Runaway Millionaires is this week’s TVNZ1 Sunday Theatre film, focussing on the real-life story of a couple who had ten million deposited into their bank accounts.
Runaway Millionaires is this week’s TVNZ1 Sunday Theatre film, focussing on the real-life story of a couple who had ten million deposited into their bank accounts.
Sunday Theatre’s new drama Runaway Millionaires tells the story of Kara Hurring, the Rotorua woman who in 2009 fled the country with $10 million which simply landed in her lap. Tara Ward reviews.
What would you do if one day you discovered ten million bucks randomly sitting in your bank account? Would you come clean, or take the money and run?
That’s the dilemma faced by New Zealand couple Kara Hurring and Leo Gao, who in 2009 discovered Westpac had mistakenly put a cool $10 million into their bank account, instead of an agreed $100,000 overdraft. Hurring and Geo took the money and ran all the way to China, and their disappearance captivated the nation. We were in the midst of a recession, and when had a bank ever done us a favour? It’s in their account, so it’s their money, right?
TVNZ1’s new drama Runaway Millionaires tells the story of this almost unbelievable crime from Kara Hurring’s perspective. The story begins in Rotorua, where Kara (Awkward Love’s Jess Sayer) manages a struggling petrol station with partner Leo (George Zhao, The Family Law) while raising her six year old daughter Lina. Money is tight, so when Leo and Kara discover the incredible amount of free cash sitting in Leo’s bank account, a new world of possibilities suddenly opens up.
Kara dreams of a bigger, brighter future in New Zealand, but Leo has grander plans, and unbeknownst to Kara, siphons the money to a series of offshore bank accounts. When Kara unexpectedly arrives home one day to find Leo’s bags packed and a taxi waiting, she’s thrown into a world of uncertainty and chaos.
It’s a fascinating story, and Runaway Millionaires is another solid New Zealand drama from the Sunday Theatre bag of tricks. Its strength lies in the fact we’re not completely familiar with all the details of the story, and discovering it from Kara’s perspective works well. She takes us on the run with her, and we experience every bewildering twist and turn as she does. While the use of Kara’s voiceover to explain the story sometimes feels unnecessary, it’s a well-paced, intriguing journey.
Jess Sayer in TVNZ1 Sunday Theatre film Runaway Millionaires.
One minute Kara’s filling up the petrol station pie warmer, the next she’s living a life of luxury in a Macau five star hotel. Kara adores her new opulent lifestyle (“I was rich, untouchable,” she says) but it’s not long before she realises Leo’s up to his neck in dodgy deals. The money disappears, and Kara discovers Leo has implicated her in his financial paper trail and that she’s wanted by the New Zealand police. The hotel penthouse is replaced by grotty studios in mainland China, as Kara, Leo and Lina go on the run to avoid being caught.
Back in New Zealand, Kara’s disappearance starts to affect her whānau, including mother Sue (Roz Turnbull) and sister Aroha (an underused Bree Peters). There’s also an insight into the police efforts to find and bring Kara home, and an unlikely friendship with Detective Inspector Mark Loper (played with calm precision by Joel Tobeck). Loper waits patiently as Kara’s world unravels, until she’s forced to make a final choice. Should she continue to live on the run, or return home to face the music?
Becoming an instant millionaire sounds like a dream come true, but Runaway Millionaires shows what a nightmare it was for Kara. It doesn’t shy away from Kara being complicit in the crimes, with Kara admitting she knew she was doing the wrong thing. But what the show does well is make us feel empathy towards Kara, without asking us to feel sorry for her. She’s often shown as being backed into a corner for reasons beyond her control, and it’s hard not to admire her resourcefulness when the money-laundered chips are down.
The couple at the centre of Runaway Millionaires isn’t compelling just because it really happened, but because they’re relatable.
We’re also never in doubt why Kara stole the money and fled the country. “This money will change everything,” Kara says, who at the heart of it all, just wanted a better life for herself and her daughter. It’s a motivation every viewer will understand, no matter how strong their morals, and it’s what separates Runaway Millionaires from other recent ‘real story’ dramas. Kara isn’t a sports hero or a famous public figure, just an ordinary New Zealander who took a risk on the millions of bucks that “plonked” into her lap. She could be any of us, and that’s what makes Runaway Millionaires worth the time.
Runaway Millionaires is the second of four tele-features in this year’s Sunday Theatre showcase, and feels a richer offering than last week’s A War Story. There’s been a decent amount of ‘true local story’ TV lately, so it’s refreshing to watch a Kiwi story unfold that isn’t as well known as Jonah or the upcoming Rugby World Cup feature By the Balls. Runaway Millionaires is a strong drama that brings fresh truth to a legendary tale, and leaves the viewer feeling more certain about how to answer an age old imponderable: what would you do?
Keep going!
It’s Paddington and all his friends! They’re coming to streaming services in September alongside a whole lot of other stuff.
It’s Paddington and all his friends! They’re coming to streaming services in September alongside a whole lot of other stuff.
What are you going to be watching in September? The Spinoff rounds up everything that’s coming to streaming services this month, including Netflix, Lightbox, Neon, Amazon Prime and TVNZ on Demand.
The Good Place (Netflix, Season 4 weekly, September 24)
It’s weird that the smartest, deepest sitcom of the past few years has consistently felt like it’s been hovering under the radar for all of its three seasons so far. It’s even weirder, but no less welcome, that the showrunner – Mike Schur of Parks and Rec fame – knows when we’ve had enough of a good thing, and has decided to end it after season four. If you haven’t gotten onboard with this afterlife series featuring one of the most endearing ensembles in quite some time (Kristen Bell, William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil, Manny Nacito, and the immortal Ted Danson), then now is the time. / Sam Brooks
Unbelievable (Netflix, Mini-series, September 13)
The latest in what is sure to be a long line of shows inspired by investigative journalism, this miniseries is based on the ProPublica article ‘An Unbelievable Story of Rape’ and a subsequent episode of the podcast This American Life. It follows Marie (Kaitlyn Dever), a teenager charged with lying about her rape, and the two female detectives (Toni Colette and Merritt Wever) across the country who search for the truth. With the pedigree of writer Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich) and director Lisa Cholodenko (Olive Kittredge), expect this one to hang around until next one’s Emmys and to be a bracing, difficult, but hopefully rewarding watch. / SB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-kdBlzCG7w
The Politician (Netflix, Season 1, September 27)
A new Ryan Murphy? Featuring Gwyneth Paltrow, noted quadruple threat (actress, singer, cook, GOOP)? That kind of satirises politics through the lens of a privileged high school kid (played by someone in their late twenties, natch) running for school presidents? I’m sold!
Despite the premise, which sounds like an episode of Popular stretched out over a season, this sounds like it’ll take a few pages out of the Ryan Murphy playbook. Acclaimed actresses slumming it and cashing a paycheck? Yup! A high-speed bullet train of a plot that was never on the rails to begin with? Probably. An endless supply of memes for your supposedly witty homosexual friends to put in the group chat? I’d bet a house on it. / SB
The Good Doctor (Lightbox, Season 3, September 24)
The doctor is in the house again, with popular medical drama The Good Doctor returning to Lightbox for a third season. Freddie Highmore (Bates Motel) plays Dr Shaun Murphy, a surgical resident with autism and savant syndrome, who gets a job at a prestigious hospital in San Jose. Shaun’s a brilliant surgeon with a genius mind and near-photographic recall, but he struggles to relate to the people around him. He’s skilled at saving lives, but he faces hostility from his colleagues who misunderstand him and doubt his ability to become a successful doctor.
The show is the brainchild of House creator David Shore, and like we said back in season one, The Good Doctor “both breaks and warms the heart, and fans of character-driven medical shows like Grey’s Anatomy will enjoy the healthy mix of medical quandaries, personal dramas and hanky-panky in the supply cupboard.”/ Tara Ward
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLkEpO3k514
PEN15 (Neon, Season 1, September 7)
Schoolyard comedy PEN15 is the best thing I’ve watched in a long time. Set in a middle school in 2000, the story follows Anna and Maya through the drama of young love, popularity, sexual awakenings and the brutal way kids that age don’t sugar-coat anything they say. The twist is that Anna and Maya are played by adults, allowing the show the licence to tell the story of middle school through a unique adult lens. There’s wedgies, there’s fake love notes, there’s a whole episode dedicated to the Spice Girls (kind of). It explores childhood racism and bullying that will bring back memories long repressed, and it does all this in a way that has you crying with laughter from beginning to end. / Alice Webb-Liddall
The Notables
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3dRarfihaw
The Deuce (Neon, Season 3, September 10)
David Simon will likely never get back to The Wire, but The Deuce is now challenging Treme for his most substantial follow up. At times it has felt overly-stylised at the expense of its plotting, but more often The Deuce evokes a wild and wasted New York city. It’s porn and punk rock and police corruption, it’s a masterful Maggie Gyllenhaal, and features some of the best writing in television. So: not the The Wire, but more than enough. / Duncan Greive
The Almighty Johnsons / Go Girls / Step-Dave (Neon, all seasons, September 15)
Three beloved New Zealand TV classics land on Neon this month, and they happen to be some of our best shows from the past decade. The first is fantasy-drama The Almighty Johnsons, which follows a group of brothers who discover they’re descended from Norse gods. The cast boasts a heap of well-known Kiwi actors like Tim Balme, Dean O’Gorman, Keisha Castle-Hughes and Sara Wiseman, and comes with plenty of dark humour.
Step-Dave is a light-hearted romantic comedy about a bartender who falls in love with his ideal woman, only to discover she’s fifteen years older than him and has three kids, while comedy drama Go Girls follows a group of dissatisfied twenty-somethings living on Auckland’s North Shore. They try to make good on a series of promises they make to each other, and hilarity and chaos ensue. These shows are all Kiwi TV treasures, and it’s a happy reunion to see them together in one place. / TW
All Rise (TVNZ on Demand, Season 1 weekly, September 24)
One for Simone Missick (Luke Cage) and a legal drama! Two for Marg Helgenberger (CSI) and Jessica Camacho (Sleepy Hollow)! All Rise! All Rise!
In all seriousness and Blue lyric bastardization aside, All Rise is a new show in the genre that I can’t get enough of: courtroom drama. Apart from the cast, this has a relatively unknown pedigree, so it’ll be one to put on the bubble before commitment, but god knows – if I’ve watched fifty seasons of Judge Judy, then I’ll happily dive into this. / SB
Downton Abbey (Lightbox, all seasons, September 13)
Sound the alarm, release the hounds and polish the family silver, because all six seasons of Julian Fellowes’ much loved period drama series Downton Abbey heads to Lightbox this month. That’s 52 glorious episodes of the upper-class Crawley family and their plethora of servants, as they live, love and laugh their way through the early 20th Century. It’s also the ideal lead-in to the Downton movie that hits cinemas on September 12. Watching Downton is a warm delight, with its gorgeous sets and costumes, Dame Maggie Smith’s acerbic takedowns, and Turkish diplomats who die suddenly in a post-coital glaze of aristocratic ecstasy.
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll find yourself wearing big hats with pointy feathers and taking your breakfast in bed with a tray. Don’t fight it, the Downton life is the way forward. / TW
Undone (Amazon Prime, Season 1, September 13)
You probably haven’t heard about this until now, but mark my words, everybody’s going to be talking about it once it hits. It’s a new animated show from Kate Purdy and Raphael Bob-Waksberg (BoJack Horseman) that bills itself as a ‘groundbreaking and genre-bending’ show about a young woman’s journey to unlock her past and solve the mystery of her father’s death. She gets visions of her late father, and through these visions, she’s encouraged to travel through space and time to prevent his death, as one does. If Bob-Waksberg’s ability to tackle difficult topics in BoJack is any indication, this one will be one that will make you rock back and forth afterwards. I’m booking my spot to gurn in my armchair on September 13, thanks./ SB
The Movies
A Simple Favour (Neon, September 7)
Low-key, this might was my favourite movie of 2018, thanks largely to Blake Lively’s full glam-bisexual performance, which should’ve been in contention for all kinds of awards. It starts off as a thriller about a mom-blogger (Anna Kendrick) who makes friends with a glamourous and nonchalant friend (Blake Lively) at her kid’s school, who then suddenly goes missing; from then on it’s a demented high-stakes black comedy. It’s weird as hell, stylish as hell, and I cannot stop thinking about it. Watch it with as many martinis as you have friends, and you’ll have the time of your life./ SB
Paddington 2 (Netflix, September 21)
Just recently, Hugh Grant caused a minor stir when he said the best film he’d ever appeared in was… Paddington 2. The really amazing thing about the media reaction? Most people said he was right. Paddington 2 is just that good: winsome but never saccharine, cryingly funny but never crude, so bloody lovely that you’ll need a minute to compose yourself as the end credits roll. The rollicking prison canteen scenes; the thrilling James Bond-style train race; that London pop-up book… as Aunt Lucy would say, “it’s all just wonderful”. Watch this movie – but only after the almost-as-good Paddington (2014), also streaming on Netflix. / Catherine McGregor
Widows (Neon, September 11)
If Blake Lively in A Simple Favour is my pick for most underrated performance of 2018, then Widows might just be the most underrated film. Maybe it’s the genre that let Widows slip under the radar. It’s technically a heist film, albeit with a strong feminist bent – but the social commentary, the mastery of Steve McQueen’s direction and the strong performances from the cast across the board (Viola Davis! Elizabeth Debicki! Michelle Rodriguez!) make this maybe my favourite film of 2018. And you can stream it right to your home! / SB
Us (Lightbox, September 4)
Crazy to think that the moment that Lupita N’yongo’s lookalike started rasping in front of the fireplace in Us is also the moment that my heart stopped beating. Now, I am a ghost with a blog, imploring you to watch Us because you won’t get a more terrifyingly twisted horror experience this year. If you haven’t seen it before, don’t Google it. Don’t ask anyone about it. Stop reading this. Allow Jordan Peele to gently peel away all your layers of comfort, safety and identity, leaving you with a mind-bending alternate reality that has to be seen to be believed. / Alex Casey
The Rest
What follows is a list of what is coming up on every streaming service this month.
Netflix
September 1
Dirty Dancing
Transformers: Age of Extinction
Grease 2
God’s Own Country
Django Unchained
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: Season One
I Do… Until I Don’t
Tyler Perry’s Single Moms Club
Social Animals
For the Birds
Moving Art: Season Three
September 3
The Deep: Season Two
September 4
The World We Make
September 6
The Spy
Jack Whitehall: Travels with My Father: Season 3
Hip Hop Evolution: Season 3
Elite: Season 2
Archibald’s New Big Thing
Modest Heroes – Ponoc Short Films Theatre
September 7
The Nut Job
September 10
Terrace House: Tokyo 2019-2020
Bill Burr: Paper Tiger
Evelyn
Our Godfather
September 11
Downsizing
September 12
The I-Land
The Mind, Explained
September 13
Kabaneri Of The Iron Fortress: The Battle of Unato
The Ranch: Part 7
Unbelievable
Tall Girl
Hello Privilege, It’s Me Chelsea
The Chef Show: Volume 2
Black Lagoon: Seasons 1 & 2
Head Count
September 14
Justice League
September 15
Los Tigres del Nortre at Folsom Prison
The Heartbreak Kid
War Dogs
The Mask
Storks
September 17
The Last Kids on Earth
September 20
Las del Hockey
Criminal
Disenchantment: Part 2
Fastest Car: Season 2
Between Two Ferns: The Movie
Inside Bill’s Brain: Decoding Bill Gates
September 21
Paddington 2
Ingrid Goes West
Don’t Breathe
September 23
Team Kaylie
September 24
Jeff Dunham: Beside Himself
September 25
Abstract: The Art of Design: Season Two
Birders
Explained: Season Two
September 27
This is Personal
London Fields
Realms
Skylines
Vis a vis: Season 4
The Politician
Bard of Blood
The Good Place: Season 4 (weekly)
In the Shadow of the Moon
Dragons: Rescue Riders
Sturgill Simpson Presents: Sound & Fury
September 28
The Disaster Artist
September 29
Tiny House Nation: Volume 2
Vagabond
September 30
Mo Gilligan: Momentum
A Champion Heart
Neon
September 4
Mayans MC: Season Two
Year Of The Rabbit: Season One
Mary Shelley
The Seagull
Whitney
You Were Never Really Here
On Chesil Beach
Climax
The Happy Prince
Zoe
Funny Cow
Fahrenheit 9/11
September 5
Robin Hood
The Spy Who Dumped Me
September 7
PEN15
The Simple Favour
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms
September 10
The Deuce: Season Three
50/50
September 11
Animal Kingdom: Season Four
Widows
September 12
Creed II
The Amaranth
What Happened on September 11
In The Shadow of The Towers: Stuyvesant High on 9/11
