seestoa relationshipwithClaudia,but,in dramatic
terms,hiscircumstancespresentnorealimpedi-
menttohisgoal.Thissocialmobilityis especially
manifestedin theseries’youngercharacters,allof
whomhaveaccesstowhatwemightthinkofas
financialand political‘exit ramps’: employment,
education,opportunities.
Thosecharacterswhomightactuallyspendtheir
livesatthissocio-economiclevelareimplicitlysuf-
fering from self-inflictedwoes:Mark has a gambling
problem,whichhas financiallycrippledhis family;
Shannonhas a fairly undefinedsubstance-abuse
issue;andWattostruggleswithalcoholism.The
systemicbarrierstoupwardsocialandeconomic
momentum remain unaddressed: we never seeacharacterstruggletodealwiththecoalfaceof
Centrelinkbureaucracy,orunderfundedsocialpro-
grams.Surely,there’sdramatobeminedfromthe
controversial‘robodebt’program,^2 topinpointjust
one widelyknownand reviledissue affectingthe less-
affluent?But not only are these issuesnot dramatised- they’renotevenalludedto;charactersneverspeak
aboutsuchthings,letaloneexperiencethem.
Watto,althougha minorcharacter,is particularly
problematic,in thatheis anarchetypethatis largely
unchangedfromthedaysofCookie(SydHeylen)and
Bob(GordonPiper)inA CountryPractice: thecomic
buffoon.InthecontextofThe Heights– with its os-
tensiblesocial-justiceagenda^3 – sucha character-
isationsimplydoesn’tfly. Indeed,by positioning
Wattoas a figure of fun,The Heightsis participat-
ing in the same mockeryperpetuatedby the likes of
earlierABCseriesUpperMiddleBoganandSBS’s
Housos, whichminetheexperiencesofdisadvan-
tagedcharactersforhumourbutturnawayfrom
morerobustcritique.In theuniverseofThe Heights,
thereappearstobea levelofpovertyandfunctional-
itybelowwhichderisionis warranted.Thosewiththe
opportunity to improve themselves are portrayed as
WhileTheHeightsdemonstrates
a greatdealofempathy forits
ethnicallyandsexuallydiverse
cast,it seemstohavea blind
spotwhenit comestocertain
societalhierarchies...theshow
feelslikea middle-classperson’s
ideaofwhateconomically
disadvantaged life must be like.Above,fromtop:Ash’sfamily– Hamid(AmirRahimzadeh),
Kam(YazeedDaher),Laila(RastaKarami)andFatema(Jasmine
Sadati);DanwithdaughterFrankie(AmeliaKelly)andwifeRenee
(Saskia Hampele); Ash and Kam with officer Fetu (Eddie Stowers)
48 • Metro Magazine 201 | © ATOM