Sando 2: More Sando

Remember how last week, Sando only had two jokes? This week it had one. Which was also one of the jokes from last week: the list of fake suburbs at the end of the Sando’s Warehouse ad. And while we quite enjoy a comedy list of fake suburb names as much as the next person, by episode 4 this won’t be funny anymore. Not funny at all. In fact, we’re seriously concerned about how funny it’ll be next week.

Other than that, Sando just kept being Sando. The idiot son was still an idiot, the resentful daughter was still resentful, Sando’s ex- and the counsellor were still trying to get it on without the daughter finding out and…wait…there was a new character. The excitement. Enter Vic Jr, the product of the affair between Sando and the resentful daughter’s one-time fiancee.

On the surface, Vic Jr. seems like exactly the sort of character Sando needs: a smart-arse, older-than-his-years nine-year-old kid played by the brilliant-for-his-age child actor Zane Ciarma. Problem is, Vic Jr, like every other character in this show, has no funny dialogue whatsoever. So even though Ciarma’s acting his heart out, there’s no laughs here at all.

One other thing occurred to us: it took Hey Dad..! four years to bring in Arthur McArthur, the smart-arse, older-than-his-years kid played by Matthew “the little fat kid” Krok (also a child actor who was brilliant-for-his-age). It took Sando one episode before it played the “hilarious kid” card. What next, a robot character? A whacky next door neighbour? This really is a desperate program.

Here’s an idea: make some of the dialogue funny. Don’t just rely on mildly whacky situations and parodies of cheap TV ads from the 90s for laughs. Write a decent, funny script. And maybe don’t rip off character ideas from Hey Dad..! because funny kid characters can start to grate very quickly.