Fargo comes to Freo in this blackly comic Australian thriller

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Reckless ★★★★

Fargo comes to Freo in this sardonic Australian thriller, which serves as a blackly comic reminder that it’s not the crime that leads to a downfall, it’s the increasingly precarious attempt to cover it up. A sunshine noir told with a First Nations outlook on both sides of the camera, Reckless keeps you bemused and tense – you laugh as the protagonists dig a deeper hole for themselves, then you fret.

For Indigenous siblings June (Tasma Walton) and Charlie (Hunter Page-Lochard), a rare family function together is too much. Their prickliness is apparent as he drives them home in her car one evening after a family member’s wedding. She’s a successful lawyer, weaponising the word “responsibilities” to drunkenly draw comparison with his situation as the proprietor of a record shop. He retaliates with “too uppity” but doesn’t get to enjoy the dig because at that moment, in a quiet suburban street, they hit a pedestrian and send them flying.

“He’s probably just winded,” insists June, which is one of the first indications the show is not afraid of mordant humour or characters with questionable morals. Outlined by the menacing red glow of brake lights, Charlie and June go back and forth on what to do. He wants to call the police but she wants to cover it up. Wielding the law as a means of fearful persuasion, June outlines where they’re headed: jail for Charlie, as the driver; professional disgrace and bankruptcy for her, as the intoxicated car owner.

Tasma Walton as June and Hunter Page-Lochard as Charlie in Reckless.

The two eventually move the body back inside, learning that the elderly victim was named George and he had a terminal cancer diagnosis. Cue a rationalisation from June: “We have given him the gift of a quick death.” A certain gallows humour is ever-present but it’s matched with a farcical carry-on as the pair try to stay a step ahead of trouble.

June’s most potent line to Charlie – a single dad separated from his young daughter’s mother – is that contacting the authorities means that “you’re just going to be another absent black father in prison”. Race is never far from the surface but it’s as much about how June and Charlie view the Indigenous community and the wider Western Australia – not surprisingly, it’s very differently – as it’s a rallying cry. They’re liars on the hook first and foremost, ricocheting from one encounter to the next.

Their heritage does come with telling grace notes, such as Charlie calling June “the white sheep” of the family. Reckless was adapted by writers Kodie Bedford (Mystery Road) and Stuart Page (Total Control) from the Scottish drama Guilt, and it recalls the original series in its strong sense of place and the realisation that threats can lurk at every turn for the guilty. Charlie is soon smitten with George’s English niece, Sharne (Jessica De Gouw), who’s the first to have suspicions about the cause of death, but nosy neighbours also soon give way to more malicious types.

Walton and Page-Lochard are first-rate in different personas: June is forever calculating, especially with a demanding girlfriend, Kate (Jane Harber), already at her heels, while Charlie is trying to keep the guilt at bay. The wildcard is Clarence Ryan as Roddy, a drunken private investigator who becomes Columbo as soon as June maliciously recommends him to Sharne. That kind of unforeseen setback is typical of Reckless. Once this dysfunctional duo start spiralling, their misdeeds are our entertainment.

Reckless screens at 8.30pm on Wednesdays on SBS and NITV and is now streaming on SBS On Demand.

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