The Family Law

Finally finished watching “The Family Law” today. I did not watched it when it was live on air and some of my friends were thinking that I was sour grape because I did not get the role I auditioned for. But the fact was that I am never a weekly following person and never liked to watch and stop. So I just as usual record the whole season and find a good time to watching them in minimal sittings. I also want to have a more objective judgement by watching the whole season in one go without commenting it slice by slice thus losing the whole picture.

For those who don’t know what the show is about, it is based on the book of the same name by Benjamin Law, a Chinese Australian writer, about his own family. The story has brought the whole timeline forward to the modern times (I am sure when he was 14 Kim-West were not around, not to mention mobile phone that plays high quality videos) but remained truthful to the family story. It is a family full of colourful people and hence drama and comedies guaranteed. 

I remember the day after the show first went on air a colleague of mine asked me why SBS made another show about a Chinese family running a Chinese restaurant. I spent some time explaining to her that though the show seemed to be so it is based on a true story so it is not really aiming at further stereotyping Chinese. I asked her to continue watching it then make the judgement. For me, especially in Australia, a show such as this cannot be judged by the cover or even by the first page. 

For me, the show started off in a very comedic fashion. Clearly Jenny, the mother, was the centre of the attention despite the story was being told from Benjamin’s point of view. Her larger than life and no pull back way of talking more than once embarrassed her kids in front of everyone. But she saw that as part of the family, part of the bonding and what the family is about. For the kids the whole growing up in Australia bit completely clashed with a lot of their parents’ thinking. The people they hung out with, the people they date, they food they like etc. are completely opposite to what their parents portrayed them to be. The father is a typical Chinese father who thought providing means love. I auditioned for the father part so did quite a bit of research on the part and understood that Ben’s father acted that way because this was what he experienced and admired about his father when he grew up. So long story short this family is a Clash of the Titans every day. 

I am quite glad this show was produced although I would personally hope the Chinese aspect could initially be limited to daily living details than being amped up so much in the earlier episodes. I found myself quite disengaging when something showed up on screen screaming CHINESE at my face. I particularly find it quite annoying with the whole Chinese whisper gossip part which I personally think the show could do without. It might be funny the first time but when these just go on and on episode after episode, it just became annoying. However, since the show is about a Chinese family in Australia, the producers might felt compelled to amplify the Chinese bit at the beginning as cultural differences and clichés always sell. But I am glad that as the characters established themselves, it became more about the story than the Chinese-ness of the show. A pity was that by that time the show is already coming to a close.

One aspect I really appreciate about the show was that it does not shy away from a lot of subjects, including racism, puberty, inter-racial relationships and homosexuality. The good thing is it does not wave banners on those subjects but smartly incorporating them into the dialogues. For me this is the smartest way to cover these subjects – by not making them like subjects at all.  

However, there is one major aspect that bugs me throughout the whole series – the really bad articulation of Cantonese by a lot of the characters. Jenny’s distorted Cantonese was quite acceptable as she was originally from Malaysia, but for Danny, he was supposed to be born and bred in Hong Kong and yet his Cantonese was even worse than Jenny. Also for the two gossiping women I personally felt that if they were from Hong Kong, have good Cantonese, if they are from Malaysia, then might as well speak Mandarin. I am sure Jenny would be able to understand. I know I am getting quite picky here and seriously most would think none of the local audience would picked up the really bad Cantonese, but for me it was just like thorns to my ears every time I heard that. I wish more works could be done to address this in the future seasons or at least find a voice coach to coach the cast so they could speak more accurate Cantonese. That is if the speaking Cantonese part is about the authenticity of the family, make it authentic.

On the whole I think “The Family Law” was showing quick maturity around 3.5 episodes into the season. If there is a second season, I would like to see the series focusing more on the family and the characters, who just happen to be Chinese.