When things go wrong – and frequently, when they go right – people prefer attributing it to a single catalyst rather than a combination of factors, even though deep down they believe it’s probably the latter rather than the former. Yet every sequence of events has a beginning, each evolution has a revolution to start it, and when fundamental changes occur, it’s possible to trace their roots back to an apparently innocuous instant.
The Slap, an eight-part drama adapted for ABC Australia from the novel of the same name by Christos Tsiolkas, explores the intriguing and faintly ominous notion that a seemingly harmless moment can have devastating repercussions – not just for one person but for many.
On the morning of his 40th birthday party, Hector (Jonathan LaPaglia) wakes up thinking not of the huge, celebratory bash his wife Aisha (Sophie Okonedo) has prepared for him but of his affair with teenage receptionist-cum-babysitter Connie (Sophie Lowe). From that point on, the day conspires against him (his kids are playing up; he’s trying and failing to give up smoking; he’s forgotten to get the ice; he can’t even crack six off the wrist in the toilet without being interrupted) and the party – an epic, friends-and-family barbecue bash awash with stubbies of beer, one-upmanship and barely-suppressed racial tension – rapidly becomes an exercise in NATO peacekeeping amongst the intolerably intolerant adults and bratty offspring alike.
Eventually, with Hector by now weasel-eyed on gak and bottled lager, the tension reaches critical level and the snottiest of the children, Hugo (whose constant demands for his mother’s boob despite being far too old for breast-feeding would be enough to annoy even the most placid of parents), goes a bit loopy on the other kids with a cricket bat, receiving the titular slap around the chops in return.
The party immediately spirals into a backyard battleground of angry recrimination, sweary threats and general pandemonium. In spite of the chaos, Hector experiences a powerful moment of absolute clarity regarding his life – and the fall-out from the slap for him is almost as surprising as the realisation that, having loathed him for the majority of the episode, he’s not actually such a bad bloke after all. When Connie describes their fling as ‘disgusting – you’re old and weird-looking’, it’s almost possible to feel sorry for this quick-tempered, jazzturbating chain-smoker.
Whether or not similar sympathy can be evoked by the back-stories of the other characters (each subsequent episode will focus upon a different party guest and the consequences of the slap for them) is a different matter entirely.
The Slap is soap-noir: a protracted, slower-paced edition of Neighbours directed by David Lynch in which the superficial stereotypes of suburban life are injected with the dirtier aspects of human nature until the whole thing bursts like a paddling pool overloaded with piss.
Who emerges from the soaking with their souls washed clean and who will be swept away on the tidal wave of euphemistic urine unleashed by a single moment remains to be seen, but on the evidence of this opening instalment, it’ll be fascinating finding out.
Airs at 10pm on Thursday 27th October 2011 on BBC Four.