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House Husbands is a 10-part comedy-drama exploring the issues of our ever-changing gender roles. It focuses on 4 modern-day families in situations where the men are responsible for raising the children.
House Husbands is the brain-child of Drew Proffitt and Ellie Beaumont. The directors are Andy Ryan, Jo Rooney, Shirley Barrett, and Geoff Bennett. The executive producers are David Taylor and David Maher. The funding came from Screen Australia. The filming of this series began toward the last of May.
House Husbands takes a light-hearted look into the lives of stay-at-home Dads around the inner Melbourne area. Its viewers consist of mostly females with probably a few guys here and there.
The storyline is led by four main male characters:
1. Justin - played by Firass Dirani, a former Football star whose wife left him for one of his managers. He works as a bouncer.
2. Mark - played by Rhys Muldoon, a juggling part-time worker seeing to his 5-year old daughter.
3. Kane - played by Gyton Grantley, is the brother-in-law of Mark, who now raises the orphaned niece belonging to his current same-sex partner Tom (who is played by Tim Campbell).
4. Lewis - played by Gary Sweet, is a retiree who now has a relationship with a nurse named Gemma (played by Julia Morris) and their daughter who goes to primary school.
All four parties meet at the drop-off zone of the local school. That is when disaster strikes. A runaway bus (which somehow fell into the hands of their own mischievous primary school children) is suddenly the focus of everyone's attention.
Bad boy Justin leaps into action avoiding an imminent fatality. What should have been a positive move turns sour because at that time he was driving without a license. Due to his legal fight for the custody of the children, he now faces some extreme uphill challenges.
Soon a few of the characters are intertwined in sort of an 'extended family' kind of way. Gemma is working at the exact hospital where Abi (played by Natalie Saleeba) works. Abi is Mark's wife. Lucy is played by Anna McGahan. She is a barmaid who happens to work at the exact hotel where Justin works.
All four lead characters are very likeable. Julia Morris is impressive in creating much from little in this instance. She may prove to be a secret sort of 'surprise package' to the show. The supporting roles are fancifully handled as Marg Downey, Leah de Niese, and Jane Allsop do their thing.
Gyton Grantly by no means sparks up his role as the gay dad. While there is no pushing of intimacy (maybe to keep from offending viewers) in the end their sexuality is no overt.
Just like Modern Family learned the hard way - the avoidance of intimacy can backfire. Because this series includes its own same-sex couple at the same time as the country is debating its own gay marriage issue gives writers a lot of room to create story ideas.
The most drama revealed comes in the very first episode between Justin and his separated wife's and their ensuing custody battle. Here is where Firass Dirani demonstrates some great versatility.
House Husbands keep the ball rolling with the aid of quirky sub-plots and plenty of funny situations between un-prepared men and their crying babies. The stories are light-hearted and humorous but touch on real issues.
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