There’s something delicious about a show that starts with a drunken burst of feminist vandalism and ends with two young women desperately trying to stop a gender riot they accidentally triggered.
That’s the sweet spot of Stan’s new series, He Had It Coming – part buddy comedy, part whodunit, part political powder keg wrapped in sharp, contemporary storytelling.
At the heart of the series are Barbara (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) and Elise (Lydia West): a mismatched duo you’d never put in the same tutorial group (heck, those rooms are already packed to the brim with egos), let alone the same criminal conspiracy.
Barbara is a glossy fashion influencer who hashtag-preaches #girlpower, while Elise is an awkward English exchange student trying – a little too hard – to reinvent herself as a one-woman Pussy Riot.
After a big night out, the pair spray-paints “Kill All Men” across their university quadrangle. It feels rebellious. It feels cathartic. And then dawn breaks… and there’s a murdered, castrated rugby star dumped directly on top of their handiwork.
What follows is something between a campus panic, a gender-political micro-uprising, and a very messy hunt for a killer – with Barbara and Elise scrambling to hide their involvement while the male students launch a #MeToo-style backlash of their own.
It’s bold, outrageous, and incredibly timely – and according to creator and showrunner Gretel Vella, it’s been a very long time coming.
Seven years, one horror film, and two ‘bad feminists’
“I think it’s a pretty great feeling,” Vella told Mediaweek, reflecting on the seven-year journey to screen.
“We started the development on this, I think, seven years ago, when my co-showrunner Craig [Anderson] and I were really passionate about talking about some of the hard things that were happening for women on campuses.
“Sadly, a lot of it hasn’t changed in those seven years, and it’s still quite relevant,” she said.
The concept began as a horror film – blood, terror, the works. But as Vella met with university-aged women and heard their stories, something shifted.
“We felt like really bad feminists,” she said. “We just weren’t across what was happening. So we thought that would be the perfect way to enter this world with two bad feminists who hadn’t found themselves yet.”
That’s the seed of Barbara and Elise – flawed, messy, clueless, and wholly recognisable.
“It’s a really safe way for anyone to enter the show and not feel threatened and like they need to have one specific point of view,” Vella explained.
“The murder and the murder mystery are really exciting, but also these girls care so much about belonging and where they sit in terms of this friendship, too. So there’s as much of that in there as there is the murder.”
When she and co-creator Craig Anderson finally took the project to Jungle Entertainment, it clicked immediately.
Jungle’s trademark mix of irreverence and emotional clarity made them a natural home for a show juggling slapstick, satire and genuine stakes.
Elise (Lydia West) and Barbara (Natasha Liu Bordizzo)
‘A buddy comedy… with massive political teeth’
For executive producer Chloe Rickard, the show’s appeal is in how it balances all those contradictions.
“I think like ultimately this is a buddy comedy,” she said. “Then we throw a pair of unlikely buddies into a whodunit. I just loved the contrast of tone the story creates.”
But the series’ warmth doesn’t undercut its ambition.
“Below that is a very sharply pointed political commentary on the state of the world,” Rickard said. “We’re looking at it through the microcosm of the university campus, where everything is tested. Friendship is tested, who people are is questioned, then we’re also questioning whodunit.”
For Rickard – whose career spans Population 11, Wakefield, No Activity, A Moody Christmas and more than 150 commercials and music videos – He Had It Coming works because Vella’s writing does.
“She has an amazing way of walking the line between humour and heartache, between laughs and pathos, between a gut punch and a chuckle,” Rickard said. “She’s totally a voice of her generation. No one else would have written this show like Gretel.”
Gretel Vella
A terrifying safe space
Despite the series’ provocation and the inherent risks of a story that gleefully plays with gender politics, Vella insists the intent is connection, not alienation.
“We made a real effort that, as much as you laugh at certain characters, you also take them very seriously. We really didn’t want to alienate any audience,” she said.
And the series isn’t the anti-male screed its title might suggest.
“We have a lot of incredible male ally characters in the show,” Vella said. “People might think it’s one thing, but it’s a safe space for anyone to enter this world.”
Rickard shares that view – and says audiences at early screenings instantly understood the tone.
“Honestly, there’s a moment in the pilot where there’s a cracking backing track, and the audience just cheered,” she recalled. “It’s a very specific audience that will love this show, and they’ll love it hard.”
Chloe Rickard
Vella’s moment, Rickard’s instinct, and a show that says something
If He Had It Coming feels unusually sharp for a campus comedy, it’s because Vella has spent the last decade establishing herself as one of Australia’s most distinctive storytellers – writing on Hulu’s The Great, Amazon’s Class of ’07, multiple seasons of Doctor Doctor, Stan’s Christmas films, and creating Totally Completely Fine.
Rickard, meanwhile, has become Jungle’s creative engine, steering the company’s surge in global formats and Aussie comedy exports.
Together, they’re delivering a show with something to say – and saying it loudly.
As Vella puts it: “We were so excited that Stan took a risk on something that is quite political and has a lot to say.”
And now that risk is finally on screen.
A buddy comedy. A feminist reckoning. A murder mystery. A satire. A campus thriller.
And somehow, all of it goes down easy.
He Had It Coming is available to watch now on Stan.