Get Krack!n all at sea (well, on a river)

Get Krack!n, a series of variable quality at the best of times, started its second series with an episode that could best be described as…well…variable. The show opened with Kate and Kate presenting the last of a series of “’round Australia” episodes live from a paddle steamer on the Murray River at Echuca Moama. And according to them, things hadn’t been going well.

It was hot. Really hot. They were sick to death of new towns, bored with meeting zany local characters and couldn’t hack another plate of regional produce. Basically, they were on edge. Cue some zany local characters, a plate of soft cheese and a glass of local plonk. Oh, and some comedy vomiting. Quite a bit of that.

So, business as usual for Kate and Kate, really. They have to do things they hate, they’re annoyed, and their guests are truly awful people.

Speaking of which, Helen Bidou (Anne Edmonds) was back too. This time with her boyfriend (parole officer), who was helping her with her segment (trying to prevent her from canoeing across the river to New South Wales to find her ex-boyfriend who’s taken out a restraining order on her). It’s a type of comedy that can go either way, and opinion as to whether it was funny or just plain awful has divided opinion here at Tumbleweeds Towers. But then, this is a divisive show.

Get Krack!n regularly treads of the line of asking the audience to believe that this is a real program whilst getting its characters to do things that would have them sacked within seconds if this was actual morning television. It’s also the comedy of women on the verge of a nervous breakdown. We get why it doesn’t appeal to some.

Another problem with this specific episode was that quite a lot of the comedy came from the Kates making a sarcastic comment about a woke issue, rather than from the interactions between the characters. Sometimes this kind of thing works well but mostly it felt like the audience were being hit with a comedy woke bludgeon (even if you agree with them on the woke issue).

More successful were the zany local characters, who this week included Denise Scott as a woman who’d memorised all the bridges along the Murray, and a cameo appearance from Justine Clarke who had some vague link to some historic costumes which were on display in a local heritage centre. This was classic Get Krack!n stuff.

Next week, when Get Krack!n goes back to the studio, it will be interesting to see what happens. McLennon and McCartney are generally better when they’re bouncing off each other (something more likely to happen in a “normal” episode of this show), so it should be a good one.