Queer Comedy Horror Series ‘Wreck’ Coming To Australian TV
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Six-part Queer British comedy horror series, Wreck is coming to Australian television.
The first episode will air tonight, December 28, at 8:45 pm on ABC TV Plus.
The series follows nineteen-year-old Jamie Walsh (Oscar Kennedy), a queer crew member onboard luxury cruise liner, the Sacramentum. Using a false identity, he has joined the crew to find answers about his sister’s apparent suicide on the ship’s previous voyage. Along the way, he uncovers a shadowy, elite organisation, and a knife-wielding person in a duck costume, all while the disillusioned Gen Z crew parties, finds themselves, and waits on wealthy guests.
According to an interview with BBC in October, series writer and creator Ryan J Brown wanted to fix the overused trope of Queer characters either being murdered early or being the murderer themselves.
Discussing the horror genre, Brown said, “As a gay man and horror fan, I think horror has always been queer. But it’s always coded, and subtext. I thought, ‘let’s do away with the subtext.’ Let’s have explicit representation.”
Doesn’t Focus On Characters Being Queer
With Wreck, the two main characters, Jamie and his friend Vivian (Thaddea Graham) are multidimensional individuals who are queer.
Explaining how their queerness is portrayed, Brown said, “Having two gay leads in the show that isn’t about them being gay, or about their sexual identity in any way, we don’t see that.”
He added, “Growing up gay has equipped them to be the perfect heroes. But the story doesn’t need to be about their trauma.”
Speaking about representation in the cast and in the script, actor Thaddea Graham said, “It felt really special to see representation of all kinds of sexualities joined together…It’s at the forefront and it’s not performative.”
Wreck is currently available to stream on ABC iview.
The series premiered on BBC Three on October 9 2022. It has be renewed for a second season which will come out in 2023.
