Fisk is an Australian office comedy with a similar vibe as Schitt's Creek.
The show is now in its third and final season on Netflix.
Fisk has sharply written relatable characters and a gentle humour that isn't too busy or loud.
In the Australian show Fisk (2021-2025), Helen Fisk (Kitty Flanagan) is an ordinary middle-aged woman trying to get by, live her life quietly. A qualified contracts lawyer, burdened by middle age irrelevance and an expensive divorce (she calls herself a divorce ‘fleecee’), Helen ends up moving to a quaint suburb of Melbourne from bustling Sydney to work at Gruber & Gruber—a shoddy law firm owned by brother- sister duo Ray and Roz Gruber (a blasé Marty Sheargold and a smug Julia Zimero). At the firm, she specialises in wills and probate, despite her protestations that she is “not a people person” and definitely “not a dead people person.” Evidently, she is chronically foot-in-mouth and challenged with a general lack of social etiquette.
She attempts to find her place among her odd co-workers and even odder clients. Helen has a difficult time relating to her clients’ often peculiar requests (you do wish they had better arcs), like one who wants to write his will like a poem. She tries to use reason and smarts to help her clients, especially when they are totally lacking in those qualities.
At other times, she is walking her dog, whom she adores, providing free legal advice to her neighbour; sorting her father’s (a retired Judge) paperwork, planning his funeral party, reviewing social media for his memoir or getting adopted by his gay partner (for paperwork).
Flanagan and her sister and co-writer Penny Flanagan broach ageism, sexism, and various other issues under the umbrella of social expectations and breaches of etiquette with a restraint that is both clever and reassuring.
Although down to earth and affable, Helen is often too loud for her own good and is banned for speaking loudly at a local cafe, informed by a young staff member that “your vibe is really loud” and “a lot of us find shouting really triggering.” There is something very relatable about Helen in the way she reacts to the wacky world around her.
Needless to say, her ‘don’t mess with me’ charisma and an amusing contempt for all and sundry is charming. Fisk manages to have us rooting for a character who is not a fan of niceties and dislikes most people. Part of the fun of the show is that in a world trying too hard to be woke or politically correct, a straight-shooting Helen comes as a breath of fresh air by always saying exactly what she feels.
It is refreshing that Helen’s “womanhood” isn’t centre-stage and there seems no urgency or intent to get her hitched or show her raising children. It helps that with her frumpy sense of style (oversized brown jackets with matching trousers), she talks her woman-ness away, and instead, draws attention to her “person-ness”. She is even accosted once by Ray’s new girlfriend, a fashion psychologist, who tries to decode, “I wonder what happened there?” while referring to her clothing. You wonder how men are always left alone with their “ordinariness” and seldom party to such dissections.
The show’s rhythm is similar to that of Schitt’s Creek (2015-2020)—nuanced, situational and a little dry—and the lines always have you laughing out loud at their absurdity. There is no major plot (or twists), and nothing ever really happens in Fisk. And yet, it’s nice to come back to the ordinariness of the lives of the Gruber & Gruber (which becomes Gruber and Fisk, but that’s another story).
Fisk is neither bold nor edgy. Yet, it’s fun to spend time with its cast – particularly the Gruber & Gruber crew. Roz is a mediation lawyer but more focused on her singing career and Ray has come to terms with the fact that he’s not very good at anything, so decides to focus on finding love; Aaron Chen plays George (who prefers to be called “the Webmaster”, but is actually a receptionist) and is brilliantly understated. In Season 3, he ropes in his grandmother for a side hustle at the firm—she doesn’t last very long as she finds the job “boring”.
Fisk is worth a watch for its ability to surprise you and make you laugh without showing anything overtly “comic” or being loud or busy or obviously funny. If you are a fan of The Office (2005-2013, US) or Abbott Elementary (2021- ), Fisk is for you in a quiet, breathable way.
