I Wish I Lived in Australia

This summer, at least, I wish I lived in Australia. Although I guess technically it’s winter Down Under. Why the desire to live on the opposite side of the world? And what could that possibly have to do with TV? Because the eighth and final season of my latest obsession will soon be airing there, that’s why. McLeod’s Daughters – the long running Australian drama about a group of women running a station (read: ranch) and dealing with life, love, and loss – will be signing off at the end of this season after producing somewhere around 230 episodes. You read that correctly, 230 episodes.

I’d seen mentions of McLeod’s here and there on the ‘net, and every once in a while I’d see a banner ad for it on a website and think it looked interesting. Finally, with the traditional holiday season hiatus threatening to turn into a drought thanks to the writers’ strike, I decided to check out the series on DVD via Netflix at the first of the year. After watching the first disc, I promptly upped my Netflix plan to allow me to get 2 DVDs at a time. There was no way I could wait those 2 days between discs without another one to watch! The lives of Claire and Tess and Nick and Alex and Meg and Jodi and Terry grabbed me from the first episode and haven’t let go yet. I’ve just started watching season 6, released on DVD in the United States on June 10, and am eagerly awaiting news of season 7’s release date.

Meanwhile, Australia is gearing up for the series’ final season and a wrap up of the storylines of so many characters we’ve come to know and love. One thing I’ve discovered about this series, though, is that no one is safe. Major characters have come and gone with such frequency that, conditioned as I am to U.S. television where the show ends if a main character leaves, I’m at a total loss as to how this series will end. The writers could bring back everyone, even those who would have to appear as ghosts (hey, it’s happened before), for a big group hug. Or they could kill everyone in a bush fire in the final episode. Whatever happens, I’ll be waiting impatiently for my chance to see what happens next to the bounty of characters who have inhabited Drover’s Run, Killarney, Kinsella’s, and Gungellan.