Beloved Australian 1990s series Heartbreak High opened with such a whoosh of adrenaline, such a shock of verisimilitude, it begged to be described using words like “gritty” and “vérité.” The ditching of a stock-standard daytime aesthetic stylistically distinguished the series from countless TV dramas and the central location, Hartley High, felt like a real high school – not a place plastered with white faces from wall to wall.
That near-vérité style perfectly matched the authenticity of the characters and storylines, which incorporated Australians of Greek, Italian, Vietnamese and Anglo-Saxon heritage. Running for more than 200 episodes across seven seasons, the show was eventually turfed into the bucket labeled “soap opera” – but for a while there it was thrillingly unique.
