Dossa and Joe

Episode 1

Episode #1.1

Dossa and Joe Bailey are a typical working class couple, married for 40 years, living in a comfortable house in a comfortable suburb of Australia. When Joe retires after 40 years of undistinguished work in a nondescript factory everything changes, and both he and his wife find themselves spiraling downwards from a life of contentment into depression and discontentment. While Joe has spent most of his adult life playing cards and dispensing knowledge and humour as a foreman to the 'smoko boys' at the factory, Dossa has busied herself with community work, dishing out banana cake and compassion to the sick and infirm with her devoted friend and neighbour Vanessa. Forever the caretaker, Dossa insists she and Joe see a marriage counsellor in an attempt to save their marriage and their sanity, and so begins a series of visits to the therapists sofa where they examine the nature of married life. While Joe has worked all his adult life in a factory, Dossa, has had her own life and pursuits. Now with Joe around the house, neither finds they can adjust to a new way of life. Dossa's community activities clash with Joe's inactivity; visits from neighbour, Vanessa, irritate Joe further; and Joe's overly nostalgic look back to his working days seem to give him his only sense of purpose.