Laid 2: Money Never Sleeps

Sorry folks, while we were supposed to have been paying attention to the massive (okay, going from 1.45 to 1.06 million viewers isn’t that bad considering all the pre-show hype) drop in ratings for Hamish & Andy’s Gap Year, we were instead off staring into the heart of the sun. Or the comedy equivalent, which would be this ABC press release:

Series two of ABC TV’s black romantic comedy Laid starts filming in Melbourne on Monday.

Alison Bell and Celia Pacquola return as Roo and EJ, and are joined by Damon Herriman (CSI, Cold Case, Love My Way) as Marcus.

Roo’s world is turned upside down when she meets Marcus, somebody stricken with a vaguely similar set of mysterious circumstances to the ones plaguing her – although Marcus is a little different from Roo. In fact, he is her opposite. And everybody he has sex with … is healed.

With EJ as her somewhat reluctant co-pilot, Roo embarks upon a journey. A journey to wipe the slate clean – emotionally, physically, spiritually. Along the way the two will encounter halitosis, port wine stains, funerals, trial separations, couples bootcamp and one particularly appalling conversation about semen – all in the name of preserving true love.

Created and written by Marieke Hardy and Kirsty Fisher, the six-part series will screen on ABC1 next year.

Marieke Hardy says, “Being allowed to explore the robustly comical motifs of sex and death once more with the infinitely attractive team from Laid is a dream come true. Particularly considering most of my dreams involve torn underpants, chocolate-covered pretzels, and Brian Mannix from Uncanny X-Men.”

Kirsty Fisher says, “Laid 2 has been one big maternal smile for me – and it’s starting to unsettle some of the crew. To see the scripts coming alive once again is heaven.”

Reprising their roles are Toby Truslove as EJ’s on again, off again, boyfriend, Zach; Graeme Blundell and Tracy Mann as Roo’s parents, Graham and Marion; and Shaun Micallef as G-Bomb, Roo’s gyno with the unconventional bedside manner.

So that solves the mystery of how they were going to continue a series that answered every single question in the final episode: by turning it into a shithouse knock-off of superpowered teen shagfest Misfits (okay, maybe not exactly like Misfits – for one, Misfits is fun). Seriously, if the whole thing was going to boil down to superheroes tackling their angst, why wasn’t the final scene Nick Fury turning up to recruit Roo into The Avengers?

[Sidebar: how is this “all in the name of preserving true love” when Roo’s true love from last series seems to have failed to make the cut this time around? He’s just buried in the backyard and Roo’s moved on… which seems to be the exact form of behaviour that caused all the hilarious trouble the first time around! Ahh shuddap, it’s only a press release.]

While we might have questions about how exactly the guy’s sexual power of healing is going to work (does he only root cripples? Does his sperm have the power to cure mental illness? How exactly are they going to define “healed” anyway – does he wake up every morning next to someone his penis has magically transformed into Anne Hathaway?), it’s not like the first series actually gave a fuck about nailing down anything past how cool it is to be a hip chick with a great bestie and a mildly potty mouth and some relationship issues that aren’t really your fault and a wide range of “Roo REACTS” facial expressions to deploy in place of jokes. That is to say, how cool it is to be Marieke Hardy (two books coming out this year folks! Gotta catch ’em all!).

So, as it is with all sequels, expect more of the same shenanigans only smelling slightly more desperate.

(the real moral of this story is that it’s basically impossible not to get a second series of your comedy show at the ABC these days. Unless it’s actually funny, of course. Bad luck there, Very Small Business)