In Australia: Available on Stan
In the UK: Acquired by My5. Will start Wednesday, May 1
When I was reviewing Glitch, the last entry in the worldwide “dead loved ones are coming back to life to screw up our lives” TV series stakes, I figured that was it from Australia. That was their entry for the top spot. No more for this genre from them.
Little did I know that Australia’s up-and-coming streaming service Stan was going to have a go, too.
Bloom is a bit different, though. Rather than the dead coming back to life after accidents, floods, etc as per The Returned (Les Revenants) et al, it instead gives us something potentially more terrifying: our loved ones returning to us but in the prime of their lives.
The show is set in a small country town in Australia that was a hit by a terrible flood a year previously that caused numerous deaths. Bryan Brown (FX – Murder By Illusion, The Wanderer, Old School) has been married to former movie star Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom, Squinters, Secret City) for nearly 50 years, but Weaver is now in a care home, suffering from dementia, and hardly recognises Brown. Then one day Brown notices that his dying dog seems to have recovered all its youth and vigour after eating the fruit of a strange plant in his garden. And he has an idea that might just cure his wife and return her to him…
However, he’s not the only one who’d discovered the miraculous properties of the plant and numerous old folk are already or are soon looking for it to become young again – for both good and bad reasons. And even if they don’t want to eat it, maybe others would like them to – and might even make them eat it without their knowing.
Unfortunately, it soon becomes apparent that the magic plant’s special powers only last for a short time and that it only grows on spots where someone died in the flood. With less and less of the plant available, what will people do to get hold of just a few more days of youth for both them and others?
