Homebodies: bold TV about a trans man, his mother and the conversations they never had |
When Nora (Claudia Karvan) breaks her leg, her son Darcy (Luke Wiltshire) – a trans man – returns home to see her for the first time since he came out. It doesn’t take long before Darcy realises there’s another presence in his childhood home: a ghost of his younger pre-transition self, Dee (Jazi Hall).
Homebodies examines the rift between a trans man and his mother through a haunting that confronts them with the conversations they never had.
The series is created by AP Pobjoy, a transmasculine writer and director, as part of the SBS Digital Originals initiative, which seeks to support risk-taking, short-form projects and emerging talent both on- and off-screen.
Homebodies contributes a complex story rarely seen on our screens. It addresses one of the major gaps in LGBTQ stories in Australian television: representations of trans men. In a study I conducted with Whitney Monaghan, we identified just three representations of trans men in Australian television drama between 2000 and 2019.
The trans homecoming narrative
Darcy’s return home drops audiences into a story in which many questions seek to be answered. The themes of “journey” and “homecoming” are major features of the transition narrative. They provide the arc through which trans characters affirm identity and their sense of belonging.
Such narratives are seen in films such as Close to You (2023), starring Elliot........