This essay for the Spring issue of Meanjin is about television’s lost and found children, childless and desperate mothers, and callous and caring states. It draws on (far too many) hours of lockdown viewing, from the Creamerie and Mare of Easttown to The Handmaid’s Tale, via Top of Lake and Call the Midwife, with a cameo from The World According to Garp. Read it here. (Online subscriptions to Meanjin start at $5/month.)