Outrageous Fortune is a New Zealand dramedy focusing on the Wests, a family of criminals who decide to go straight after the family patriarch, Wolf, goes to prison and subsequently disappears.
After Wolf leaves, Cheryl is determined to get the family to live honestly. Thrown into the mix are her twin sons, Van and Jethro, daughters Pascalle and Loretta and her father-in-law, Ted. Hilarity Ensues.
It had a short-lived US remake called Scoundrels (2010) on ABC in 2010 that was axed after 8 episodes.
A prequel titled West Side started the 30th of May 25. And, yes, Antonia Prebble plays Rita.
Not to be confused with the Bette Midler Shelley Long film Outrageous Fortune.
Tropes:
- And I Must Scream: Munter's mother gets him so high on hash cakes that he is unable to move and witnesses Van getting her drunk and having sex with her.
- Played more for laughs when Jethro breaks his leg. He is unable to stop Pascalle from robbing him, Loretta from setting up loads of alarm clocks to go off at the same time around his house or Treena raping him.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Wests are all petty criminals with all sorts of crimes ranging from safecracking to shoplifting. Even Jethro, who is a qualified lawyer, is dodgy.
- Bilingual Bonus: Tutaekuri, the campsite the Wests go to every Christmas, means dog shit in Maori.
- Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Van believes Loretta's baby is one for Aurora.
- Body Double: Loretta hires a girl who looks slightly like her to take her place at school while she runs the Video Hut, as she considers school a waste of time. It backfires on her when the double submits a film for her film class that implies she might have been sexually abused as a child and ends up getting a contract with Peter Jackson.
- Brother–Sister Incest: Wolf had a son with another woman. Nobody finds this out until his will turns up after he disappears. Unfortunately, Pascalle had already slept with him.
- Can't Have Sex, Ever: Pascalle and her much older husband Milt are unable to do the deed due to his heart condition. Sure enough, when he tries to give into his temptation, he has a fatal heart attack before anything can even happen.
- Chekhov's Gun: Thankfully subverted with Wayne's shotguns. Loretta finds them missing when she realises that Vaan has reached a Despair Event Horizon and is looking to kill himself after Aurora's death. Turns out, Wayne just went hunting.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Sparky, to ridiculous levels. Ted becomes this for a bit when he gets a brain tumour.
- Daddy's Girl: Pascalle is clearly Wolf's favourite. Though, to be fair, of his daughters, Loretta is far more shrewd and capable and Wolf is well aware of this.
- Dating Catwoman: Wayne Judd seems quite fond of this trope.
- Deliberate Injury Gambit: Wayne's way out of the police force? His arm, a hammer and several thousand dollars in compensation.
- Dirty Cop: Wolf manipulates things into making it look like Wayne Judd is one of these. He's far from it.
- Turns out Zane was one, though this only comes out after his death.
- Dirty Old Man: Ted. He sleeps with prostitutes quarter his age, makes dirty comments to everybody and even urinates on a cop interrogating him.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Treena is perfectly willing to have sex with Jethro when he's unable to move out of his chair with a broken leg, then later drug him and accuse him of rape herself.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Poor, poor Aurora gets run over by a bus after Van sabotages Tyson's motorcycle.
- Erudite Stoner: Munter.
- Executive Meddling: In universe example: Hayden adds cheap porn scenes to Loretta's movie in order to get it an Asian release. Unfortunately, Bruce sees this while on a business trip to Asia and dumps Pascalle as a result.
- Fan Disservice: The love sock.
- Fanservice: Loads and loads. And in equal measure too.
- Fat Bastard: Falani.
- Generation Xerox / Identical Granddaughter: Loretta bears a strong resemblance to her grandmother in terms of appearance and personality.
- Heroic BSoD: Van has a major one after the death of Aurora.
- Cheryl after the baby she has with Judd dies.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Van and Munter to levels of lampshading. This one probably counts as
Ho Yay too. - Hopeless Suitor: Aaron ends up falling for Pascalle big time. He does eventually get to kiss her just before she hooks up with Judd.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every episode was named after a Shakespeare quote.
- It's Not Porn, It's Erotica: Loretta's movie. Hayden keeps trying to add full porn to it. Loretta is, understandably, squicked out by this idea, as Pascalle is the movie's star.
- Jerkass: Aaron. At least until he joins the Tool Guys.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Gary Savage seems like just a regular Jerkass (bordering on Big Bad) until he become business partners with Cheryl. Suddenly, he's seen helping around the house and insisting that Loretta doesn't give up her baby. He has a personal reason for this. He's Wolf's half brother, had by their mother while Ted was in prison in The '70s. She gave up Gary so as not to alert Ted.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Nobody seems to be able to get away with anything on this show. Even minor fuckups have major consequences.
- Likes Older Men: Loretta. She loses her virginity to a prison guard at the age of fifteen and subsequently always ends up with guys at least a decade older than her.
- May–December Romance: Pascalle marries an older American named Milt. His heart problem means they can't actually consummate the marriage and he dies before he can even attempt it.
- Meaningful Name: Sparky is an electrician and Axe-Crazy Pyromaniac.
- Mistaken for Gay: A minor Running Gag has people mistake Loretta for a lesbian. She has to strenuously deny it when Aurora's mother's girlfriend keeps staring at her.
- The Movie Buff: Loretta. A Running Gag is that nobody gets the film references she makes, even some fairly obvious ones like "Heeeeeeeeeeere's Johnny!"
- Ms. Fanservice: Pascalle fills this role, especially in the early seasons by virtue of Toplessness from the Back or Leg Focuss shots. Downplayed once she undergoes Character Development.
- Mundane Solution: Ted takes on a job for Ngarie to steal a particular set of jewels from a new model safe. He has trouble with the usual method of Safecracking, so he simply decides to blow the door off the safe.
- Non-Indicative Name: Chastity, which is a classic name for a sex worker. She's actually aware of how ill-fitting this is, so while working, she goes by the more mundane name of Susan, much to Loretta's confusion.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Jethro impersonates Van on a couple of occasions in order to get something he wants (usually sex).
- Of Course I'm Not a Virgin: Inverted. Pascalle lies to Bruce and tells him that she's a virgin when he confesses to being one. Of course, she is far from a virgin.
- Only Sane Man: Loretta is a subversion. In many ways, she comes across as the only one who realises how fucked up her family is, until she goes and shows that in her own ways, is more evil than the rest of them put together.
- Wayne Judd plays this a little more straight.
- Themed Aliases: Any time Sparky tries his hand at legitimate work, he uses the name of a different Gibb brother.
- The Pollyanna: Pascalle, especially when she takes on her positivity philosophy.
- Private Investigator: Wayne becomes one after leaving the police force. He buys the business from a former colleague using his compensation payout. Pascalle discovers she has a talent for the job, since as a former shoplifter, she's able to spot one easily.
- Rabid Cop: Zane Gerard. He obsesses about nailing the Wests and his reaction to being stabbed is to open fire with no regard for collateral damage.
-
Real Song Theme Tune: "Gutterblack" by Hello Sailor. - Riddle for the Ages: Was Van the biological father of his twins? Or was it Jethro? Or even Wolf? Van doesn't care one way or the other, as regardless, they're his children in his mind.
- Safecracking: Ted is an expert at this. He passed this skill onto Wolf.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Loretta to levels that even Pascalle admits she looks good.
- Statuesque Stunner: Pascalle, played by the 6 foot Siobhan Marshall.
- Taking You with Me: Zane tries to pull this on Cheryl after she stabs him with a broken bottle by pulling out his pistol and opening fire. He manages a Breast Attack on Pascalle.
- Teens Are Monsters: Loretta.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Ted and Wayne, due to their respective professions on either side of the law. Eventually, they come to respect one another. Leads to Wayne naming his stillborn son after Ted.
