A Place to Call Home: Season 3

The third series of this Australian family saga soap opera begins with a surprise: a revised ending to the second season. The reason for this is that when the original broadcast network cancelled the program after two years, the filmmakers finished it off in relatively humdrum fashion, but after another network picked up the show, a cliffhanger ending was filmed—which introduces the third season. A Place to Call Home centers on Sarah Adams (Marta Dusseldorp), a nurse who returned to her native Down Under in the early 1950s after spending the war years in Europe. Sarah becomes involved in the affairs of the wealthy Bligh clan, whose imperious matriarch Elizabeth (Noni Hazlehurst) is determined to undermine a possible match between Sarah and the eldest Bligh son (Brett Climo). Sarah's own past also comes back to haunt her, threatening any chance of happiness. This 2015 third season includes numerous melodramatic clichés—questionable parentage, homosexuality (along with homophobia), illness, infidelity, kidnapping, domestic violence, rape and a potential miscarriage, not to mention a shooting and several accidents—but that is par for this sort of fare, and despite production changes the show remains handsomely shot and strongly cast. Extras include a photo gallery. Recommended. (F. Swietek)