australian television information archive

Max

Episode 1.01
Wed, February 08, 2012 (9.30, ABC1)
Written by John Richards & Adam Richard
Directed by Kevin Carlin

Max is about to have a close encounter of the intimate kind. Dylan has invited himself in for coffee, but so has Max's science fiction club. Will Max come out as a geek? Or is he destined to remain alone in his nerdy closet?

Starring: Christine Anu as Rae, Ben Gerrard as Toby, Paul Ireland as Andy, Adam Richard as Fab, Toby Truslove as Max

Guest Cast: Jesse Rosenfeld as Dylan

Rae

Episode 1.02
Wed, February 15, 2012
Written by John Richards & Adam Richard
Directed by Kevin Carlin

Rae is confronted by a large photographic nude portrait of herself. The photographer thinks it's her best ever work and wants to exhibit it. She forces a reluctant Rae to take it home, hoping it will convince Rae to agree to its public display.

When Rae arrives home, Fab and Max are waiting for her. For reasons never quite explained or understood, the meeting has been moved to her apartment due to the inclement weather. Rae attempts to hide the huge nude photo as the others arrive at the flat. As if this wasn't pressure enough, Rae's ex-girlfriend Simone, the woman who caused this splinter group to form in the first place, is on her way over.

While Max tries to satisfy his curiosity about the hidden photo, Simone scours the flat for the last of her possessions and the tension rises. And rises. Through all of this, Fab and Toby conspire to create an online dating profile for Max.

When it transpires that Simone and her fellow lesbians have re-structured their group into The Lesbian Separatist Feminist Fantasy League and have organised a dinner with the star of Space Station Beta, the group blows up again, past angers and resentments rising quickly to the surface. What will happen when Max finally sees Rae's nude portrait? Will Simone cause the group to implode even further? What are Fab and Toby doing to Max on the internet?

Guest Cast: Roz Hammond as Simone, Kate McCartney as Jade, Linda Hsia as Mrs Lee

Andy

Episode 1.03
Wed, February 22, 2012
Written by John Richards & Adam Richard
Directed by Kevin Carlin

Max is lamenting his last relationship with a compulsive two-timer, when he and Fab arrive at Andy's spooky converted church. Finding the place dark and deserted, they creep through the house, discovering bizarre sexual artefacts by torchlight. Rae arrives and switches on the lights, revealing Andy wrapped in leather and suspended from the ceiling by a series of chains and pulleys.

Toby arrives with a date, Nathan, before a panicked Max rushes from the room. Turns out, Nathan is the compulsive two-timer Max was telling Fab about earlier — not that Fab was listening. Max feels compelled to tell Toby the truth about Nathan before Toby's heart gets broken. However, Max's prevarication and Fab's persistent attempts to callously spill the beans lead to confusion rather than enlightenment.

All the while, the device holding Andy on the ceiling is starting to give way. Rae is trying her best, from her wheelchair, to prevent him falling from the dangerous height, but gravity seems to be winning that particular battle. Will Max be able to tactfully reveal Nathan's relationship status to Toby before Fab can blurt it out, or before Andy plummets from the ceiling?

Guest Cast: Luke Ryan as Nathan, Bernie Egan as Trevor

Fab

Episode 1.04
Wed, February 29, 2012
Written by John Richards
Directed by Kevin Carlin

The group arrives at Fab's house, surprised to find he lives in a rundown block of commission flats. Fab is running late because he's picking up the DVD they'll be watching (he's had it on lay-by), but his grandmother is home, so the group head on up to the flat. Nan is a bit creepier than Max remembers, and as he enters the flat, Fab calls on his phone. "Don't go into the flat," he says. "Don't be left alone with Nan!" Too late. She's closed the door behind them.

Nan retreats into the kitchen, while Toby frets that he can't get a signal on his phone — and he was bidding online for a rare variant action figure of Ba'al forgetting his lines! Andy decides to go out for a cigarette, but the door is locked. While Max and Andy try to jemmy open the door, Rae and a reluctant Toby cautiously move through the house to check on Nan. They find a room of dolls in mint condition still in original tubes and packaging with unnervingly blank faces.

Rae gets her wheelchair jammed in a tight corridor as the increasingly scary Nan stalks toward her. Max falls into a full-blown panic attack and Andy attempts to calm him down with a depressing story from Doctor Who. Just when it seems they will never escape the flat, Toby asks Max out on a date. Will they ever make it out alive to go on the date? Where is Fab? Why is his Nan so loopy-la-la?

Guest Cast: Dawn Klingberg as Mrs Reynolds

Toby

Episode 1.05
Wed, March 07, 2012
Written by John Richards
Directed by Kevin Carlin

Toby performs a spectacular musical number, complete with cabaret lighting and back-up dancers. As his rousing rendition of Beta Go! from the Space Station Beta musical ends, he realises Max and Fab have been watching him the whole time. Toby rallies and offers champagne from one of several bottles he has on ice (several more seem to already have been emptied).

Rae arrives, in a gorgeous evening gown and sparkling jewels — nobody had told her that they were no longer heading to the premiere of Lord of the Rings: the Musical (starring Rhonda Burchmore as Gandalf). Instead they are seeing a rehearsed reading of a Space Station Beta musical by the Preston Amateur Musical Society. In Preston.

Soon after Andy arrives, Fab enacts a plan to get Toby drunker. He's convinced Toby is hiding something and wants to tease it out. Max is searching for coffee, trying to get Toby to sober up. He's also forced to defend his decision to pursue an internet relationship with a man he's never seen a photo of, who goes by the moniker 'sexyboitrek1701.'

A particularly jaunty number from the Space Station Beta musical soundtrack gets all the boys dancing, while Rae watches on, unable to participate in their national gay boy dance. Toby follows this with a poignant number sung directly to Max, revealing to all of them how he really feels. But this is not Toby's only secret. What is the real secret Toby is hiding deep inside his penthouse apartment? Just how far will Fab go to find out, and will it split the group up for good?

Guest Cast: Indigo-Felton and Joshue Stansbury as Max Dancers, Ashan Dias as Maxi Cab Driver

Pride

Episode 1.06 (finale)
Wed, March 14, 2012
Written by John Richards
Directed by Kevin Carlin

Is there even a point to the group all meeting up at the Pride March any more? Apart from their burning need to see Space Station Beta's Lulara in the flesh, the last meeting ended so badly they may not want to see each other again.

Undeterred by recent events, Andy turns up at Max's door and insists he come downstairs to be driven to the Pride March. Max eventually complies, but within moments he has second thoughts — they've both come dressed exactly the same — Andy has paired his outfit with biker boots and some kind of leather leg harness.

On a mission, Andy cajoles Max into coming with him and they head to Toby's house. Andy reveals he has not been able to get in contact with Rae, in spite of leaving several messages for her. Max isn't really concentrating on Rae, because Andy's erratic driving is causing Max some distress. Andy confesses to being a current participant in a clinical drug trial.

They soon discover that Toby, too, is dressed as Lulara, but he's had his makeup and boobs professionally applied. They arrive at Fab's to discover — perhaps unsurprisingly — that he is also Lulara, only his outfit looks like it was made by skinning a tinsel Christmas tree. And that's not the worst of it...

But all the purple frocks in the world can't gloss over the damage that has been done. Andy tries valiantly — and alarmingly — to get them to talk about the events and emotions that led them to this, but eventually even he admits defeat.

Is this the end? Has Rae left forever? Can the group survive? Will they even make it to the Pride March?

Guest Cast: Sue-Ann Post as Pride March MC, Alex Breden as Teenage #1, Joseph Lotesto as Teenage #2, Jak Ryan as Teenage #3