Krew BoylanSando

If you’re looking for a comedy series that doesn’t lose something in translation then look no further. SANDO is irreverent and plenty funny. Acorn is releasing the Australian first season and it’s a hoot.The main character referenced in the title is Victoria “Sando” Sandringham (Sacha Horler), the discount furniture queen of Australia. Each episode opens with a commercial for her stores and moves forward from there. As the series opens we’re at the wedding for her daughter Susie (Krew Boylan) when Sando gets a text message causing her to exclaim. Her bumbling son Eric looking over her should sees that she is pregnant and congratulates her. It’s then when her husband mentions they haven’t had sex in some time and there is no way he’s the father. It turns out the father is her daughter’s soon to be husband. The wedding comes to a halt, Sando is kicked out and her family no longer wants anything to do with her.Fast forward years later and her reckless choices have led Sando to a bad spot. Her partying and wild lifestyle have left them no choice but to remove her as the head of the company. They take away her company apartment and car and leave her with nothing more than her stock options and no cash on hand. With no one to turn to she decides it’s time to make up with her family.Her daughter has since married Gary (Uli Latukefu) a security guard and both have moved in with her father Don (Phil Lloyd), a musician who created the Sando jingle. Also living in their house is Nicky (Adele Vuko), Susie’s friend/guru/self-proclaimed therapist who’s still studying. Nicky also happens to be sleeping with Don when they can get a chance. Eric also lives in the house, dreaming of bigger things and obviously too clueless to take care of himself let alone find an occupation.Into the mix returns Sando claiming she wants to make up with her family and hiding the reality that she needs them all to appear to be one big happy family or she will lose her company to outside forces. But they’re not as receptive as she’d hope not to mention the fact that she continues her wild ways and still lies to them about her motives.If this weren’t enough Sando also has weekend custody of her son by Susie’s ex-betrothed Kevin (Firass Dirani). Kevin still has feelings for Susie but with Gary around he has no hope of getting her back. It still leads to some funny moments as at one point he becomes friends with Gary.For the most part the show is broad comedy with the wildly exuberant Horler chewing up the scenery on purpose. This is what her character is like and she does a marvelous job in the lead role. There is a part of you that can’t help but feel sympathy for Sando while at the same time be repulsed by her actions and behavior. She can’t help herself, this is who she is. One has to wonder if there is any real hope to her changing for the better.The entire cast offer tremendous support to the character of Sando. Susie’s outrage, Don’s sneaking about with Nicky, Eric’s simple minded stupidity, Gary’s search for himself and a way to support his wife are all characters that may have their own storyline at one time or another but are more often there to be the foils of Sando. The great thing though is that deep down you realize that for all her eccentricities, for all the damage she creates, there is something about Sando that makes you know she truly loves her family.The commercials that open each show are so real as to make them hilarious and remind us all of those cheezy commercials that still air on TV. The situations the family finds themselves in are belly laugh inducing. And in the end you look forward to seeing more of Sando in the future.

Sando is not your female lead with strength and intelligence. She’s a major train wreck of a mom, a looser, and disgusting at times, even without scruples. But funny. She’s a furniture floor sales leach, quirky to the quick. But so is the entire family, who goes beyond dysfunctional to upper realms of funky-functional. Unsophisticated only scratches the fleshy surface, and beware flesh viewing also comes as a box warning. You’ll LOL as often as you groan or shout OMG. Guaranteed to take your IQ down 20 points, but your laugh meter up by that amount.Bonus provides no out-takes (bloopers) because nobody could ever tell the goofy mistakes from the scripted comedy.SDH SUBTITLES for all episodes and bonus materials[1] Prodigal Mum ==Stepping back into her dysfunctional estranged children’s’ lives after a ten-year hiatus proves another life failure for Sando. [2] Sorry ==Pool house living takes some settling but gets unsettled when another of the family moves in to squat. A sorry situation. [3] New Mum ==A situation revealed leads to another inter-family blackmail. By this time it should be evident this is adult viewing. [4] Therapy ==Sando needs a shrink. Duh—the whole family needs therapy. [5] Lockdown ==Someone(s) gets locked into a room—but it’s not a padded cell…yet. [6] Family Business ==Sando offers her family’s involvement to save her video-ad pitch job.