0/5

Aussie Ladette to Lady

Appalled ladies. Rebellious Antipodeans. Rinse and repeat. Almost every construct from the last series is regurgitated again here.

lad2If you are the worst of the worst on Aussie Ladette to Lady, Gill Harbord and Rosemary Shrager will ship you off to Australia, never to darken their door again.

It seems not much has changed between the mother land and the colonies.

And not much has changed between the first and second of Nine’s reality series either.

There’s still a bunch of larrikin girls doing their best impression of St Trinian’s School for Girls before the teachers of Hereford Hall Finishing School*. Everytime their spirit sees them wreak havoc they are quickly cut down to size accompanied by assorted shots of appalled ladies and rebellious Antipodeans.

How drearily predictable.

It’s hard to find any point of difference from the first series to the second. While it makes sense to stick to the premise of the show, it is staggering this series from RDF Media does so with such a lack of imagination. Almost every construct from the first episode of the previous series is regurgitated again here (I’m almost tempted to just regurgitate my last review).

Eight Australian girls aged 18 – 24 arrive in the UK to the disgust of Vice Principal Shrager whose coach trip from airport to Eggleston Hall is a tirade of abuse, insults, misbehaviour, swearing and bodily exposure. An equally disgusted Principal Gill “this time I’m ready for them” Harbord rifles through their luggage like a Customs Officer.

The girls are forced to remove their piercings and dress in pastel uniforms. Having been out-of-control for the cameras upon arrival, suddenly they are far more obedient. It makes little sense as to why they have suddenly got their proverbial tails between their legs. Oh that’s right. A producer probably told them to…

More admonishing follows. A cooking lesson ends in outrage. Then there’s a cocktail class in which the girls are trusted not to imbibe. Last series the same set-up appeared in episode one. Looks like Ms. Harbord hasn’t learned much. They imbibe. Duh.

And there’s another hosted party for a group of young British men, this time as a cheaply-filmed garden party. It’s all goes so swimmingly the Hereford Hall principals decide to leave the ladettes to their own devices. Yup, seen that one before too.

Get set for the routine of an appalled Ms. Harbord returning to put an end to the ensuing shenanigans. Finally, one girl is considered so disgusting (it was probably a line-ball decision) that she is sent packing back to the colonies. Rinse and repeat.

It’s one thing for everybody to stage this charade for the cameras. It’s another entirely to simply replay the last series with a different bunch of offenders.

You have to wonder do Ms. Harbord and Ms. Shrager really believe in this stuff or are they just putting it on for the cameras? I suspect both. This is a heightened execution of their desire for olde-worlde values. To their credit, they are so adept at this self-serving nonsense they can spit out the lines and pull the mugging faces like true professionals. If you enjoyed that sort of thing last time, you’ll doubtless enjoy it here again.

The UK woke up to this comical entertainment by dropping it in 2008, and Australia belatedly came to RDF Media’s rescue (the producer is also the director and narrator). I suspect like they did with Gordon Ramsay, Australians will have moved on by now. If Nine is really lucky they might get some offended lobby groups feeding the media machine and buying them free publicity. Hopefully even they will have woken up to that cycle by now too.

Series expelled.

2_starsAussie Ladette to Lady airs 9:30pm Tuesday on Nine.

* Updated: Hereford Hall isn’t Eggleston Hall as per previous series. The shoddy signs on the side of the bus and in front of the mansion would suggest Eggleston was no longer available to them.

21 Responses

  1. There is a US version of Ladette to Lady. There are twelve American ladettes and a new host Tara Connor (Miss USA 2006). Six of the ladettes are hot. Tara does not have breast implants and is much hotter than Louise Porter. Don’t believe me? Then do a search on the internet. The US version is produced by Donald Trump and MTV. The American ladettes make the British and Aussie ladettes look ugly and prudent. Why doesn’t Channel 9 screen the US version? Because they are afraid the US version will crush us. That’s why.

  2. Ladette to lady is a great show, but last year was the best for the aussie ladettes. I would like to see some from a different country up there as i’m sure the rest of the world thinks Aussie girls are total idiots.

  3. This show is great, but they need to show more titties!! because when they open their mouths I wanna change the channel but when you see titties it keeps me glued to the screen!!!!!!!

  4. This show is rubbish! I watched the first series, ages ago, with the poms in it and it wasn’t too awful. But each series got slightly awfuller, adn the australian ones are shockers. I stumbled on this last night, with the gels clearly hamming it up when they got off the plane. It’s fake. No one in the entire world carries on like that.

    And what’s with that dreadful old trout in charge? She wears the most inappropriate clothes, and too much dark makeup.

  5. Good old WIN in WA isn’t showing the new series yet. That doesn’t surprise me at all. WIN in WA is absolutely hopeless. No point in me emailing them, they never bother to reply.

  6. just watched the show, nothing has changed much but the name. what’s with the poncy new name, we all know it’s Eggleston Hall. where do they find those poncy dunces that are the “male escorts” or whatever they are sposed to be. if they are the cream of british society then boy are weall in strife.
    And what’s wrong with G’Day?
    however i’ll still keepwatching, it is afterall a bg giggle.

  7. I like this show however it gives us Aussie girls that have some sort of decentcy about us a bad name the world already thinks we are all bogans and then you get girls like these who will do nething for attention and have their chance on tv and have absolutly no self respect a chance to be complete idiots, great show but i think they should put images of decent aussie woman on there so the world doesnt think we all have no self respect and are bogans.

  8. well i like it.
    but the UK version was so much better than the first Aus season. it was not very well cast. they should cast ladettes that have some chance of an outcome. you just get the feeling that the aussie girls don’t care about their lives and are only there because someone forced them and couldn’t give a stuff if they were eliminated.

    but it is good that 9 have aussie shows at 9:30 Mon-Thurs.

  9. @ Allie: But, Allie, I see these kinds of Aussie women every day in my work … i thought it was just normal behaviour! 🙂 We all know that they are meant to be the worst possible specemins for this little “mad science” experiment … actually, Ms Harbord looks a lot like a Mad Scientist I think!
    Jack! 🙂 🙂

  10. To paraphrase the Comic Book Shop Guy from The Simpsons, “absolutely, positively the. worst. show. ever.” Seriously, who watches this trash? How the hell does this even rate? It is utterly appalling and shamelessly panders to the worst stereotypes the British have of young Australian women, ie uneducated, drunken, loud, inarticulate whores. I find it offensive, brain dead TV and I am hoping it praying that it is a resounding flop. Given Nine’s track record with reality series, it should go down like a lead balloon if their current form is anything to go by.

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