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Wenlei Ma’s 2023 review of Strife argues that the Australian comedy-drama tries to make publisher Evelyn Jones relatable but fails to make her likeable. That is a critic’s reading, not a universal verdict: another review finds Asher Keddie’s performance compelling enough to hold the character’s contradictions together. The divide is central to the show’s appeal—and its frustration.
What is Strife about?
Strife follows Evelyn Jones, played by Asher Keddie, as she builds a career in women’s media. The series page describes her path from lounge-room blogger to a force in the industry. It is an Australian comedy-drama inspired by Mia Freedman’s memoir Work, Strife, Balance; Foxtel Group uses “inspired by” to describe the connection, rather than presenting the show as a direct documentary account of Freedman’s life. Screen Australia’s series record lists season one as completed in 2023.
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Season one has eight episodes. The premise gives the show a useful tension: Evelyn’s professional ambition and public commitments sit alongside the demands and disorder of her private life. The question is whether the series makes those contradictions feel vivid and funny, or asks viewers to sympathise with a character whose choices keep pushing them away.
Does the show make Evelyn relatable or likeable?
In her PerthNow review published 6 December 2023, Wenlei Ma says the series aims for relatability but does not achieve it for Evelyn overall. Ma writes: “But it is trying to make her relatable — a woman whose surface success belies the tumult roiling beneath. While some aspects of the character are relatable, most of her is not.”
#1 Best Overall
- Factory sealed DVD
That judgment rests on the distance between what Evelyn professes and what she does. Her workplace self-interest, family strain and feminist commitments could make for a compelling portrait of someone whose ideals are tested by ambition and pressure. Ma’s objection is that the show does not sufficiently work through that gap, or give the women around Evelyn enough interiority to deepen the picture. As a result, her flaws can register less as revealing contradictions than as reasons not to root for her.
Relatability and likeability are not the same thing. A character can be difficult to like yet recognisable in her anxieties, compromises or blind spots. Ma’s criticism is sharper: the series seems to seek that recognition, but Evelyn’s behavior and the limited perspective around her leave too little to bridge the gap.
Rank #2
- Factory sealed DVD
Why do some critics find it more successful?
Anthony Morris offers a counter-reading in ScreenHub. He praises the show’s polished execution and its satire of online media, while arguing that Keddie’s performance makes Evelyn’s inconsistencies watchable. As Morris puts it: “What resolves all these contradictions and uncertainties is the presence of Asher Keddie.”
This is where the series’ effectiveness depends on the viewer. If Keddie’s energy makes Evelyn’s competing impulses feel like part of a messy, entertaining character, the show’s rough edges can become an asset. If the performance cannot make those choices persuasive for you, the same contradictions may feel underexamined. The two reviews therefore disagree less about whether Evelyn is contradictory than about whether the series turns those contradictions into compelling comedy and drama.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsStrife is brisk and easy to binge, in Ma’s assessment, and its workplace setting gives it room to poke at women’s media. But satire about an industry is not automatically a nuanced account of the people working in it. The criticism that the supporting women lack interiority matters because it limits the show’s ability to place Evelyn’s values and behavior in a broader conversation, rather than making her the only meaningful point of reference.
What changes in season two?
Season two moves the story further into the pressures around Eve Life, adding a rival website, online trolling, podcasting and the search for investment. It also follows the family’s post-separation arrangements. These threads broaden the show’s subject matter beyond the scramble of building a media business, with issues including diversity, social media and bodily autonomy alongside workplace comedy.
Rank #4
The second season was scheduled to premiere on BINGE on 8 May 2025, and Screen Australia records it as completed in 2025. Foxtel’s Australian series listing identifies two seasons. That listing showed availability through 5 December 2028 when checked for this article; streaming catalogues can change, so verify the live listing before relying on that date.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How many seasons and episodes does Strife have?
There are two seasons listed by Foxtel. Season one has eight episodes, as reported by Ma’s review. Screen Australia records the first season as completed in 2023 and the second as completed in 2025.
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Where does Strife fit as a comedy-drama?
The series is best approached as a character-led workplace comedy-drama, not a straightforward celebration of a successful media entrepreneur. Its strongest critical disagreement concerns whether Evelyn’s self-interest, private difficulties and public ideals add up to an engagingly imperfect person. Ma sees a failure of relatability; Morris finds that Keddie supplies the energy the contradictions need. With only a small number of reviews and fewer than 50 audience ratings in the cited audience source, those reactions should not be treated as a representative consensus.
For viewers interested in online-media satire and Keddie’s performance, the show has clear points of entry. For viewers who need the central character’s flaws to be examined through richer supporting perspectives, the first season may feel less satisfying. That tension—not a simple question of whether Evelyn is good or bad—is what defines the critical case for and against Strife.
Quick Recap
Sources
- Screen Australia: Strife series record
- Wenlei Ma, PerthNow review, 6 December 2023
- Anthony Morris, ScreenHub review
- Foxtel Group season two announcement
- Foxtel series listing
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