‘The Newsreader’, Australia’s Quietly Queer Newsroom Drama, Is Back For Season 2
The wait for new episodes of The Newsreader is almost over. Yep, Australia’s sexiest (and poignantly queer) journo drama’s much anticipated second season has a delicious new trailer.
After an award-winning debut series in 2021, ABC’s period drama The Newsreader charmed audiences both locally and abroad. Created by Offspring and Wentworth writer Michael Lucas, The Newsreader offered a shiny new standard for Australian drama and became ABC’s most watched drama of 2021.
Over 6 episodes, the series follows closeted bisexual producer Dale Jennings (Sam Reid) in the shambolic smoky hubbub of 1980s Melbourne newsroom, News At Six. When Dale finally gets his chance to co-present the news with the talented but mettlesome Helen Norville (Anna Torv), the pair’s chemistry almost instantly evolves into romance. But as their relationship heats up, so does the decade. Dale and Helen struggle to keep their personal and professional lives separate as they report and investigate Lindy Chamberlin’s release from prison, the Russell Street Bombing, the Chernobyl disaster, and the impact of AIDS on gay men in Melbourne.
It’s nothing short of impressive, poetic even, the volume of nuanced commentary Michael Lucas and his co-writers graciously pack into The Newsreader. In its first season alone, internalised biphobia, corporate misogyny, the stigmatisation of bipolar disorder, the commercialisation of news, the ethics of trauma reporting, racism against First Nations peoples and Asian-Australians, and the homophobia perpetrated by institutions during the AIDS crisis – are all weaved seamlessly into The Newsreader, making for one of the most compelling series on Australian television.
Now in the trailer for Season 2, it’s 1987 and it seems Dale and Helen are still reeling from confessing their pasts to one another despite their engagement being national news. Co-leads Sam Reid and Anna Torv seem in even finer form after their critically acclaimed turns in Anne Rice’s Interview With The Vampire and The Last of Us. (Is it just me or are they hotter too?) Also, it must be said that between his performance as incorrigibly cunning Lestat in Interview With The Vampire, and his performance as fully certified closeted sweety Dale in The Newsreader — it seems Sam Reid has taken it upon himself to represent a full spectrum of bisexual men on TV, and I as a bisexual fully support him in this endeavour.
And as with any period drama worth its salt (and The Newsreader most certainly is), history abounds. Set across ’87 and ’88, the Season 2 trailer also teases the News At Six team covering Bob Hawke’s election after the infamous double dissolution of parliament, Australia’s Bicentennial celebration, and the Black Monday stock market crash.
With Hollywood on strike, it’s vital to support homegrown stories. Besides, if you’re looking for a show with enough intrigue and social commentary on how media shapes public life to fill the Succession or Morning Wars shaped hole in your life, The Newsreader is a perfect watch.
Make sure to catch up on Season 1 on ABC iView before Season 2 of The Newsreader premieres on ABC and ABC iView on September 10.
Image credit: The Newsreader, ABC