Puberty Blues Season 1

Loosely based on the iconic 1979 book of the same name by Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey, Puberty Blues as an eight-part TV series still manages to shock, even by today's standards. We follow BFFs Debbie Vickers (Ashleigh Cummings) and Sue Knight (Brenna Harding) as they work diligently toward achieving their adolescent goal of fitting in by finding boyfriends from the Greenhill Gang of surfers. Those who lived through the '70s will appreciate the meticulous attention to detail (that classic 4711 “cold as ice” Ice Cologne ad; Charlene's I've Never Been To Me accompanying a touching interpretive dance routine). Those who didn't will baulk at the casual drink driving, lack of seatbelts and panel van gang-bangs (were they really that rampant?). And the lingo is priceless: “get rooted”, “moll”, “gated”, “deadset”, “five finger discount” and “titted off”, for example. Acting performances are stunning and believable throughout, with actual teenagers (instead of adults à la Beverly Hills, 90210) a welcome change: Debbie's ten-year-old brother David (Ed Oxenbould) almost steals the show from veteran actors such as Claudia Karvan and Dan Wylie. The series is beautifully shot on location in and around Sydney's Sutherland Shire, using lenses from the period in which Puberty Blues is set. If you can ever bring yourself to stop singing along with the show's theme song – Dragon's Are You Old Enough – and navigate beyond the DVD's title page, you better have a spare eight hours. And it'd be interesting to find out whether the series has had an impact on Vaseline (aka “vaso”) sales.

Season 1 DVD Out Now