A rough morning
Melbourne’s Channel 31 has a well-deserved reputation for making the sort of comedy you just don’t see anywhere else. One such show is Morningshines, which started on Channel 31 on 6th August and airs every Friday at 10pm (it can also be downloaded from the show’s website).
Morningshines starts out looking like a send-up of shows like Sunrise, but swiftly moves beyond the world of experts, advertorials and forced banter between the hosts, to become twisted, surreal and experimental. Not surprisingly, creators and stars Michael and Stephen list Chris Morris and Armando Iannucci among their influences.
Having watched the first two episodes of this show, I’d say it was a noble attempt to do something different, that becomes self-indulgent, long-winded, amateurish and too weird to work far too often. Which is a massive shame because it’s clearly something Michael and Stephen put their heart, soul and a lot of effort into (advance publicity started in November – which must be some kind of record for a community television programme).
In other words, there’s promise there and I hope Michael and Stephen try again. They certainly made the Morningshines in the right spirit. Unlike almost all of it’s far more successful competitors, you really won’t have a clue what’s coming next when you’re watching this show – and that’s got to count for something.
Thanks for alerting me to these guys. Just checked them out and they’re hilarious!! I think it’s the best thing I’ve seen in ages!
While I admire them for trying without a budget with the current state of Television comedy in Australia I do have to point out that they are obviously heavily inspired by Tim and Eric… and not in a good way.
looks very “Tim and Eric”…
I’ve just watched the 2nd episode and am downloading the 1st episode right now. I haven’t laughed so hard at an Australian sketch comedy show since… I can’t remember. Maybe Ronnie Johns, but even that was terribly patchy. Were we watching the same show?
I found Ronnie Johns extremely patchy. So there’s your answer.
There are worse shows to be inspired by than Tim & Eric. That said, even they miss at least 1/3rd of the time. These days tho, any comedy show that’s actually surprising has a massive leg up over the “week in, week out” that’s become the norm.
The second series of Ronnie Johns was patchy. The first was consistently crap
Yes. Agreed, Ronnie Johns – patchy. But Morningshines? It’s a hoot.