There was only ever one of two ways Deadloch could go. One way had us excited; the other… yeah, not so much. So what exactly have Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan served up with their big budget Amazon murder mystery series? And why aren’t we super excited about what’s to come?
Behind door number one, Deadloch was going to be a all-in parody of prestige noir, that over-exposed genre that’s increasingly come to dominate television around the world. You know what we mean: there’s a murder in a very scenic small town (cold location preferable), turns out it’s just the tip of the mysterious iceberg, our heroic detective and a sidekick (so they have someone to talk to) investigate while also struggling with personal issues and meanwhile the body count keeps rising.
Behind door number two, Deadloch was going to be… well, basically just another prestige noir mystery, only with comedy characters. To be fair, Amazon isn’t going to sink big money into eight hour-long episodes that were taking the piss out of a genre that dominates drama the world over, whatever the Kates’ comedy credentials. And so it has proven to be.
There are a few fresh angles. For one, it’s extremely LGBTIQ+. One detective is gay, the other is basically an ocker caricature but a woman – we’re talking Ted Bullpit, lady cop, so strap yourselves in. Pretty much the only male character who isn’t a fuckwit is played by Tom Ballard, so at a guess he’s gay too. Meanwhile, all the murder victims are (extremely) straight white males, as in one’s a rootrat footy coach, another’s his dipshit brother and a third (possible) victim is named Rod Dixon, though this (them being male, not the ex-Mayor being named Rod) does prove essential to the plot.
Considering the sexism and barely concealed misogyny that often runs through a genre based largely on young women being found dead and then “avenged” by middle aged men, there’s definitely room for a new take here.
Meanwhile, the welcome to country at the start of the local cultural festival turns out to be an acknowledgement of country, as the speaker reminds everyone that the entire town of Deadloch isn’t exactly “welcome” – after all, a small town cultural festival is no world’s oldest culture. Again, it’s good to see a local production that’s taking place (culturally at least) in 21st century Australia.
And when it’s trying to be a straight (sorry) murder mystery it often works fairly well. The small Tasmanian town where it’s set looks good and there’s plenty of subplots: the first body is found right before a big cultural festival so of course the Mayor wants it brushed over, there’s a possible drug link and loads of dark secrets, after the first episode the media starts shit-stirring and the town itself is clearly divided between the stale pale male old guard and the lesbian choir singing “I Touch Myself”. There’s a solid lead in senior sergeant Dulcie Collins (Kate Box), and not every single character is a complete fuckwit.
That last one’s important to stress because it turns out that quite a few characters are fuckwits. Which is a bit of a problem. Consider an episode of Wallander, only every second character Wallander meets is played by Hale & Pace bunging on an act: welcome to Deadloch.
While in theory it’s certainly possible to imagine a wide range of comedy characters living in a small town – and Deadloch does feature one sleazy mansplaining type and one overeager newbie, so there is some variety – the Kates seem to have decided to narrow much of the population of Deadloch down to “painful cartoon Aussie cliche”.
When blow-in detective Eddie Redcliffe (Madeleine Sami) and pretty much everyone directly connected to the first murder victim has seemingly staggered out of a Barry McKenzie revival, you’d better like your comedy broader than a bush pig’s behind or something.
Redcliffe is in fact so much of an annoying hammy abrasive cliche that you’d be forgiven for thinking she’s secretly a brilliant detective bunging on an act to get those around her to let down their guard. You’d be wrong.
In contrast, Collins is super straight-laced and serious. Obviously what we have here is the beginning of a beautiful double act where they start out at odds with each other but eventually each wears the other down and we get a true meeting of the minds. That’s great for solving a string of murders; comedy wise we’re not exactly dealing with French & Saunders here.
The big problem is that tonally Deadloch is way all over the place. The soundtrack is playing it serious and the visuals are straight out of the prestige playbook, but it also has a scene where the local footy team kick footies at the hearse carrying their dead coach as a salute. Some characters seem like plausible people (that’d be the local teens); most of the rest are stock comedy figures of the “dickhead” variety (some bogan, some hippie). It’s harsh, but someone’s got to say it: Rosehaven featured more nuanced characters.
To get technical for a moment, the reason why prestige noir mysteries don’t usually take place in a town full of broad comedy stereotypes is that those stereotypes distract from the mystery – you know, the thing that is the point of a prestige noir mystery. The supporting characters in these shows are there almost entirely to impart information: anything beyond the barest characterisation – which is also there to impart information (“he seems shifty, bet he’s lying”) – is slowing things down. So having the comedy come from these dipshits messes with the mystery side of things; stop fucking around and do your job.
Looked at another way, turns out there’s a good reason why almost every single long running murder mystery franchise features a quirky, memorable lead surround by bland nobodies. Deadloch instead has a bland nobody as its lead, which may seem harsh when she’s the best thing in the series but when your main character trait is “going by the book” that’s the hand you’ve been dealt.
At the end of the day – or just at the end of the first three episodes; maybe by episode five everyone’ll be piling out of clown cars or something – Deadloch isn’t really a comedy. It’s a serious murder mystery that has comedy characters scattered throughout. If you’re looking for laughs first and foremost, this isn’t what you’re looking for.
And not just because a lot of the time it’s just not that funny.
Prime Video Announces Comedy Series The Office Is Headed Down Under for a New, Franchise-First, Female-led Australian Original
Welcome to the funny, awkward, and occasionally meaningful The Office Australia
SYDNEY—May, 31 2023—First there was the UK’s David Brent, then came the U.S.’ Michael Scott. Now, middle management has a new archetype in Aussie Hannah Howard. Prime Video, BBC Studios Australia and New Zealand, and Bunya Entertainment today announcedThe Office Australia, a new Australian comedy series from the global hit juggernaut franchise The Office, with its first-ever female lead in the iconic role, comedian and actor Felicity Ward(Wakefield, The Inbetweeners 2). The Office Australia will exclusively launch in 2024 on Prime Video globally (excluding the U.S.) in more than 240 countries and territories and will be available in the Prime membership. Prime members across the globe enjoy savings, convenience, and entertainment, all in a single membership.
In The Office Australia, Hannah Howard is the managing director of packaging company Flinley Craddick.When she gets news from Head Office that they will be shutting down her branch and making everyone work from home, she goes into survival mode, making promises she can’t keep in order to keep her “work family” together. The staff of Flinley Craddick indulge her and must endure Hannah’s outlandish plots as they work toward the impossible targets that have been set for them.
It was over 20 years ago that the world was introduced to the wonderfully bleak mockumentary world of The Office, created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. While many aspects of the workplace have changed since then, especially post 2020, the physical office is a timeless precinct for comedy, and one that will never tire an audience as long as the characters are authentic, familiar, faced with relatable dilemmas, and, most importantly, entertaining and hilarious. This universal appeal has seen the BAFTA- and Golden Globe-winning cult comedy remade for audiences around the world, including France, Canada, Chile, Israel, India, the Middle East, and Poland, where a third series has just been announced. This Australian version will be its 13th adaptation.
Ricky Gervais, co-creator, co-writer, and star of The Office, said, “I’m very excited about Australia remaking my little show from the turn of the century. Office politics have changed a bit in 20 years, so can’t wait to see how they navigate a modern-day David Brent.”
Production on the eight-part Australian Amazon Original series will commence in Sydney, Australia in June, with filming to take place over eight weeks. In addition to Felicity Ward’s Hannah Howard, The Office Australia stars Edith Poor (The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, The Power of the Dog),Steen Raskopoulos (The Duchess, Feel Good), Shari Sebbens (The Sapphires, Thor: Love and Thunder),Josh Thomson (How to Please a Woman, Young Rock), Jonny Brugh (Thor: Love and Thunder, What We Do in the Shadows), Pallavi Sharda (The Twelve),Susan Ling Young (Reckoning, Hungry Ghosts), Raj Labade, Lucy Schmit, and Firass Dirani (Underbelly,House Husbands).
The OfficeAustralia continues Prime Video’s investment in distinctive and bold local comedy series production, following the recent launch ofClass of ’07 and with Deadloch launching on Prime Video this Friday, June 2.
“We are thrilled to be bringing one of the biggest comedy franchises ever made to Prime Video customers in Australia and around the world,” said Sarah Christie, senior development executive Prime Video Australia. “It is an honour to continue the international comedy legacy of The Officelocally while introducing new, quintessentially Australian characters. We can’t wait for audiences to meet Hannah Howard, the first female boss The Office format has explored.”
“The Office has connected with audiences around the world because everyone recognises their own David Brent, and now it’s Australia’s turn,” said Kylie Washington, general manager and creative director, production, BBC Studios ANZ. “We figured the world is ready for a lovable, flawed, lady boss, ruling over her packaging empire in The Office Australia. This is the first scripted project from BBC Studios ANZ, and I’m excited to partner with Bunya Entertainment and Prime Video to reimagine such an iconic show with some very Aussie characters.”
Sophia Zachariou, producer and co-managing director, Bunya Entertainment, said, “To me, Wernham Hogg’s David Brent was a leading light in comedy. The Office UK made the mockumentary form available to a wide audience, and that was its sheer brilliance. I can only hope that global audiences find our Aussie take on The Office as funny, self-deprecating, and believable as those that have gone before it.”
The Office Australia is co-produced by BBC Studios ANZ, Bunya Entertainment, and Amazon Studios, and is based on a BBC Studios format. The Office Australia is executive produced by Julie De Fina(Aftertaste), Jackie van Beek (The Breaker Upperers, What We Do in the Shadows, Wellington Paranormal), and Kylie Washington, with lead producers Sophia Zachariou (The Moth Effect, The Chaser’s War on Everything, Gruen, The Checkout), Linda Micsko (The Letdown, Laid), and Greer Simpkin (Mystery Road, In Limbo). Van Beek serves as lead set-up director with De Fina as head writer.Christiaan Van Vuuren(Bondi Hipsters, A Sunburnt Christmas, Dom and Adrian) and Jesse Griffin(Educators) will also direct on the series.
Well, that’s yet another giant leap forward for Australian comedy. Can a remake of Mind Your Language Down Under be far away?
The web series Monologue shows what happens behind the scenes in the fictional world of Monologue, “Australia’s sixth most influential pop-culture publication”. And in the wake of the recent collapses of Vice and Buzzfeed, on which Monologue is partly based, it feels extremely topical. But is it funny?
In theory, it should be. The young, hip team in the Monologue office lurch from crisis to crisis, desperate to get clicks on their latest stories, whilst editor and co-owner Monique (Mad As Hell’s Emily Taheny) talks up Monologue as a publication that “empowers women”. How a predictable mix of clickbait stories about Chris Hemsworth’s body, romance, and fashion is supposed to empower women is not explained.
Monique has all the characteristics of your worst-ever bosses rolled into one: part headless chicken, part narcissistic bully. Her mortal enemy is Monologue’s co-owner Max (Utopia’s Mike Mcleish), the guy in charge of the finances, who doesn’t care what the publication endorses or whether all the stories are written by bots, as long as the money keeps rolling in.
This should make for an excellent comic rivalry between these two characters, except it doesn’t really. The bot episode, in which Monologue’s writers compete with a bot to write the most-clicked-on articles, has few laughs. Although the bot comes up with the headline The World’s Sexiest North Korean Beaches, which is pretty funny.
Part of the problem is that the action in Monologue moves very fast. Almost too fast to keep up with. It’s like the creators actually wanted to make longer episodes (the runtime for each episode is about eight minutes) and couldn’t work out how to truncate the plot. That then leads to a secondary problem, which is apart from Monique and Max, it’s hard to get a grip on who the rest of the characters are.
All we really have time to learn, even after six episodes, is that editor Lilly (Hot Department: Dark Web’s Honor Wolff) is anxious, assistant BB (All My Friends Are Racist’s Davey Thompson) is gay, writer Imogen (Alice Foulcher) is a feminist, and graphic designer Clark (Wednesday Night Fever’s Robin Goldsworthy) is a bit of an idiot.
As for the action, most of that is aiming to be satirical. There are episodes where Monique is, variously, obsessed with making content for Monologue’s TikTok account and launching a podcast, without really knowing what either of them is.
There are also episodes which echo real events. Remember when Richard Wilkins reported that Jeff Goldblum had died? Monologue has an episode where Clark publishes a story saying Dan Aykroyd is dead, then has a hard time making it stand up. There’s also an episode which harks back to when Christopher Pyne and Greg Hunt liked porn tweets. The Monologue team discovers that a politician who campaigns on conservative family values has liked a tweet posted by @SploogeTittie247. Then Monique has a Twitter crisis of her own, which exposes her as the hypocrite she is.
In some ways, Monologue is like a modern-day Frontline, with its digs at media hypocrisy. But unlike Frontline, it doesn’t have fleshed-out characters, deft plotting, and good belly laughs. It’s also one of those shows that thinks that satire is just recreating something real that happened. It isn’t.
The only stand-out of this series is Emily Taheny, who’s great as Monique. But Monique and the other characters need room to breathe. The kind of room you only get in half an hour.
In Limbo is the ABC’s latest dramedy, and in classic dramedy fashion it’s about a topic so hilarious you don’t even need to write jokes to get laughs: a husband and father kills himself and nobody knows why. Comedy gold!
To be fair (why? – ed), that isn’t really the comedy part. Oh no, the comedy part is that the dead guy is still hanging around as a ghost and only his best mate can see (and hear) him. This is a chestnut so old it’s grown into a tree and the roots are getting into the plumbing so the whole thing’ll have to be taken out. But hey, cliches are cliches for a reason.
In Limbo begins with Charlie (Ryan Coor) being a bit of a sad sack, despite the wise-cracking presence of his best mate Nate (Bob Morely). What could possibly have put him in such a sombre mood? Oh wait, he’s going to a funeral – and it’s Nate’s funeral! Whuuuuuuuuuut.
Seriously, it’s always a bit odd watching a series where the opening scene or scenes build to a big reveal that all the promotional material gave away the first chance it could. Obviously some people are going to tune in knowing absolutely nothing (and In Limbo doesn’t drag it out either), but it does set up a weird dissonance between what we know and what the series assumes we know.
Anyway, Charlie is a bit of a gloomy gus even before that, as we flashback to ten days ago when Nate still had a body and Charlie didn’t have anybody thanks to a now-distant bad divorce he’s not even remotely over. Nate and his wife Freya (Emma Harvie) have set him up on a date, it all goes well, he returns to Nate’s place to spread the good news and something seems to be jammed up against the front door. Uh oh.
Way, way too often in this country we get dramedies where it feels like the film makers wanted to tackle a “tough” subject (suicide, grief, depression, and so on) but realised that unless they figured out a way to make it entertaining nobody would actually watch their creation. In Limbo isn’t quite that bad, largely because Nate is an authentically funny and likable presence. But you’re not going to be splitting your sides either.
There’s a tendency amongst local critics to praise series simply because they’re trying to be both dramatic and funny:
Yet, as with the opening sequence, this is deceptive, because while In Limbo has the pace and tone of a sitcom, it can also pack a potent emotional punch. It’s a serious study wrapped in bright and shiny packaging.
We’d like to think what’s more important is whether a): they’re doing a good job of it, and b): is this a topic that really needs the whole “you’ll laugh, you’ll cry” approach – after all, what’s so bad about treating a serious subject seriously once in a while?
The idea with In Limbo is that beneath the wacky banter between the two male leads there lurks a world of pain. Charlie won’t face up to whatever it is that caused the end of his marriage: Nate killed himself for reasons unknown (the fact his ghost won’t explain points to the “ghost” merely being a projection of Charlie’s, but honestly who cares?). Not an automatically shit idea.
It’s in getting the balance right that the difficulty lurks. Often it’s like “this is the funny scene” followed by “this is the dramatic scene”, and when there’s a transition mid scene it’s signposted pretty heavily. Charlie is usually the sad one; Ryan is the upbeat one (except when he isn’t). It makes sense for the characters but in the context of the show tends to force their scenes into a dynamic that’d work better in a more straightforward comedy. Especially with a whole bunch of subplots about family and the funeral and Nate’s nutty “break on through to the other side (the afterlife)” schemes and Charlie’s burgeoning love life also on the go.
On the plus side of the ledger, Coor and Morely make for a strong double act. Each does well navigating the many demands of a script that requires them to go from zanky pranksters to devastated mourners and back again. There’s enough chemistry there to smooth over a lot of the potholes; if there’s a reason to keep watching, it’s them.
And yet, would this have been a better series if it had allowed them to focus on one side of things with only occasional glimpses of the other? Yeah, probably.
In Limbo‘s big problem is that it falls between two stools (so it’s… in limbo? – ed). A stronger focus on either side of the story would have made for a better series. A serious drama about grief and the constraints of modern masculinity with the occasional funny moment would have been more powerful; a comedy about a guy and his ghost mate with the occasional moment of insight into the pain they’re both feeling would have been funnier and more memorable.
The result is a series that’s… oh wait, we already did the “in limbo” gag.
We’re two episodes into series 11 of Have You Been Paying Attention? but is there anything left to say about why Have You Been Paying Attention? is still a great show?
On the surface, maybe not. Tom Gleisner’s still taking the piss out of Sam Pang, and Sam Pang’s still taking the piss out of Tom Gleisner. It’s still the case that in the second half of the show, there’s a special round that’s maybe a bit topical (last week it was Euro Revision, this week it was Identify These International Versions of Well Known Reality TV Formats). And in the end, someone, it doesn’t really matter who, answers the most questions correctly and wins the Perspex trophy.
On the other hand, Have You Been Paying Attention? is as funny as it’s ever been after 11 series and that’s pretty remarkable. Not only do few comedies on Australian television rack up 11 series but of those that do, almost none of them are as funny as when they started. So, what’s Have You Been Paying Attention?’s secret?
The first important element is the format: host asks panel questions about stuff in the news. Here the viewer can join in by answering the question or just watch the panel do it. Whether you’re after an interactive experience or you just want to laugh at the panel’s deliberately wrong answers – or both – you’re catered for.
The second important element is the team’s commitment to making every possible element of the show as funny and entertaining as possible. The host? He’s funny. The people answering the questions? They’re funny. The rounds of questions? They have a funny name and/or a funny introduction. The actual questions asked? Some of them are funny. The answers given to those questions? Most of them are funny too. But what if you care about the answer to the question? Well, don’t worry, they get to that quickly.
This brings us to the third important element: Have You Been Paying Attention? is fast. Not so fast that you can’t keep up, but pacey enough so that there’s little opportunity for the panellists to drag out their funny answers into, say, self-indulgent monologues. Imagine if Have You Been Paying Attention? had a slower pace. Imagine if it was more of a loose, rambling sort of show. Would it keep your attention? Possibly not. Sometimes this kind of thing can work – plenty of very good podcasts are in this style – but if you’re watching TV, this doesn’t necessarily work, and after a few minutes, you’ll probably switch over to something else.
Tone and style are important in comedy, and the tone and style of Have You Been Paying Attention? has been carefully crafted over the years, meaning that, for example, the team knows when and when not to be serious. Remember those audience members playing along at home? They get the real answer to the question fairly swiftly. Meanwhile, here’s a mid-segment ad for the show’s sponsor Mitsubishi, the kind of thing that would normally be a laugh-free zone… Except host Tom Gleisner has gate-crashed it wearing a floral bathing cap, because that’s funny and why wouldn’t you want to squeeze in even more funny moments?
Okay, this is going to be a tough one. How do we review an Australian sitcom that’s actually funny?
Yeah, sure, Fisk was pretty good too, but c’mon. Fisk didn’t have an episode where a crippling addiction to playing a drumming arcade game really badly was resolved by having someone who’d shrunk themselves down to child size secretly hiding inside the game. Maybe it should have, but it didn’t.
Meanwhile, Aunty Donna’s Coffee Cafe had a whole lot of weird stuff, and then some more weird stuff on top of that. Which is good! Aunty Donna are extremely good at just the right kind of weird stuff, in that even when things gets weird there’s still clearly a joke in there somewhere that isn’t just “this shit is weird, right?” Good weird shit: tick.
For example, while it wasn’t the best part of episode two – the fake trial one, which had an over-abundance of “best parts” and then threw a few more “best parts” in just for the hell of it – the subplot where Mark had to explain to various authority figures exactly what he was doing in a primary school playground was pretty funny, because it wasn’t played as being funny at all.
Tonal shifts are hardly a rare way to get laughs – for one, they’re a standard part of Aunty Donna’s other work – but it’s always nice to see a comedy standard done really, really well.
It’s been interesting how Aunty Donna have… let’s say “balanced” their traditional weird shit honed over a decade of online sketches and live performances with the demands of creating something the ABC would put to air on their main channel. They’ve thrown in everything and the kitchen sink, while still keeping it all in a very large box that casual viewers could get a grip on.
Sure, there’s been some elements that – if they get a second series – we might expect to see fine-tuned a little. Looked at one way, the supporting cast have been a little under-used; looked at another way, did The Goodies even have a supporting cast?
It did also feel a little like they made six episodes, took a good hard look at them, and then shuffled them into a screening order where the best episodes were at the start of the run. This is not a bad thing – it’s not like there were any episodes that came close to being bad, and you always want to grab people early – but it did mean the energy levels and inventiveness felt a little down towards the end.
So yeah, by the end it was only 95% better than every other scripted comedy on the ABC that isn’t Fisk. Bad news everybody, guess that Mother & Son reboot is going to be the sitcom that redefines Australian comedy for the post-Covid era.
Fingers crossed that also features a lengthy conspiracy theory on why Australian currency features a whale sucking on a fat one.
Hannah Gadsby’s Something Special, now on Netflix, is the feel-good follow-up to Nanette and Douglas. Where Nanette covered heavy topics like sexual assault, and Douglas was about Gadsby coming to terms with their autism, Something Special is lighter and more optimistic. Except this is Hannah Gadsby, so even with the joyful opening line “I got married!”, there’s going to be a twist.
In Something Special, Gadsby gradually reveals how they proposed to now-wife Jenney Shamash. And let’s just say it wasn’t the sort of proposal seemingly common in the cis-hetero world, or in romantic comedies.
Gadsby, we discover, doesn’t like romantic comedies. Something which proves a little awkward when they meet Richard Curtis, writer of such classics of the genre as Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill. Why, he asks, don’t they like romantic comedies? It’s the sound of the kissing, Gadsby replies. Which is funny, and true, yet not necessarily the sort of thought that a non-autistic person would have.
Gadsby’s autism, and how it makes it difficult for them to navigate the world, is a major theme of Something Special. When Jodie Foster gives Gadsby a birthday present, Gadsby responds in a way that they later realise is a bit rude. Similarly, playing Guess Who with Jenney turns out to be a nightmare, as Gadsby comprehends faces differently to neuro-normative people, and can’t understand what a smile is.
Making self-deprecating jokes about their bumblings through the world seems to contract Gadsby’s famous statement in Nanette about doing these kinds of jokes:
I have built a career out of self-deprecating humour and I don’t want to do that anymore. Do you understand what self-deprecation means when it come from somebody who already exists in the margins? It’s not humility, it’s humiliation. I put myself down in order to speak, in order to seek permission to speak, and I simply will not do that anymore, not to myself or anybody who identifies with me. If that means that my comedy career is over, then, so be it.
Except, the act of doing another show after Nanette contradicted that too. And does it even matter?
The important thing is that Gadsby’s firmly in charge of the jokes they’re doing about themselves. Gadsby isn’t a fool or an idiot, they’re a person with autism doing their best in a world they find a bit strange – and they’re triumphing. Sometimes.
The denouement of Something Special, in which Gadsby acts in a loving but seemingly brutal way, results in the best possible outcome: marriage to Jenney. Equally special is Gadsby’s acknowledgement of how important, loving and needed Jenney is.
After Nanette, in which Gadsby painted a bleak picture of the world – especially bleak if you bought that they were quitting comedy – Something Special is a lovely breath of fresh air. And a reminder that autism isn’t a problem, or a curse, but something very special indeed.
The Cheap Seats is back! Still good? Still good! We’re done then?
Yeah, pretty much. The show came back earlier this week without skipping a beat. There was plenty of mileage in the Royal Coronation and even more in Melanie Bracewell corpsing while Tim looked on in mock confusion. She’s from New Zealand, he’s short and can’t get a date: teamwork makes the dream work.
Sure, occasionally they cut to one of the hosts looking the wrong way. But on the whole, this is a finely tuned comedy machine. Clips and running gags rarely outstay their welcome, the improvised one-liners are just as good as the scripted ones, the guest hosts are-
-okay, these guys are a little interesting, in that they both work in different ways. Mel Tracina is totally in tune with the show’s vibe: you could see her working as a replacement cohost with no trouble. Titus O’Reily, not so much; for one, he’s an older-ish dude who’s little stiff (he’s the only one you can see reading from the autocue).
But that works for sport, which is a segment that needs to be there but doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the show. That’s by design: come the fourth segment of an hour-long show, you need something a little different. He’s in on the joke even when the joke is on him.
(He’s also not quite as slick with the one-liners, but when one does land it’s usually a good one)
This week’s interview went long – no complaints here, it was a good one, can’t go wrong with footage of Israeli pop star “Clear Search History” gyrating around like a human blender. But it did mean there was a bit less of our favourite part of the show, the final segment where they dump all the weird stuff that might not work.
They make a lot of jokes about how, well, cheap the show is, but there’s a lot of moving parts in The Cheap Seats. Which is ironic, as it takes place entirely behind a desk. Basically, don’t neglect the importance of What’s On What’s On in the Warehouse.
If it ain’t broke don’t expect us to review it every single week is the main takeaway here. The Cheap Seats is one of the funniest shows on Australian television. It’s a classic of the form, a show that does everything right even when it’s not doing much at all.
Also, they have a new sponsor in the form of Subway. Well done guys! The countdown to the jokes about how quickly they were dumped by yet another sponsor starts now.
Prime Video Releases the Official Trailer for Australian Amazon Original Series Deadloch
When a local man turns up dead on the beach, two vastly different detectives are thrown together to solve the case
From the wickedly funny minds of Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan comes the killer new series Deadloch, starring Kate Box, Madeleine Sami, Nina Oyama, Tom Ballard, Alicia Gardiner, Susie Youssef, and more
Deadloch will launch exclusively on Prime Video on June 2 in Australia and more than 240 countries and territories around the world
But wait, there’s more!
SYDNEY—May 4, 2023—Today, Prime Video released the official trailer and first-look images for the Australian Amazon Original series Deadloch. Created, written, and executive produced by Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan (Get Krack!n, The Katering Show), the first three episodes of Deadloch will premiere exclusively on Prime Video globally on Friday, June 2, with new episodes available each Friday, leading up to the season finale on Friday, July 7. Deadloch becomes the latest addition to the Prime membership. Prime members across the globe enjoy savings, convenience, and entertainment, all in a single membership.
The Tasmanian town of Deadloch, a once sleepy seaside hamlet, is left reeling when a local man turns up dead on the beach. Two female detectives are thrown together to solve the case: Fastidious local senior sergeant Dulcie Collins (Kate Box) and a rough-as-guts blow-in from Darwin, senior investigator Eddie Redcliffe (Madeleine Sami) along with their overeager junior constable Abby (Nina Oyama). As the town prepares to launch the annual arts, food, and culture event—Winter Feastival—the trio have to put their differences aside and work together to find the killer.
Cinematic, thrilling, mysterious, and moody, Deadloch puts a high-comedy spin on the crime genre and questions Australia’s relationship with truth, gender, and race, while keeping you guessing (and laughing) at every turn.
Deadloch features a large ensemble cast led by Kate Box (Fires, Wentworth), Madeleine Sami (The Breaker Upperers), Nina Oyama (Utopia), Tom Ballard (Tonightly with Tom Ballard), and Alicia Gardiner (Wakefield, Offspring), as well as Susie Youssef (Rosehaven), Pamela Rabe (Wentworth), Kris McQuade (Rosehaven), Duncan Fellows (The Letdown), Harvey Zielinski (Don’t Look Deeper), Shaun Martindale (The Tailings), Katie Robertson (Five Bedrooms), Nick Simpson-Deeks (Winners & Losers), Mia Morrissey (Home and Away), Leonie Whyman (Dark Place), Mick Davies (Rosehaven), Holly Austin, Kartanya Maynard, and Naarah. The eight-part series was shot in and around Hobart, Tasmania in 2022 with episodes directed by acclaimed Australian filmmakers Ben Chessell (The Great, Giri/Haji), Gracie Otto (The Moth Effect, Seriously Red), and Beck Cole (Black Comedy, Wentworth), with Andy Walker (Rosehaven, The Kettering Incident) producing.
“In Deadloch, The Kates have created a gripping mystery with their signature hilarious—and often biting—comedic tone masterfully weaved throughout,” said Sarah Christie, senior development executive Prime Video Australia. “This is the second of three Australian Amazon Original scripted series Prime Video are releasing this year, and we are thrilled to be working with Guesswork Television and OK Great Productions, along with a powerhouse creative team led by Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan, to bring this uniquely Australian story to screens around the world. Deadloch flips the crime genre on its head in such a fresh and engaging way, and we know Prime Video customers globally are going to be hooked from the first episode.”
Deadloch co-creators Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan said: “We are both so thrilled to share the dark, strange little town of Deadloch with the world. We’re particularly excited for everyone to meet Dulcie and Eddie, performed by the powerhouses Kate Box and Madeleine Sami, who are far better actors than we’ll ever be. The supporting cast is sublime, the crew are a delight, and the experience of making this story with Prime Video globally on the incredible land of lutruwita (Tasmania) is one we’ll never forget.”
This is a bit of a tricky one. We’ve been a big fan of the Kates here for ages, but that doesn’t mean we’ve unconditionally loved everything they’ve done – and there’s been a bit of a clear line between them going all-out comedy wise (The Katering Show, Get Krack!ng, Slushy) and the projects where they’ve been weaving a bit of drama into the mix (mostly just Bleak).
There’s been an endless line-up of local crime dramas where a body turns up in a small town and some out-of-towner gets roped into solving the mystery, so a comedy spin on the cliches is very much welcome. Obviously it’s a bit hard to tell how much comedy there’s going to be based on a two minutes trailer – oh right, the trailer:
(no prizes for guessing which detective would be played by which Kate in a parallel, much lower budget universe)
Network executives are going to say pretty much anything to get you to tune in, so the line “The Kates have created a gripping mystery with their signature hilarious—and often biting—comedic tone masterfully weaved throughout” is more a guide to what they think people want than the show itself.
But from what we can tell, this really does look a lot more like “straight mystery with comedy characters” rather than a full-on comedy taking the piss out of the genre itself. That’s probably as it should be: trying to fill eight episodes with jokes about one played out genre would be pretty tough.
Unfortunately, that means it might just be eight episodes of a played-out genre. Still, Tasmania always looks nice. Fingers crossed Anthony Morgan shows up at some point.
ABC and Screen Australia on the hunt for more Fresh Blood
The ABC and Screen Australia team are once again teaming up to uncover the next generation of great Australian comedy talent through the hugely successful Fresh Blood initiative.
Submissions are now open for new and emerging comedy acts to apply. Creators from all backgrounds, abilities, and identities who meet the selection criteria are encouraged to apply.
As part of the joint initiative to unearth a new generation of comedic talent, 10 teams will receive $50,000 to produce 3 x 5min comedy shorts and will participate in a workshop to be held in Sydney, in August 2023. These shorts will premiere simultaneously on ABC and creators’ social media platforms.
From there, up to 3 teams will be selected to create a longer pilot between 20-27 minutes in length, with potential to be commissioned by the ABC as a series.
We’re looking for applicants with original comedy ideas. They can be narrative, sketch, vertical, as long as the ideas are fresh, the comedy is strong and has the potential to be developed into a full series. Ultimately, want to be surprised.
Since Fresh Blood began in 2013 the initiative has launched the careers of countless acts including the rock stars of comedy, Aunty Donna, and the animated series Koala Man, featuring the voices of Hugh Jackman and Sarah Snook.
Screen Australia’s Head of Online Lee Naimo said, “We are so thrilled to be joining the ABC once again in supporting a new wave of comedic talent through the Fresh Blood initiative. We’ve seen first-hand the launchpad that this initiative provides, through the ongoing success of alumni like Skit Box, Nina Oyama and Angus Thompson and the team from Why Are You Like This. I can’t wait to see the doors it opens for the new crop of talent that comes through this time around.”
Nick Hayden, ABC Head of Entertainment said, “Fresh Blood continues the tradition of the ABC supporting new comedic voices. Sometimes those voices tell us, ‘she doesn’t even go here’ other times ‘ok, boomer’. Whatever they say this time, we’re excited to see what this new crop can dream up!”
Todd Abbott, ABC Head of Comedy said, “One of the ABC’s most important roles is to find and nurture new comedy talent, and Fresh Blood provides a great opportunity to open the gates and amp up that search.”
On the one hand, it’s good to see the ABC finally realising they can’t keep a comedy department running just on reboots of Mother & Son and re-commissioning Utopia. On the other, has Fresh Blood ever served up any real winners?
This press release mentioned Aunty Donna, who had gone so far as to have a series on Netflix before the ABC got around to giving them a go. It also mentioned Koala Man, which is definitely a success but not an ABC series. Anyone had any recent updates from the Why Are You Like This team?
In fact, Fresh Blood hasn’t really helped anyone long term as far as the ABC is concerned. Sure, they’ve been unearthing a new generation of comedy talent – and then they’ve been dumping that earth right back on top of them.
Which isn’t a surprise at all, as previous series have seemed much more about getting a bunch of cheap comedy shorts to show on digital channels as a way of promoting the ABC (see “These shorts will premiere simultaneously on ABC and creators’ social media platforms.”) than actually giving comedians real opportunities to have an on going career with the ABC.
It’ll be interesting to see if this round is any different.
