Apple TV's new comedy-drama puts an Oscar nominee at the centre of a darkly funny family mystery, with an Emmy-winning director behind the camera and Collette among the producers.
Toni Collette is about to spend a season repairing other people’s families while her own comes apart, and she is an executive producer on the project. That is the short version of Lenni, the new comedy-drama Apple TV announced on November 4, and the longer version is worth your attention too.
A social worker, a crisis, a mystery
Collette plays Lenni, a divorced mother of two who works in child welfare. Her days go to fighting for other people’s families. Her own household, in Apple’s phrasing, sits in a constant state of hilarious chaos. After a family tragedy, she is determined to shield the people she loves from life’s rougher edges. The season follows her through a new case in which her job and her private life collide, with the stakes set about as high as they go.
Apple describes the series as a darkly comedic mystery about family: what it means to have one, to lose one, and to pull one apart. The tone is the interesting part. It is billed as both uplifting and poignant, and funny in a way that keeps one eye on grief. That is a hard blend to land, and it suits an actor who has worked in Hereditary and Wayward and knows how to carry a lot of feeling without announcing it.
Why Collette is the draw
An Academy Award nominee leading a streaming series is news in itself. The credits suggest she is also helping to steer it. Collette sits on the executive producer list alongside Bruna Papandrea, Steve Hutensky, Katie Amos, Avi Nir, Keren Shahar, and the show’s adapter and director. Lead actors often get that title as a courtesy. Here it signals a stake in how the show is made, and it comes with a role built around one woman’s competence and unravelling in the same scene.
She also has company worth envying. Ciarán Hinds (Game of Thrones) joins the cast, as do Dan Wyllie (Love My Way), Josh McKenzie (La Brea), Genevieve Hegney (Colin From Accounts), Arka Das (The Airport Chaplain) and Wayne Blair (Total Control). Celeste Barber, from The Letdown, rounds out the list. It reads like a deep bench of Australian screen talent with a Hinds-shaped anchor.
The people behind the camera
Dearbhla Walsh directs. She is an Emmy and BAFTA winner whose credits include Bad Sisters and Margo’s Got Money Troubles, both of which found comedy in family and money pressure. Sarah Scheller, who worked on The Letdown and Strife, adapts the material.
That material began in Norway. Lenni is based on the hit series Pernille, created by Henriette Steenstrup and produced by Monster for Viaplay. Steenstrup is an executive producer on the new version, along with Bård Fjulsrud and Tanya Badendyck, so the original’s creator stays close to the adaptation.
Two production companies are behind it. Made Up Stories has Nine Perfect Strangers, The Good Daughter and The Undoing on its résumé. Keshet International has The Baker and the Beauty, Suspicion and Homeland. Between them they have plenty of experience with domestic stories that turn sinister, or at least complicated.
Made in Sydney
Production is under way in Sydney, backed by the New South Wales government through Screen NSW’s Made in NSW Fund. A Norwegian premise, an Irish director and a Sydney shoot make for a well-travelled show, and the cast list suggests the city’s talent pool is part of the plan.
Apple has not stopped to catch its breath about its own record, either. The company says its originals have collected 924 wins and 3,904 nominations so far, a tally that includes Ted Lasso, The Studio, Severance, CODA and F1. Lenni arrives in a catalogue that has made a habit of pairing big names with human-scale stories.
Apple TV is available in more than 170 countries and regions at $14.99 a month, with a seven-day free trial for new subscribers. No premiere date has come with the announcement, but the ingredients are already clear: a lead who can turn a bad day into a great scene, a director who knows how to make family trouble funny, and a premise that gives both room to work.
Via Apple TV Press
