Playing Gracie Darling review – derivative occult mystery series fails to cast a spell

Miranda Nation’s new series is well-acted but overall feels fusty and antiquatedGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailThe title of Miranda Nation’s new mystery series, Playing Gracie Darling, reminded me of Donald Crombie’s 1986 adaptation of Playing Beatie Bow – another Australian production that links a young woman’s name with a children’s game that defies the seemingly immutable laws of the universe. Where Beatie Bow was transported from the past to modern Sydney via a chant, “playing Gracie Darling” involves youngsters communicating with the spirit world, where Darling may have been taken after a seance performed in a creaky old shack went terribly wrong.Because of course it does! It’s a seance. In a shack. Just once I’d love to see a “talk to the dead” scene involving Ouija boards and the like go swimmingly well, a bunch of spirit-communicators leaving the event with ear-to-ear smiles and newfound joie de vivre. But of course, the seance in this reasonably well-staged but very codified and derivative series involves the Ouija board catching on fire and the titular girl (Kristina Bogic) spitting out demonic-sounding dialogue, before disappearing from the face of the Earth in 1997.Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Continue reading...

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