Homegrown drama is rare, which makes a good one worth celebrating
By Debi Enker
RFDS: Royal Flying Doctor Service (new season) ★★★★
As the second season of the regional medical drama RFDS begins, a capable crew from the south-east base of the Royal Flying Doctor Service is in the air, heading out to the White Cliffs rodeo. “How busy does this rodeo get, anyway?” asks new recruit and mental-health nurse Chaya Batra (Emma Harvie). “Hundreds of drunk cockies riding angry bulls and motor bikes. Fairly busy,” seasoned nurse Pete Emerson (Stephen Peacocke) wryly replies.
The new season of RFDS introduces mental health nurse Chaya Batra (Emma Harvie, pictured with Stephen Peacocke).Credit: John Platt
Once they’ve arrived at the bustling community event, Pete good-humouredly inquires if Chaya would like to have a go in the ring. “Look, if I wanted to awkwardly ride something for eight seconds, I would’ve stayed with my ex,” she deadpans in response, causing her new colleague to spit out his coffee in surprise.
As with the premiere season, the drama begins with a newcomer being shown the ropes and then rapidly thrown in at the deep end. The original newcomer was English doctor Eliza Harrod (Emma Hamilton). She had ventured to the other side of the world for a fresh start with her teenage son, Henry (Ash Hodgkinson), following her marriage breakup, only to return reluctantly to the UK at the end of the season. This time, Chaya, who’s arrived with her deck of tarot cards and apparently clear views about the nature of the world, is the newbie.
As well as offering colour and spectacle, the rodeo provides an ideal setting for the medical emergency that follows. “Have you done this before?” Chaya asks Pete when he’s required to provide urgent and potentially life-saving treatment mid-flight. “On dummies and dead sheep, yeah,” he replies before moving into critical action.
From the outset, with economy and assurance, RFDS continues to build on the qualities that it exhibited through its impressive premiere season in 2021. There’s an easy and authentic camaraderie between the members of the team and a laconic style of communication that sounds quintessentially Australian.
The cast of RFDS.Credit: John Platt
That team includes newly promoted operations manager Leonie Smith (Justine Clarke), doctor Wayne Yates (Rob Collins), pilot Mira Ortez (Ash Ricardo), nurse Matty Harris (Jack Scott) and pilot Graham Morley (Rodney Afif). Productively opening out the core medical and aviation group, and helping to expand the service’s team into a wider community, is a younger generation of characters, including Pete’s orphaned niece, Taylor (Sofia Nolan), and Wayne’s son, Darren (Thomas Weatherall).
Once again, the series, which is filmed in and around Broken Hill, appreciatively soaks up the landscape, drinking in the vivid blue skies and wide brown expanses of the desert landscape. The first episode of the new eight-part season, fluidly directed by Jeremy Sims and beautifully shot by Bruce Young, attests to the attributes of the RFDS team evident in the debut season: their skill and dedication; their ability to stay calm in a crisis and endeavour to deliver what’s required of them; the fluidity with which they work together; the respect between them; their unassuming professionalism.
Equally, though, the start of the new chapter depicts a crucial service and its staff under stress, in professional and personal terms. The lone doctor, Wayne, is exhausted and exasperated, battling to fill the breach as they await the arrival of an urgently needed second doctor. And as Leonie struggles to get her operation satisfactorily staffed, she receives news that only adds to the pressure.
Ash Ricardo and Rob Collins in a scene from RFDS.Credit: John Platt
Many other productions in this well-stocked genre choose urban hospitals as their base (Grey’s Anatomy, E.R., Chicago Hope, Casualty, The Good Doctor, New Amsterdam or, locally, All Saints). RFDS transplants the location to a distinctive desert setting and populates it with a vibrant group of well-drawn and well-cast characters. It also breathes new life into the concept of a series built around the regional medical service, which was originally tackled by The Flying Doctors (1986-92, 9Now), a series that became a hit locally and internationally. RFDS has productively updated that premise, making it timely and topical, as well as creating a cleverly balanced production that’s absorbing.
At a time when homegrown drama series – and especially good ones – are an increasingly rare event on commercial free TV, RFDS deserves to be applauded and welcomed with open arms.
RFDS: Royal Flying Doctor Service (season 2 premiere) is on Seven, Tuesday, 9pm and 7plus.
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