Episode 3 begins with Julian Hartswood (Ben Miller) sneaking away from his evening with Ingrid Hartswood (Sally Phillips) to call Austin Hogan (Michael Theo). After planning another meeting, Julian is surprised to learn that Heidi (Kate Elliott) has already found a popular, young director, Yolanda Cox (Charlotte Nicdao) to take on his documentary. The problem is that she isn’t in the country and has only agreed to a meeting.

Julian clearly isn’t happy with the progress and urges Heidi to get things moving along faster. Ingrid becomes his more immediate problem when he returns to the room to find her awake and interested in his absence. His awkward announcement of day shopping only further piques Ingrid’s curiosity and consults with Florence Hartswood (Ellie McKay), who can recall one other time when Julian went day shopping. Things get even stranger when Florence addresses someone in the background and abruptly kills the feed.

Things aren’t going much better for Austin with Mel Hogan (Gia Carides) insisting on attending his meeting with Julian. As usual, Bill Hogan (Roy Billing) just happens to show up at the right time to play the voice of reason.

Julian returns from his day shopping trip with an array of equipment for Ingrid to document their outing with Austin. Although he doesn’t share the truth behind documenting everything, he continually stresses the importance of capturing everything.

Austin has planned the entire day, beginning with a visit to the Old Parliament building where the  WWII council met while in the country. He’s even memorized a speech which leads to a debate about Julian being considered a racist. If things weren’t already awkward enough, they certainly become so when Eric (Richard Davies) shows up out of nowhere and begins with his typical mother teasing. Things only get stranger when Julian attempts to come to Austin’s aid.

The next item on Austin’s agenda just happens to be the New Parliament Building where Mel works. This certainly isn’t any less strange, beginning with Ingrid learning that she isn’t allowed to film in the building. Much to the displeasure of Julian Ingrid wastes little time hitting on the Foreign Minister (Rob Collins) as he teases Julian about being a racist. This later leads to a brief where in the heat of the moment Julian mistakenly reveals the truth about the documentary.

The discovery about the documentary not only leads to Ingrid refusing to participate but she Julian and Austin to finish their day alone. Upon arriving back at the hotel, she also deletes the footage. At nearly the same time, Julian and Austin make plans for a visit to Britain.

The episode ends over dinner with Julian promising to stop the documentary. Luke (Tai Hara) shows up seconds later to take the couple’s order and inquire why Ingrid ran out on their date the previous night.

 

Austin Review

I wouldn’t go as far as to say this episode was great but I did rather enjoy Austin and Julian’s trip to Parliament as well as the misleading way Julian got Ingrid to film the entire thing. It goes without saying that Julian likely won’t give up on the documentary, despite his claiming to and Ingrid deleting the footage. The mini cliffhanger with Luke was a nice addition as was the lead-in to a possible new character in Yolanda. In addition, I enjoyed Rob making a guest appearance, as brief as it was. The episode gets a 5.4 out of 10.

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