Freeloaders

Freeloadin'

When the meaninglessness of life hits peak existential dread, this rag tag posse of loveable thirty-somethings search for purpose in drugs, butt-stuff and cock‘n’roll.

Overview

FREELOADERS is set in a fictional coastal city; a hub of culture and activity in the backdrop of its industrial history. In the world of FREELOADERS, the impossible is possible, and that which seems unbelievable is almost certainly true. After all, as the wisest addict of them all once said, “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” 

FREELOADERS is a mosaic of inspiration drawn from the lived experiences of its two creators. As seen by the recent storm of Netflix’s Baby Reindeer, audiences are thirsty for art that cuts through to the truth of life, as we seek to trauma bond to the TV under a digestible veil of irreverence. From bathroom bumping a $350 bag of laundry detergent with a pinch of speed, to having your housemate’s Christian girlfriend rock up drunk to your house while you’re mid abortion. Nothing endears like moments in life where you go, “you couldn’t write about it”, but just as Saz and Sophie’s lives became ever more ludicrous, they came to realise, you very much can. 

Synopsis

A comedy-drama, FREELOADERS follows the lives of six creative thirty-somethings trying to figure out relationships, careers and sexuality in a stylistic smorgasbord of terrible life choices. In a quest to determine their place in the world, these semi-youthful moochers question everything they’ve been sold, only to discover that ‘adulthood’ doesn’t necessarily have to be what it says on the tin. 

Set in a harbour city on the east coast of Australia, whose proud working class values of mining and industry have slowly been eroded by educated youth and millennial hipsters. This town is as frustrated and confused as its blue collar citizens. Surf, sex and the latest season’s protest rally are only momentarily interrupted by coal mining ships blasting their foghorns all hours of the day and night. 

Billie, Ryan, Nya, Sean, Jordan, Meg and Connor (we love Connor) are as individually endearing as they are monumentally flawed. They desperately grapple with the responsibilities of late-stage capitalism whilst seeking refuge in one equally flawed and banged up coffee shop. Existing in a society that won’t seem to let them catch-up, every morning they wake to the same dread of housing markets, climate change and the sun setting on baby-making years. Life’s most important decisions are delayed in favour of a cheeky bump in a gender neutral bathroom before going home with a bass player named Dale who’s covered in stick and poke tattoos. 

The series opens with our struggling actor, Billie, standing stoned and bewildered in front of a giant wall of cheese at a very hoity-toity grocer. In this, our first cold open, we understand very quickly that Billie is taking a fancy to food items that they absolutely cannot afford. After begrudgingly shoplifting a few foil clad triangles from the bargain bin, they skulk away and we next meet them at Jordan’s cafe, the Mecca and place of worship for our coffee chugging godless sinners. 

Jordan is charismatic, whip-smart and nurturing in a “Gordan-You’re-a-Shit-Sandwich-Ramsay” kinda way. Having left a successful white collar career in her homeland of England for the sunny shores of Australia, she dreamed of a life full of coffee, sunshine, sex and shakas. Instead, what she ended up with was endless debts and defects and the last time she had anything resembling sex it involved a $7 dildo from Temu. 

As our Freeloading family pour into the cafe that morning, we get a glimpse of who and what they are. We learn that despite her effervescent and driven nature, Nya struggles to make sense of her cultural identity and how she fits in a world that isn’t so black and white. We see that despite thinking he has it all figured out, Ryan’s stubbornness and unwillingness to communicate his feelings to those closest to him might actually be why he finds the day-to-day so hard to navigate. Then there’s Sean, he’s living the Australian dream, or so it seems from the outside looking in. He’s got everything a thirty-something boy could ask for, but at what cost? 

When their daily norm is shaken up by the unexpected arrival of Billie’s new housemate Meg, the living embodiment of aura cleansing and crystal wielding positivity, our protagonists are forced to take a long hard look at themselves, their lives, and their unwillingness to make hard choices for the future they want. Along the way, the lives of our Freeloaders diverge and intersect in a chaotic green juice of lust, love, heartbreak, deflection and connection. A love letter to an entire generation living in a complicated world who has no idea where they fit. FREELOADERS ultimately tells the story of found family, community and the importance of love in all its incarnations. 

With the ‘A Storyline’ shifting from one ’Freeloader’ to another each episode, we are privy to their individual breed of struggle just long enough to fall in love with them, before jumping ship to play witness to another. By the end of the season, we weave together each individual storyline in an appropriately dramatic yet completely irreverent full circle climax.