Australian Tumbleweeds
The Internet Giveth, and the Internet Taketh Away
First the good news – for a fairly low value of good:
Junkee Media launches first Junkee Original Series ‘Life Lessons’
Please, do go on.
Publisher Junkee Media has launched its first Junkee original webisode series Life Lessons, based on the modern millennial and everything they should not do.
Okay, you can stop now.
Though to be fair, the real laughs from this otherwise somewhat uninspiring-sounding series are contained in the original press release:
Junkee Media CEO Neil Ackland commented “It covers every youth topic possible, from how to become a social media influencer to what not to do on your next tinder date.” adding “Life Lessons marks our foray into commissioning original scripted content under the banner ‘Junkee Original Series’. We are putting our money where our mouth is and investing in young content creators.”
“We know that the question that is being asked at dinner tables and pubs across Australia right now is ‘So what are you watching?’ There’s an explosion of amazing video content to watch and Video Junkee is all about capturing that conversation and providing an important filter to help video lovers discover and find new content,” he said.
You know who else is good at “capturing conversation”? That boring idiot at parties everyone tries to avoid. Not a great role model there.
Meanwhile, remember Seeso? Maybe not, as it’s US network NBC’s comedy streaming service, home of a wide range of series and specials that have been well-reviewed but have largely failed to gain much buzz.
Slightly more interestingly, they’re also the guys who’ve been propping up much of the ABC’s new programming, putting money into Soul Mates II, Fancy Boy, and Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am. And it’s starting to look like they’re being wound up:
Does NBC see a future for Seeso? It doesn’t necessarily seem so. Vulture has learned that Evan Shapiro, head of NBCUniversal’s all-comedy streaming service, is leaving the company this week. Seeso, for the foreseeable future, will be run by Maggie Suniewick, president of NBCU digital enterprises, instead of operating semi-independently. (Shapiro had been reporting to Suniewick since October.) A source with knowledge of the situation says it is business as usual over at Seeso and that the moves won’t effect 2017: New programming will still premiere through the end of this year, productions aren’t shutting down, and the company is still signing up new subscribers. Moreover, Seeso recently unveiled summer premiere dates for a number of shows and premiered the pilot for new a series, There’s … Johnny, at the Tribeca Film Festival.
But beyond the near term, the future of Seeso is decidedly unclear. Multiple sources indicate the service is, for all intents and purposes, on its way out. Already, agents and managers Vulture spoke with say they’re now having a hard time getting people at Seeso to return calls. For now, NBCU is only confirming Shapiro’s departure.
Uh-oh. While no doubt the ABC has other sources of overseas funding to wave in the direction of those hot young online comedians that are all the rage these days, the ability to a): bring in cash that didn’t come from the federal government and b): give local acts some exposure on a US platform was pretty darn handy.
If Seeso does close its virtual doors, you kind of have to feel bad for the entrants in this year’s Fresh Blood… competition? Talent quest? Whatever: the only finalists from the last one who went on to series at the ABC were Fancy Boy and Wham Bam Thank You Ma’am, and it’s safe to say Seeso money was probably the deciding factor there.
With that gone, what will the winners get this year? A photocopied certificate and an ABC Shop gift voucher?
Oh wait, they don’t have ABC Shops any more. Damn.
Let’s Put the Future Behind Us
We’re not ones to waste time wondering what might have been here at Casa Del Tumblie. Clearly a world where the Shaun Micallef / Tony Martin project MousePATROL never aired but Wednesday Night Fever got a whole series is the best of all possible worlds. And yet, increasingly even we find ourselves asking: what the hell’s going on over at the ABC?
The first hint we had that something was askew came from a recent interview with Denise Scott:
We’re dining together in lieu of a show Scott and Judith Lucy have devised for the Comedy Festival this year. Called Disappointments, the title reflects the reality both women faced in 2015-16. I confess I thought they were taking the piss with that title. Apparently not. “We were really disappointed in ourselves, in our careers,” Scott says. “Because we both invested a lot of time in individual television projects and in the end they both got rejected. To some degree, rejection is part of our world, it’s not like that extreme or unusual but … You feel it more as you age I think.”
For Scott, it represented a year’s worth of work, developing a sitcom for one of the major networks. Called Denise, it was based on her family life – she appeared in nearly every scene.
In theory they could have been working on shows for one of the commercial networks, or pay TV, or a streaming service. But looking at where the bulk of Australian television comedy has aired over the last few years – between them the commercial networks have run a grand total of one locally produced sitcom this decade – the ABC would really have to be at the top of the list.
So let’s assume until told otherwise that the national broadcaster ended up knocking back shows from both Judith Lucy and Denise Scott: that sucks. But then we asked around a little, and it seems they weren’t the only high profile people to have a show knocked back at the ABC recently. It’s not exactly a secret that Tony Martin relatively recently pitched a television series to the ABC that didn’t get picked up; it’s not exactly surprising to learn that John Clarke pitched a show that went nowhere around 2010. And from what we can gather, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Obviously the ABC gets a steady stream of established names pitching comedy series to them: as pretty much the only game in town, it’s not like they have to go crawling to the talent. And yet the fact that comedians of this caliber are being regularly knocked back by the ABC suggests that getting a show up on the ABC has become a game of musical chairs – only the music has already stopped and all the chairs are taken.
For the last decade or so the ABC has been giving new series almost solely to two kinds of people: people who are already appearing on the ABC (Luke McGregor, Tom Gleeson, Shaun Micallef), and up-and-comers who can bring in overseas money to fund their show (Soul Mates, most of the successful Fresh Blood shows). ABC2 used to give (young) established people a shot at a show, but they’re out of the sitcom business these days. Otherwise, if you have a solid idea for a hilarious show, you seem to be very much out of luck.
It’s not exactly clear why this should be the case. For a long time ABC sitcoms got two series and that was it; while it was far from ideal, it did at least mean that there was a semi-regular turn-over of talent (The Chaser aside, as their cast members seem to have a standing order for at least two series a year every year). But last year the ABC gave us a third season of Upper Middle Bogan; this year we’re getting a third season of Utopia. Neither of them are bad shows, but they’re very much safe choices – and with the kind of talented people the ABC is knocking back, it certainly seems like they had other options.
So why bring them back? Well, both those shows had overseas interest – Netflix picked up Utopia (and re-titled it Dreamland) while last year CBS made a pilot for an US version of Upper Middle Bogan (starring Katey Segal). Again, if overseas interest is what it takes to get a season of a sitcom on the ABC, then a whole lot of decent comedians are shit out of luck.
The result is that we seem to be in the middle of a relatively large shift in the way Australian comedy works. If you’re a comedian whose fanbase is local and you’re not already on the air, you’re not getting on the air. The future of Australian television comedy now involves bringing in overseas money, and that means developing an overseas fanbase: it’s no surprise that the two new comedy shows the ABC has lined up this year are from Ronny Chieng – as seen on The Daily Show – and the Kates from YouTube hit The Katering Show.
But for people like Judith Lucy, Denise Scott, Tony Martin and the late John Clarke – plus who knows how many others – who have built up careers focused on Australia, things seem grim. Which is rubbish: these are people as funny as anyone currently on our televisions, and if we can’t find room for them somewhere then something is seriously wrong.
No doubt some “realists” would see this as a reasonable state of affairs – money is tight, the ABC has to do the best with what they’ve got and risking their limited funds on new shows just might be a step too far in the current climate. Bullshit. All we should be concerned about is the quality of what is being aired. If you think that the ABC’s current comedy line-up represents the best of Australia’s comedy talent, we’re happy for you; out in the real world, we have to disagree.
Circling the Drain
We know we’ve been focusing a lot on The Weekly over the last few months because Jesus fuck who thinks putting Tom Gleeson on twice an episode is a good idea? C’mon, he’s the weakest link and yet they’re pounding away like somehow after two decades he’s going to suddenly spark up and deliver the goods. Then again, he’s the only one off The Weekly who’s been given his own spin-off show so clearly getting laughs doesn’t count like it used to. Hell, even Denton had to be funny before they’d let him host Randling.
But what about the shows around it on what was once the ABC’s comedy fortress of Wednesday nights? Let’s cast our minds back to last week, when on the ABC’s big night of comedy we had:
a): Anh’s Brush with Fame. Featuring Anh Do painting the portrait of Rosie Batty, anti-domestic violence spokeswoman. That’s a bundle of laughs right there, but it got even better when Do revealed he’d also painted a portrait of her dead son, who was murdered by her mentally ill ex at a sporting ground. He then revealed the portrait, and she broke down. Hilarious!
b): The Weekly. Nuff said.
c): You Can’t Ask That. This episode’s laff-tastic subject: suicide! Oh for fuck’s sake.
This week’s line-up wasn’t quite as bad – while Do was painting the portrait of one of The Wiggles (fun!) we did notice the show had the increasingly common comedy coda of “if this show has raised issues, here’s the suicide hotline” – and You Can’t Ask That was about military veterans, not all of whom were now suicidal or on drugs. It did end with the suicide hotline advice though. They really should just add that to The Weekly‘s end credits, just for consistency’s sake.
But it does raise the question: what is all this grim stuff doing on what even now is still vaguely promoted as the ABC’s big night of comedy? Oh wait, the ABC’s been working hard to redefine comedy as something closer to “vaguely entertaining” for years now, so celebrity tear-jerking and public service announcements pretty much fit the bill. Suicide and dead kids: you have to laugh.
It is in no way surprising then that one of the commercial networks – you know, the ones that are actually interested in entertaining their audiences – decided to go up against the ABC on a Wednesday night with some actual comedy:
Beloved co-host of The Project, TV Week Gold Logie nominee and all round funny man Peter Helliar brings his trademark humour to Peter Helliar: One Hot Mess.
A natural-born entertainer, Peter’s characterisations, terrible accents and relentless and infectious energy have kept him at the top of the comedy world ever since he rose to prominence on Rove in 1999.
Now a household name alongside Carrie Bickmore and Waleed Aly onThe Project, Peter has earned himself a nomination for the coveted Gold Logie, one of the Australian television industry’s highest honours, at tonight’s TV Week Logie Awards.
Peter Helliar: One Hot Mess sees Peter take a hilariously affectionate swipe at Australian suburbia, sport, family and fatherhood, as he brings his hit stand-up show to television audiences.
Will it be one hot mess or one mess of hotness? Either way, it is going to be both hot and messy.
Peter Helliar: One Hot Mess.
Wednesday At 8.30pm on TEN & WIN.
If you missed this latest installment in a seemingly never-ending run of stand-up comedy specials, you can watch it here. Or just forget we even brought it up.
The Other Sitcom
Press release time!
AUSTRALIAN COMEDIAN MATT OKINE TO WRITE & STAR IN
NEW STAN ORIGINAL COMEDY SERIES THE OTHER GUY
Production has begun, led by the award-winning team at Aquarius Films (Lion, Berlin Syndrome) and global indie studio Entertainment One, and featuring Harriet Dyer, Valene Kane, Magda Szubanski and Christiaan van Vuuren
MONDAY, APRIL 24, 2017 – Australia’s leading local streaming service Stan announced today that production has begun on its latest Stan Original Series, The Other Guy, starring and written by popular Aussie comedian and broadcast personality Matt Okine. From global independent studio Entertainment One (eOne), The Other Guy is a comedy-drama based on Okine’s own experiences, which he developed into an award-winning stand-up show, and now a TV series for Stan. The show is co-written by Becky Lucas (Please Like Me) and Greg Waters (Soul Mates, Dance Academy).
The Other Guy joins a slate of award-winning Stan Original Australian productions that have been commissioned by the streaming service, including Logie Award-nominated and AACTA Award-winning drama series Wolf Creek, recently picked up for a second season, AACTA-Award winning comedy No Activity, and One Night Stan, a series of full-length stand-up comedy specials.
A 6 x half hour series, The Other Guy is the story of a successful radio host who finds himself unexpectedly back in the dating pool for the first time in a decade, after discovering his long-term girlfriend has been having an affair with his best friend. The series will be directed by Kacie Anning (Fragments of Friday) and comes from producers Aquarius Films, whose credits include Berlin Syndrome (currently in cinemas) and the critically acclaimed Lion – nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture – and eOne, who will also distribute the series internationally. The Other Guy has received production investment funding from Screen Australia in association with Screen NSW.
Stan’s Chief Content Officer, Nick Forward says, “The Other Guy demonstrates Stan’s ongoing commitment to creating fresh, engaging local content you won’t find anywhere else, showcasing the wealth of talent we have in Australia. Matt is one of the country’s most in-demand comedians and we’re delighted to have Kacie Anning on board – she’s undoubtedly one of the most talented young directors coming out of Australia.”
The series also stars Harriet Dyer (No Activity, Love Child), Valene Kane (The Fall, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), Magda Szubanski (Kath & Kim, Bran Nue Dae), Christiaan van Vuuren (Soul Mates, Bondi Hipsters), along with composer, performer and rising star Amali Golden (Australian Idol).
Producers, Angie Fielder, Polly Staniford and Cecilia Ritchie from Aquarius Films say, “We are absolutely thrilled to be collaborating with Matt on his first foray into narrative TV. Co-written by brilliant stand-up comic Becky Lucas, The Other Guy is a comedy series full of humour and heart that reminds us that breaking up is hard to do, and it can be funny too. We are also delighted to be working with very talented director Kacie Anning and such a wonderful cast.”
“eOne is thrilled to partner with Stan and the teams at Aquarius, Screen Australia and Screen NSW on The Other Guy and are also honoured to represent the series on an international basis. Together, we have assembled a really exciting team to support Matt, Becky and Kacie in bringing this show to life,” says Jude Troy, Executive Producer for The Other Guy and EVP, TV Development and Acquisitions, Australia & New Zealand, eOne.
The series will be shot on location around Sydney and will be produced in partnership with Screen Australia and Screen NSW.
“The Other Guy is an incredible career opportunity for exciting new talents Matt Okine and Kacie Anning to collaborate with this group of highly experienced producers and showcase their comedic voice on a premier platform. For our third partnership with Stan on a piece of original Australian content, we couldn’t be prouder to support this show,” says Mike Cowap, Investment Manager – Multiplatform at Screen Australia.
Michael Brealey, CEO of Create NSW says, “The Other Guy brings together an exciting group of talented NSW screen creatives to produce a highly engaging, original series. We are particularly delighted to support a project which sees one of the newer content players, Stan, investing in local talent and ideas.”
The Other Guy is set to premiere exclusively on Stan in late 2017.
Having a former Triple J breakfast host playing a “successful radio host” seems like it’s going to be safely within Okine’s wheelhouse as an actor, and considering he was clearly doing his best with a very bad deal in How Not to Behave, we’re going to set the dial on this one to “guardedly positive”.
… even if it is a show about a dude looking for love, which presumably is only going to be a small part of the finished show because otherwise we’re just seeing three hours of him looking at his phone and making various swiping gestures. But you never know – maybe they’ll be really flamboyant gestures?
Forty Three Episodes Standing Still
It’s easy to point out the general shittiness of The Weekly, but what about specifics? What are some of the concrete things it’s doing to make it just so hard to watch?
*heavy sigh*
Look, this is a show where someone was paid very well indeed to write “we’ve all seen your military muscle, now put it back in your trousers”; even for clearly rubbish “critics” like us this is a whole lot of low-hanging fruit. It’s got to the stage now where they don’t even show the clip then bring the snark – they break up the clip into segments so Pickering can comment on what’s happening as it happens. Showing the start of a clip, ranting a bit in one direction then going “whaaaaaa” when the next bit of the clip is shown to develop in a different direction is just… it’s just… why?
*stares off into the distance for twenty minutes*
Oh yeah right; concrete advice. Look, one of the things just about every decent long running political satire does is turn their targets (usually politicians) into comedy characters. For a while there in the 80s it was so common we had entire puppet shows based around the idea, but most shows do it – you just focus on a politician’s quirks, play them up in your coverage, and soon enough you’ve got a running gag. Remember Bill Shorten and his zingers on Mad as Hell? That kind of thing.
You do this because characters are a great source of comedy. If you’re doing political satire week in week out eventually you’re going to strike a run of weeks where not much is happening. So it’s handy to be able to make jokes about politicians even when they’re not actually doing anything funny. It’s something to keep the viewers coming back for. It’s a bit of fun. It’s a laugh.
In three years, The Weekly has never once managed to do this. The closest they’ve come is running a bunch of clips of Mark Latham on Sky talking about cooking, only all they contributed to the joke that Mark Latham was talking about cooking on a supposedly political program was a big slice of fuck-all. Otherwise it’s just been “nutty One Nation politician is nutty” and that’s if we’re lucky. Seriously, this is about as basic as political satire gets: study politicians, find funny quirks about them, make fun of politicians. You had one job.
But is that really The Weekly‘s job? We’ve mentioned more times than we care to remember that the current management at the ABC are very keen on the look and feel of political satire – they just don’t want anyone to say or do anything to offend our politicians. Some might say this has been the case for a very long time and previous shows managed to get away with a fair bit. They might also point to Mad as Hell as a show that seems to be able to say quite a bit about our current leaders. But who knows what pressure the cast and crew of The Weekly are under? They can’t be putting Hard Chat to air each week of their own free will.
Tonight Pickering himself described The Weekly as “News, comedy… celebrity guests” to Sam Neill. We actually laughed a bit during that segment, because Sam Neill is funny and he was – get this – playing a character. But Pickering was right: The Weekly is about news, comedy and celebrity guests. And of those three things, the news and the interviews pretty much take care of themselves: the news comes from other sources, the guests are going to talk so long as you ask halfway decent questions.
The reason why we bang on and on and on about The Weekly is because it’s about as high profile a comedy show as you can get in Australia in 2017 and yet the comedy is just… basic. It’s the bare minimum. A lot of the fun of comedy comes from seeing people have fun mucking around, but where’s that on The Weekly? Where’s the parts where it feels like a show made by people having fun? Where’s the silly moments where the joy in being stupid comes through?
And if you don’t have that, if comedy has just become a job for you, then where’s the slick no-nonsense professional comedy you can take pride in? We’re telling an ABC satire that’s been running for three years and 43 episodes that they might want to look into finding things about politicians they can make fun of? This kind of thing demeans us both.
Thanks for your time, again
The best thing you can say about a tribute show like John Clarke: Thanks For Your Time, a show which ideally wouldn’t exist because we’d rather John Clarke was still with us, is that it made us want to re-watch various John Clarke shows. It was only half-an-hour, and it was put together in a week, but it was a great tribute to a great man.
Remember The Gillies Report? We don’t, but it looks like it was heaps of fun and would be worth a watch. Happily, there’s a heap of it on YouTube.
What about The Fast Lane – a show that comedians who watched it at the time rave about, but never seems to get released on DVD. Oh well, someone’s put it all on YouTube. Yes, all of it!
How about Death in Brunswick? You can stream it online for not much money.
There are also loads of things available from John Clarke’s own website, including this excellent compilation of early Fred Dagg sketches and this Clarke & Dawe boxset which contains the best from A Current Affair and The 7.30 Report. Sadly not the footage of Jana Wendt laughing, though.
Oh, and if you haven’t seen it, you really should watch John Clarke: Thanks For Your Time. Not many people can unite Paul Keating, Lano and Woodley, Max Gillies, Gina Riley, Sam Neill and Michael Leunig. That’s because there was only one John Clarke.
Call to John
The final skit of the first episode of ABC2’s John Conway Tonight has host John slapping on a mortarboard and giving a dodgy speech about having to leave university for reasons (“you all know what I did”) to the general befuddlement of his audience. It seems like the kind of random, ill-judged sketch you’d expect from a community television-standard talk show – the kind of thing a bunch of mates would think sounded hilarious, only to find while actually doing it that… nah.
But there’s a twist: after leaving, Conway returns to berate the audience – it seems the whole idea was that they would give him a Dead Poets Society “Oh Captain, My Captain” style tearful send off, and as they didn’t live up to their side of the deal he’s going to do it again and this time they’d better get it right. It’s a smart twist to a seemingly dud sketch, and if you were actually in the audience it’s a twist that definitely would have improved your experience.
Sitting at home though, it didn’t work quite so well. And that was the experience of a lot of John Conway Tonight, a show that managed to be slightly better than your average C31 talk show without actually being good enough to work on a “real” television network as it-
– and before we go any further here, let’s get one thing straight: we know the joke is that the show is shit. Well, not “shit” but a shoddy mess full of awkward and ill-prepared segments put on by people unafraid of lengthy pauses and fluffed lines. The joke is that the show is a mess and if we wrote a review saying “this show is bad because it’s a mess” then ha ha the joke is on us.
Okay, now if you’re a child then this has just made your show review-proof. “It’s MEANT to be bad, geddit!”. But as people who can legally buy excessive amounts of alcohol we can tell that there’s a big difference between a show that’s making fun of shit shows and a show that’s just plain shit. John Conway Tonight at least occasionally tries to be the former; occasionally it drifts a little too close to the latter.
Then again, maybe we’re reading too much into all this. A lot of the jokes here really did seem like the kind of thing a bunch of mates might think would be funny just to see on television. The Milkman coming up from behind the couch holding up different sized bottles of milk? Cat News? A fairly average phone impression of Michael Caine done multiple times? (Owen Wilson was better, because who does Owen Wilson?) This is all stuff that’s funny when it’s happening right before your eyes in a pub backroom after you’ve had a few; watching it on a Sunday night sober? Let’s not.
Part of the problem is that as a host John Conway is just… John Conway. As comedy characters go he’s a slightly shabby guy hosting a ramshackle talk show… only that’s also exactly what he’s doing for real, and as the host of a sloppy tonight show there’s not enough of a character there to make it work as a send-up of shit shows. Remember Dame Edna? Alan Partridge? Norman Gunston? John Conway will remind you of none of them.
That’s not automatically a fatal mistake – having him seem like a regular guy who’s flailing just a little definitely grounds the show in a way that could work with different material – but when he’s doing bits about raising money to send someone to Milan only they spent the money on guinea pigs then it’d be handy for him to have a comedy character (flailing loser? Angry tightwad? Sadsack dreamer?) that could give an exaggerated response to the craziness.
But every time we were about to give up and walk away – well, change the channel, why would we walk away from our own television set – something just funny enough would happen to draw us back. Conway himself seems like the kind of host it’ll be easy to warm to after a few episodes; the various cheesy Tonight Show elements (crap announcer, sleazy manager moving up from the dead-end world of the fish & chip industry while shouting out bad hashtags) weren’t overdone; the times when they were clearly doing jokes they thought were good (the puns in Cat News) were kind of endearing even when the jokes themselves sank without trace.
The real find, of course, is Aaron Chen as Conway’s sidekick. Often comedy characters based on awkward earnestness are a pain in the arse, but Chen made it work by actually saying funny lines every time he chimed in. His story about apple crumble was halfway decent, and his street talk segment was the first time we’ve found a street talk segment funny in years, with a lot of whip-smart interactions (“what’s your favourite answer?” “What?” “That’s a question”) and a set-up that didn’t revolve around making strangers look stupid.
If Australia has to have tonight shows – and as a grown up country it really should – this is probably the best we can currently hope for: a cheap, shoddy production made by people who really want to get laughs. It’s hardly appointment viewing (if people watched television on Saturday nights then a Saturday night timeslot would be better – people getting pre-loaded before heading out seem like its natural audience) but as community television sinks slowly into the swamp that is streaming content it’s good to see that the tradition of shabby pissfarting lives on – for another twelve weeks at least.
Once were comedy Warriors
If there’s one thing we admire about the new ABC series The Warriors it’s the makers’ honesty. While various shows market themselves as comedies or comedy-dramas, when they’ve barely two gags in them to rub together, once it started shooting and realised it wasn’t funny, The Warriors quickly re-branded itself as a drama.
ABC Media Release Tuesday, October 11, 2016:
ABC TV, Screen Australia and Film Victoria announced today that filming has commenced in Melbourne on The Warriors, a provocative new 8 x 30’ Indigenous comedy drama series.
Created by Tony Briggs (The Sapphires) and Robert Connolly (Paper Planes, Barracuda), The Warriors is set in the world of Australian Rules Football. It explores the elite world of professional sport through the eyes of two new recruits – plucked from obscurity to fame and fortune – and two established players as they are thrown together in a share house in Melbourne.
With temptation at every turn and a lot of football, there’s no guarantee these young men will run through the banner for the first game of the season.
ABC Media Release – Wednesday, November 2, 2016:
New dramas for 2017 include Newton’s Law, The Warriors and Seven Types of Ambiguity, as well as new seasons of the strikingly original Cleverman and Glitch, and the much loved home grown favourites Janet King and The Doctor Blake Mysteries.
The first episode of The Warriors aired last night, and it’s sort of possible to see how they maybe could have kinda thought they were a comedy drama. This isn’t a show featuring complex characters who, for example, engage in psychological warfare with each. There are also no murders, rapes, or even terribly much intrigue.
The characters, such as they are, are exactly what you’d expect to find in a sitcom set at a footy club: the shouty club President, the harassed-but-hardened PR lady, the reckless, fun-loving players, including the one who takes drugs and roots around. And, key to this program, the innocent new recruit, fresh out of an Aboriginal community in Queensland, who’s experiencing life in the big city for the first time. These are characters that with a funny script could be funny. Except the script’s not funny.
So, instead, we have eight episodes of light drama, where the one who takes drugs and roots around will probably get into trouble for taking drugs and rooting around, which will give the harassed-but-hardened PR lady some work to do. And the innocent new recruit will probably learn a few life lessons but mainly just be quite a sweet character.
It’s something for the footy fans, we guess. That scene where they all got lost in the sports museum and started reflecting on how much they loved the game of footy? Aawww.
As for those of us who like comedy, it’s hard not feel diddled out of a new comedy show. Especially in a week where the news in the world of Australian comedy couldn’t have been bleaker.
The Boys Are Back, The Boys Are Back In Town
Back on @theweeklytv tonight!
— BRIGGS AKA BIG SIGH (@BriggsGE) April 12, 2017
And thank fuck for that, because he’s pretty much the only thing that separates The Weekly from an especially shithouse extended episode of Media Watch. And that’s on a good day: week in week out we struggle to detect any concrete difference between what Charlie Pickering does on this show and what the random chumps do on Gogglebox.
In theory the other cast members are trying, though at this stage Hard Chat is just trying to get us to buy a replacement television for the one we stomped to death during this astoundingly arse segment. Having Dave Hughes on? He’s a comedian – doesn’t that defeat the point of the segment? Oh wait, the segment defeats its own point, because the point of television is to entertain.
The Briggs mystery seems to have been solved too, because after tonight’s appearance – which makes what, three for the year? – it seems clear that they’re only going to wheel him out for a segment that directly relates to his own personal experience. So while Flanagan and Gleeson get to burble on about anything under the sun so long as they think it’s funny, the other “regular cast member” only gets on air when the show wants his perspective on something. So what were they thinking when they made him a series regular? They were going to run stories about being Aboriginal every single week? Oh ho ho ho not on a show aimed at “regular” Australians they’re not.
Ah, who cares. Wack on the news, make a bunch of shallow snide comments about it and then crack open a tinnie because that’s another week’s worth of work as Australia’s premiere political satirist done. That’s right guys, the torch has been passed:
A statement from @charliepick on the passing of John Clarke.#TheWeekly pic.twitter.com/x6pUKDB4RN
— The Weekly (@theweeklytv) April 10, 2017
We never thought we’d approve of a One Nation policy on anything, but stripping $600 Million out of the ABC budget seems a pretty fucking good idea to us right about now.