Playing Gracie Darling is a new Australian drama that takes a little bit of time to get a handle on, opening in 1997, where a group of teenagers are having a seance to contact someone known as “Levi”, who’s stuck in limbo.
Maybe it’s all hocus pocus, but then Gracie (Kristina Bogic) becomes possessed by this individual, and goes missing soon after.
27 years on, and her best friend, Joni (Morgana O’Reilly) is now a psychologist, but as we reconnect with her, another Darling – girl – Frankie (Ariel Donoghue) – goes missing, and this comes after a game they play called “Playing Gracie Darling”, but what is it, exactly?
Well, I’ll give no spoilers obviously, and only mention some things that are in the trailer, but the game shows all the modern day teenagers, chanting “Gracie Darling, Gracie Darling, Gracie Darling can we play?” over and over, all standing around like a cult, asking questions into the ether like they’re talking to a Magic 8-Ball, but to what end?
Playing Gracie Darling jumps back and forth between the two eras, with 1997 featuring Mazzy Star’s 1993 track Fade Into You playing around 23 minutes into the opener. Damn, I can still remember that song like it was yesterday.
Okay, reminiscing about ’90s music aside, there’s a bit of a mystery in there, obviously, as they try to figure out what happened to the titular character – and now for the whereabouts of Frankie – but overall, I’m not wowed by this, particularly, despite the time-shifting being necessary to progress the plot.
Like a lot of Aussie dramas that come over to the UK, they’re stretched out into too many episodes, like After The Party. Four would’ve been better than six, but some streaming services would stretch it out to ten!
As an aside, oddly, I can’t find the trailer for this series on Paramount’s own Youtube channel, so the one below is from another channel, for the time being.
Thanks to our friends at Paramount+ for the screeners prior to release.
Playing Gracie Darling is not available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but is on Paramount+ from tomorrow.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 45 minutes per episode (8 episodes)
Release date: September 4th 2025
Studio: Paramount+
Format: 2.00:1
Director: Jonathan Brough
Producers: Laura Nagy, Miranda Nation
Writer: Anya Beyersdorf
Creator: Miranda Nation
Music: Jan Skubiszewski
Cast:
Joni Grey: Morgana O’Reilly
Gracie Darling: Kristina Bogic
Frankie Darling: Ariel Donoghue
Jay Rajeswaran: Rudi Dharmalingam
Mina Grey: Chloe Brink
Pattie Grey: Harriet Walter
Lulu Grey: Stella Miller
Raffy Rajeswaran: Saiesha Sundaralingam
Ruth Darling: Celia Pacquola
Moira Darling: Anne Tenney
Young Joni Grey: Eloise Rothfield
Anita Rajeswaran-Evans: Annie Maynard
Young Jay Rajeswaran: Kavan Meegamuge
James Darling: Peter Carroll
Peter Darling: Dan Spielman
Bob Grey: Pip Miller
Caitlyn Kelly: Jazi Hall
Lewis Russell: Owen Beamond
Young Billy Parkes: Bede Warnock
Billy Parkes: David Quirk
Young Anita Evans: Scarlett Simmons
Zac Teporoa: Dominic Ona-Ariki
Young James Darling: James Lugton
Sienna Lee: Lulu Quirk
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.