Outrageous Fortune (2005)

Genre

comedy drama, crime television series

Country

New Zealand

Length

6 seasons, 106 episodes

Rated

18+

Rating

6.7 of 10 from 20 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A New Zealand family of career criminals tries to go straight after the matriarch decides to follow the law. The show follows their struggles to change their lives while still dealing with crime and family loyalties.

darkly comicwarmgroundedfast-pacedquirkydomesticbittersweettoughhopeful

What happens

Outrageous Fortune is a New Zealand family comedy crime drama television series, which ran from 12 July 2005 to 9 November 2010 on TV3. The series followed the lives of the career criminal West family after the matriarch, Cheryl (Robyn Malcolm), decided the family should go straight and abide by the law. The show was created by James Griffin and Rachel Lang and produced by South Pacific Pictures. Like the show itself, episodes took their names from Shakespeare quotations. The show concluded after 6 seasons and 107 episodes making it the longest running drama series made in New Zealand. The primary cast for the show's run consisted of Robyn Malcolm, Antony Starr, Siobhan Marshall, Antonia Prebble, Frank Whitten and Kirk Torrance; Grant Bowler appeared in a sporadic role throughout the show's first five seasons. The show premiered on 12 July 2005 and was welcomed by high acclaim. It won many of the major categories in the New Zealand television awards for its first 4 years, with Malcolm's performance warmly recognised by most New Zealand reviewers. Following the show's success, Outrageous Fortune received worldwide interest and in 2008 was adapted for United Kingdom television as Honest and again in 2010 for United States residents as Scoundrels, neither of which were renewed after their debut seasons. In 2014, TV3 announced a six-part prequel miniseries entitled Westside that chronicles the lives of Ted and Rita West in 1970s Auckland. Initially airing in May 2015, Westside was renewed for a second season in 2016; then repeatedly again up to the sixth and final series which concluded in November 2020. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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