Taskmaster is back for the second time this year, but is the second time the charm? Or the third time, given this is the third series of Taskmaster Australia.* On paper, this is a strong cast, featuring popular and successful comedians from several generations: Peter Helliar, Rhys Nicholson, Mel Buttle, Aaron Chen and Concetta Caristo.... Read More »
Shaun Micallef’s Eve of Destruction went out the same way it came in: as a relatively engaging, definitely low-stakes talk show that managed to be utterly inessential viewing even by the standards of the genre. It wasn’t bad television, but was it really prime time television? Oh wait, it was on in the Hard Quiz... Read More »
Now that Shaun Micallef’s entered the “not trying to be funny” stage of his career with Eve of Destruction and now Origin Odyssey, it’s time to ask: is there anything here for comedy fans? Sure, it features comedians each week. So did that Julia Zemiro show where they did burnouts in a parking lot and... Read More »
It’s press release time! It’s always fun when a press release puts the word ‘fresh’ in (sarcastic?) quotation marks so we don’t have to. Seriously, though, is there anyone out there who thinks these were the three most deserving of this year’s Fresh Blood pilots? If we were ranking them in order of how funny... Read More »
Of the four new Australian comedy series that launched (on the same day!) a few weeks back, Thank God You’re Here is the biggest, the oldest, and the least interesting. Spanning six seasons and two decades, we all get the idea by now. The twist is, there is no twist. Can you still be funny... Read More »
The Inspired Unemployed are back! Hang on, who exactly are The Inspired Unemployed? We’re up to the second season of their prank show (Impractical) Jokers, and pretty much all we know about them is that they’re ex-tradies who like to pissfart around. So basically regular tradies then. Sure, if you dig up the online coverage... Read More »
The winner of last night’s 64th TV Week Logie Awards wasn’t television, or even Sam Pang, who seems to be becoming the Bert Newton-esque go-to-guy for Logies hosting. Oh no. The winner of last night’s Logies was Working Dog, who won every single one of the four comedy awards. As Australia’s leading and probably most... Read More »
Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee seems like a safe bet. It started as a Zoom/YouTube show during the pandemic. And it’s since morphed into a series of live shows at various comedy festivals and an eight-part New Zealand television series (with a second season of eight episodes starting next week!). Now, there’s a local version... Read More »
Shaun Micallef’s Eve of Destruction is an extremely basic talk show. Kind of like Enough Rope, if Enough Rope hadn’t tried to make its guests cry each week. That said, this is only week one of Micallef’s return to the ABC: there’s still plenty of time to turn on the waterworks. On a massive night... Read More »
Here’s an exciting fact: Austin was the biggest commitment to scripted comedy we’ll see from the ABC in 2024. Sitcoms usually get six episode runs: Austin had eight. Was there anything at all at any point during those eight episodes that left anyone thinking “wow, this story really needed that extra space”? Or was it... Read More »