#SOLOSTORIES: “FISK”

#SoloStories is our feature in which we explore books, films and TV shows that show single women navigating their lives – but romance is not the main component.

“Fisk” is the fun, easy binge about a woman who just wants a decent cup of coffee.

“Fisk,” an Australian TV show that streams on Netflix, follows Helen Tudor-Fisk after she has been fired from her job at a Sydney law firm and her marriage has ended. She moves to Melbourne, and winds up at a wills and probate law firm run by a pair of siblings, Ray and Roz Gruber.

Life keeps throwing her punches as she tries to adjust to her new life. She goes from an Airbandb to her aunt’s house to her father’s house. She deals with kleptomaniac clients, gets saddled with a noisy photocopier in her office, must dig into a dumpster for a cookbook about cabbage, hosts a seminar that goes out of control at a library because of too much wine and cheese, and her attempts at finding good coffee is a running joke.

Helen has a brusque, brisk manner that doesn’t always mesh well with people. She wears the same beige suit in a cast of colorful characters.

Many clients see Helen as arrogant. And that’s not a wrong impression. And through the course of three seasons, she finds herself humbled. Once you’ve hit middle age, you think you know it all, but life keeps throwing punches at you and you have to rebuild your life.

Except for one episode in which she briefly reunites with her ex-husband, Helen isn’t given any romance.

But she does get to eat plenty of mud cake. (Mud cake here is what cheesecake is to “The Golden Girls.”) Helen adjusts to life in the office and her current situation, and the rewards come. She remains independent – Helen doesn’t need anyone to fix her. She begins to grow and see things differently.

Her mud cake and cup of coffee is well-deserved.