The Librarians

Far more sordid than it appears.

The Librarians is an Australian Work Com produced by Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope. It mainly centres on Frances, who is head librarian in a particularly dysfunctional suburban library, and her utter failure to ever get anything right in her work or personal life.

---

• Aerosol Flamethrower - Frances' daughters improvise one from Dawn's deodorant.
• Armchair Psychology - Frances typical mode of speaking. She's almost like a Distaff Counterpart of Bill Lumbergh at times.
• Awful Wedded Life - Frances and Terry's marriage.
• Beleaguered Assistant - Nadia. Who actually gets the library in something approximating order in those times when Frances isn't around.
• Break the Cutie - Young Frances who did not deserve what happened to her. She gradually turned into someone who did.
• Butt Monkey - Dawn.
• Camp Gay - Ky Lee, whose name is a Shout-Out to influential Australian gay icon Kylie Minogue.
• Caught with Your Pants Down - Frances walking in on Terry is a running joke.
• The Chew Toy - Nothing Frances ever does goes the way she wants it to. NOTHING.
• Cringe Comedy - In a similar vein to The Office.
• Deadpan Snarker - Pretty much everyone, but particularly Frances and Neil.
• Distracted by the Sexy - Frances, whenever Lachie is around and, to a lesser extent, Christine.
• Dogged Nice Guy - Neil, who is besotted with Christine, but such a useless ne'er do well that even she can do better.
• Fiction Is Not Fair - The midwife's stubborn refusal to give Christine any pain relief despite her never requesting a natural birth would have her sued for malpractise in Real Life.
• Keet - Ky Lee, who is possibly the only person in the series without malice.
• Loveable Rogue - Neil thinks he's one of these.
• Not So Different - As the series progresses, Nadia is shown to be absorbing some of Frances more unpleasant personality traits. It's implied Nadia is going to end up the same way as Frances eventually.
• No Sympathy - Frances lives and breathes this trope. Particularly towards Dawn. Whom she was responsible for crippling.
• Poor Man's Porn - Terry is caught jerking off over an underwear catalogue.
• Screaming Birth - Christine goes to absurd lengths to avoid this, but the Rule of Funny intervenes.
• Slap Slap Kiss - Subverted, when Frances attempts to make a move on Adrian. He's gay.
• She Who Must Not Be Seen - Frances' daughter Bernadette, while the effects of her rampant sociopathy are visible, she herself never is. Later progresses to The Voice.
• Really Gets Around / Bottle Fairy - Christine.
• Twofer Token Minority - Much to Frances dismay, she's surrounded by them: Nadia is a devoutly Muslim woman, Dawn is a paraplegic woman and Ky Lee, who is a gaysian.
• Transparent Closet - Frances is bisexual, widely assumed to be so by pretty much everyone, but deeply in denial about it on account of being a conservative Catholic.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm - Adrian, although only from Frances's point of view. Frances, to everyone else.
• Ultimate Job Security - Frances largely keeps her job as a result of exploiting loopholes in Australian employement law and convincingly portraying an image of being a morally upright Catholic woman.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist - Frances, a passive-agressive egomaniac who appears to be bigoted towards every minority group known to man.
• Zany Scheme - Neil always has one going.