Oly (Nathalie Morris),Jacinda (Ava Cannon) and Santi (Carlos Sanson Jr) in the new season of Bump.Credit:John Platt
As narrative gambits go,it’s mostly successful. With its depictions of multi-generational families and intertwined friendships,Bump benefits from the passing of time (and the twenty-something leads don’t have to pass for teens). Oly and Santi are no longer together,for example,which means that their co-parenting has a fractious edge that’s only exacerbated when each pursues an outside relationship. A new lens refocuses characters,with Oly’s mother Angie (co-creator Claudia Karvan) focused on herself now that she’s had to deal with a cancer diagnosis.
There’s less of Karvan this season – a disappointment – but tracing the travails of high school students now wrestling with adulthood suits the mix of spiky commentary and genuine empathy that shines through in the writing of co-creator Kelsey Munro. Nothing comes easily to Oly,Santi,and their friends,whether they’re trying to cement relationships or start careers. An unfulfilled Oly runs off the rails in the company of fast friend Madison (Sarah Meacham),while Santi struggles to introduce Jacinda to new girlfriend Keeks (’Ana Ika).
While it has farcical flourishes,the show has a sterner eye for self-examination than a spiritual predecessor such asOffspring. There are clashes of culture and politics that are presented not as questions of ideology but as struggles to understand and connect. Santi’s Chilean grandmother,Bernadita (Claudia di Giusti),might be an amusingly tart presence,but the faith she wants to pass on to Jacinda,despite Oly’s objections,plainly matters to her.
Angie (co-creator Claudia Karvan) is focused on herself after dealing with a cancer diagnosis.Credit:Stan
The cast invest their characters with the passing of time. You sense how they have – and sometimes haven’t – changed,and the sentiment that remains has the strength of endurance now. Sometimes it’s comical,as with Angie and her ex-husband,Dom (Angus Sampson),but there’s a deeper,complex bind to Oly and Santi. A succession of two-season windows would suit this inner-west tapestry,checking in with a mix of heartfelt enquiry and warm humour. Please keepBump going until Jacinda reaches her own teenage years.
Jack Ryan (Series 3)★★½
Amazon
With a gym-polished John Krasinski as the latest incarnation of Tom Clancy’s dedicated CIA analyst,the streaming version ofJack Ryan was a global espionage thriller that allied a throwback hero to vaguely contemporary geopolitics. But the show’s third season – scripted and shot in 2021 – can’t help but feel redundant:with its Cold War echoes the plot revolves around Russian gambits in Eastern Europe,including Ukraine.