Wanderlust (Netflix)

After 20-odd years of marriage Alan and Joy’s sex life has gone stale to the point of non-existence. She is a therapist recovering from a serious cycling accident; he is a high school English teacher; they have three kids in their late teens to early 20s. They love each other and want to stay married, but Joy’s radical suggestion for spicing things up could put everything at risk - their marriage, their family, their careers. Meanwhile their older daughter starts seeing one of Joy’s patients; their younger daughter is falling for a neighbour; and their son finds himself in love with his best friend. Despite a strong ensemble cast the show is clearly a vehicle for Toni Collette. She is good, although her wandering accent is a distraction. The most insightful episode is entirely devoted to a therapy session between Joy and her mentor Angela, played by Sophie Okonedo. Steven Mackintosh engenders sympathy at first as the conflicted Alan, but his entitlement gets a bit irritating; he wants to have his cake and eat it and them blame his wife for everything that goes wrong. Joy and Alan find that too much honesty is not necessarily the best policy. By the end of the six episodes, their kids are forging ahead with their lives while they have come full circle in an interesting idea that ultimately doesn’t seem to go anywhere.