Summer Love ended last week with a teenage girl crying on a beach after a friend of hers died of cancer. Hilarious! Australian comedy is back, baby. Summer Love is a tough one for us to cover, because despite having all the external trappings of a sitcom – half hour episodes, a consistent situation, comedians... Read More »
The important thing to say about Summer Love is that it’s very good for what it is. It’s just that what it is, going by the first episode at least, isn’t all that funny. Which is intentional! And also a bit disappointing. Summer Love is an anthology series based around a beach holiday rental. Each... Read More »
Press release time! One holiday house. Eight love stories.New comedy Summer Love checks in to the ABC in 2022. ABC, Screen Australia and Film Victoria are pleased to announce the enchanting new eight-part anthology series, Summer Love will air in 2022. Produced by Gristmill and created by award-winning duo Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope, Summer... Read More »
There’s never been a better time for broadcasters to plunder their archives to keep us locked-down folk entertained, but there’s been a disappointing amount of decent archive comedy dropping on the various streaming platforms. So, it’s nice to see that Stories from the Golf is on SBS On Demand. Originally aired in 2004, Stories from... Read More »
Ten took their time to make a full series of Drunk History Australia, one of the better pilots from 2018’s Pilot Week. Has it been worth the wait? Well, try and stop us laughing at Wayne Hope as cannibal convict Alexander Pearce, as he chomps and slurps his way through some human ribs. But then... Read More »
Three episodes in and we’re increasingly unsure about Back in Very Small Business, the reimagining of the brilliant 2008 sitcom Very Small Business. The original, largely a two-hander between Don Angel (Wayne Hope) and Ray Leonard Leonard (Kim Gyngell), was an “odd couple” comedy, in which insensitive, boorish, “Howard battler” Angel owned and operated a... Read More »
The original Very Small Business was basically a two-hander: Don Angel (Wayne Hope) ran a collection of shady businesses while his sad sack offsider Ray Leonard (Kym Gyngell) wrote articles for Don’s publishing “empire” and mused on how life had brought him so low. it was hilarious; it was also a savage attack on the... Read More »
It was announced the other day that Rove McManus has become the latest Australian to score a gig on American TV, and that's all well and good but why him? There are lots of other far better Australian comedians having a crack in the US, why aren't they getting... Read More »
Remember the “good old days” of Australian comedy DVD releases, where extra features were a joke instead of actually containing more jokes? But as everyone who scored a copy of series 3 of The Librarians for Christmas now knows, All That’s Changed: not only does this particular slice of Aussie comedy hilarity contain a descent... Read More »
Right from its first episode, The Librarians (ABC1, Wednesdays, 8.30pm) has been surprisingly divisive, in that it was neither obvious rubbish or amazingly hysterical. More insightful critics than us might want to discuss whether being able to provide support for shows that aren’t either pandering crap or clear genius is a sign of maturity for... Read More »