Offspring Character In Depth: Patrick Reid

Well colour me impressed ladies and gents! The Offspring comments section continues to fire with smart, insightful and interesting commentary on the series – so much so that I’m loathe to contribute because the bulk of my comments would be simply ‘Yeah, what she said!’ and ‘Oh yes, that too’ and ‘yep, that’s so true.’

Still, I won’t go quiet on you all just because I don’t want to sound stupid. I thought in the long break before The Proudmans and Co return, we could now look at the characters individually, break into who they are, what makes them tick.

Of course, the prime candidate to launch this is our resident Doc McBroody.

Sexy leaning since 2010

Let’s get it out of the way early, Matt Le Nevez is hot. Broody wounded hot. The sexy tattoo is hot, which I believe is the actor’s and just happens to be nice symmetry to wire around his body to his current character. The staring at Nina is hot. The dark man in scrubs is hot. The shirtless running is hot. The hallway sexy times are hot. There is no denying this and as the leading man he was setup to be, it’s a very good thing.

Patrick Plus: That Patrick, in some ways is an ultra-stereotype, with the broody, non-communication and he still manages to work is a plus. He has the perfect requisite sad tormented background and while he’d like to pretend he’s burying it all with success, the audience is via Nina exposed on the very rare glimpses to his deepest wounds and it is to Matt Le Nevez credit that this often happens without assistance of the script. He’s often, especially in this season, been asked to convey oh so much with so very little words and the big tick for Patrick Reid, is that we get it. We the viewers are despite the sometimes increasing frustration levels, on his side. We want better for Patrick but we understand that he can never be healed completely, hey presto life is laugh filled Friends episode. The wounds that he bears are also valid and real. This loss he’s experienced is life shaking, ground breaking reality and of course, it’s going to stick with him forever.

Patrick’s joy is also something to behold. The dream sequence smile and then his actual smile at finding Nina pregnant were both fantastic heartfelt moments in the show. His rooftop car park scene with Nina’s biological Dad, in which he connected the two’s slightly scattered behaviour with a sly grin, was touching and tender and showed us who Patrick could one day be: sensitive and sincere.

I also really enjoyed pissy Patrick. The VERY brief encounter between Patrick and Fitzroy Jesus, was actually, in my book, incredibly funny. The dislocating the shoulder laid it on thick for sure, but the resulting under his breath insults that he threw out combined with the dirty glares, gave Patrick’s occasionally one-tone broody a fresh flavour.

Crimes Against Reid: The other side of the coin is that Patrick is often a jerky broody cliché. The romantic brooding hero is of course, a classic story telling staple and in a contemporary setting, seen everywhere. The challenge though is making this character dimensional and at times, we lose Patrick’s dimensionality. He becomes almost deliberately, by the writers’ choice, tough and wounded. At moments when clearly, there is a misunderstanding and any slightly rational adult would comprehend and course correct, he becomes obtuse with Nina and so withdrawn that he looks to have chosen to become a selective mute.  The bowling alley car park sequence in which both Nina and Patrick admitted to bringing to worst out in each other, was by far, one of the most frustrating scenes of this season. Often with Patrick, I feel the writers’ created this amazing dialogue first and then give it to Patrick second. Sometime no matter how great the words, if they don’t fit the character or worst, you withhold them from the character because his defining ‘trait’ is not saying anything, then we lose connection.

The other major crime against Patrick Reid is the backstory conundrum. It feels like the writers haven’t quite grasped his drug addiction and how he stepped away from it and managed to recover enough to be functional. It feels as this was a great ‘broody’ stereotype to give this new character and now that we’re well into Patrick Reid and his life, they’re not quite sure how it makes him whole. This would also go for Patrick’s poorly used sister, who escaped an abusive relationship and is raising a child solo yet we lost this storyline the second it didn’t serve the A story. Patrick’s druggie past is often referenced when they want to give him a sense of danger or that he’s always going to be a challenge but it doesn’t feel connected to who he is now. I’m not expecting him to layout the awful terrible times for Nina, but the way in which we flirt with this backstory is tricky and feels awkward.

Smile like you mean it! Smile like we want it!

The break throughs: As noted by some very smart commenters in the comments section of the Season Four posts, Patrick’s finale episode ‘break through’ moment felt rushed, undeserved and settled not much. I give Offspring on a pass on this as they were writing in an uncertain future, and I appreciate their desire to not leave fans on a possible forever cliff hanger. However, it’s absolutely true. The Season Two finale in the street with him asking not for pity, or a second place consolation prize relationship was so much more real, so genuine and the words they spoke felt like Patrick and Nina. What, it seems, is universally acknowledge, is that Patrick’s family declaration, while hot and rom-com awesome, wasn’t enough to sweep away all the questions. As character, he needs to grow and a big part of this is question both his coping mechanisms and how they work with Nina.

In short: Patrick Reid is a beautiful, burdened, thoughtful character who needs to have levels other than ‘Broody’ for us to continue to invest in his emotional journey both as a future father, lover and man. And he should speak French as much as possible. 

And just because, you know, it's been a long winter and ladies, we need a treat every now and then. The best of Patrick shirtless (I promise, this won't turn into a Tumblr squeal est!) And Matt Le Nevez, I apologise for the blatant perv fest below but, boy you look like you worked hard for those abs, let us celebrate them for you. In a totally non-creepy way!

So let's go, unleash your Patrick Reid thoughts.