Lunch Room

An Australian web series about the lives of a group of people who work in a supermarket called OzSupermart.

 

Created by Mark Nunnari and Martin Ponferrada, this dark comedy-drama series consists of episodes that have a running time between five to fifteen minutes. There is no main character as more or less each episode focuses on the experiences of different characters, each with their own personality and issues, which makes things more interesting. The viewer learns about the heroes' work and personal lives and follows them as they deal with their job and relationships, discuss their personal issues among them and attempt to deal with this and that.

 

Every episode has a different storyline that involves plots such as an employee bringing their partner to the staff lunch room for a chat, a couple having a conversation in a car, two people going for a walk in the woods or how staff react to the new company uniform. The majority of the narratives take place inside the staff canteen, with employees sitting down, talking to each other or winding each other up. However, there are scenes that take place outdoors or in the home of several staff members. The stories focus mainly on the employees, however, there are also other characters involved, such as Matthew, a serious man who holds an influential position within the company.

 

Each episode has its own title and nearly all of them are in black-and-white. A rather intriguing one is the one that is entirely in colour and takes place during COVID-19 lockdown. The whole episode is filmed using webcams and mobile phone cameras, as each person communicates with each other while self-isolating. Due to the addition of colour and filming techniques, this episode stands out from the rest.

 

The cast delivers entertaining performances as supermarket employees socializing and going about their business. Some come across as rather likeable individuals while others are not so likeable.

 

The soundtrack is amusing, often utilizing jazz music. The end credits of each episode are almost always accompanied by a song called Sick Day by The Old Married Couple, which closes the episodes effectively.

 

Lunch Room is an enjoyable series, full of humour, clever dialogue and awkward situations. There is also drama and profanity. It is a series that provides a humorous insight into the lives of retail workers and as each episode tends to have different protagonists, no two episodes are the same.

Check out Lunch Room here.