode (which I can't help but wonder was the the writers' way of answering critics), Patrick is always going to exist as the perfect ideal to Nina now, whether he was that in real life or not. Its hard for anyone else to compete.

I also think the show has introduced too many peripheral characters recently. Did we really need yet another Proudman half-sibling at this point? And while I think the Mick/Billie relationship had really run its course, it was dispatched with so little fanfare at the beginning of season 7. I can only assume actor commitments made it impossible to bring Mick back for more closure than we got, but it was kind of weird that after all those two had been through we don't get to see the ultimate break up scene.

But overall, I did think the 7th season was an improvement over 5 and 6, and has me intrigued to watch an 8th season, if there is to be one. Even if they make you want to pull your hair out, I still want to root for Nina, Billie, Jimmy and the rest of the Proudmans. If a show can do that through 7 seasons, its doing something right.

I found this series after it being noted by a friend as their current addiction.

I ended up streaming all 7 seasons within a 2 week time span.

Wonderfully quirky and immensely dramatic.

I have fallen in love with the cast and writing, I at times will begin a show hating a character and by the end will love them again.

The insanity that is Nina's thoughts, her daydream sequences and many times her actions do tend to help move the story forward even when the immensely dramatic scenes seem to hold it back or slow it down.

A wonderful mix of drama, comedy and family.

Offspring is worth your attention.