Michele Hewitson: Wolf's more bark than bite

Outrageous Fortune's dysfunctional family are housed in a 70s time warp.

Intent on retaining its reputation for the outrageous part of its title, last week's first episode of the second season of Outrageous Fortune (tonight, 9.30, TV3) featured two bonking scenes within 10 minutes.

They were both scenes of coitus interruptus, which came as some relief - it made the gratuitous bounce, naked bum and grunting bits mercifully short.

Dad, Wolf, back from the clink on home detention has returned to play patriarch in a home where, well, let him tell it: "I found out today that we have the Coconuts chasing Van. Our beautiful daughter is turning herself into a two-bit slut. And our youngest gets herself arrested. Meanwhile, where's the person who's been setting all the bloody rules? ... Whipping up knickers on the moral high ground, not a bloody clue what's been going on."

"Meanwhile?" This may be standard conversational fare for low-life crims, but I somehow doubt it, even when said crim is a bit unusual.

He can whip up a lasagne and fold a teenage daughter's clothes while dealing with complicated plots involving a bunch of Coconuts after Van for stealing money, and Van's vengeful ex and her parents who are "Dallies" and so talk in exaggerated Dally accents.

Outrageous Fortune is about equal opportunity stereotyping for the sake of being edgily not PC.

Meanwhile, back at the dinner table, Wolf continued to lay down the law. Cheryl gave as good as she got. In other words, she gave him a one-liner which must have looked okay on the page. "And where have you been for the last six months? Oh, yeah, that's right, you've been off singing with the Vienna Boys Choir." Somebody should have got the lasagne over their head for that line.

For all its threatened violence and smart talk, Outrageous Fortune is about as tough as one of those sweet-voiced things in the Vienna Boys Choir.

Never mind that you get youngest child Loretta saying: "I hate to shatter your Shawshank Redemption [very rude] fantasies but the only person who'll be rogering you is your bank manager ... you'll get a fine."

It's all just talk. And it's talk that doesn't sound anything like the way anyone resembling these characters would talk.

But we're not expecting it to ring true. Nobody would live in a house so resolutely stuck in the 70s unless they were being desperately ironic, or it was a TV set trying not to look like a TV set.

This is really just a drama about a dysfunctional family that tries a bit too hard. There are some great characters and some good acting - Robyn Malcolm is terrific - but some of those lines should never have been let out, even on home detention.