feeling listless

Review! It’s actually quite difficult to put your finger on why ‘The Secret Life Of Us is as addictive than its genre contemporaries. After all we’ve been here before, in 'Cold Feet', This Life’, ‘Metropolis’ even ‘Friends’. In fact whole scenes seem to have been dropped in from ‘Party of Five’. You hope it isn’t just because it’s from Australia for a change – although that’s an obvious attraction. The show has much of the same allure as ‘Love and other Catastrophes’ – the same funny dialogue, the lovable characters; it’s probably actually because here we have a perfect drawing together of US and UK programming making. The overlapping plotlines, glossy locations, hip dialogue of NBC, with the slightly grungy characters, ironic humour and unexpected twists of Channel Four. We may have finally found a substitute for the late lamented ‘North Square.’