★★★★★ 0/5

Upper Middle Bogan / It’s a Date

ABC finds its funny bone on Thursday night with two new local comedies with very different styles.

35
Leave a comment

5umbABC turns Thursdays into comedy nights with two local half hour comedies.

UPPER MIDDLE BOGAN

The first is a narrative comedy from Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope (The Librarians, Very Small Business).

Bess Denyar (Annie Maynard) and Danny Bright (Patrick Brammall) are a young well-to-do couple living in a swish upper middle class house with twin teenagers, Edwina (Lara Robinson) and Oscar (Harrison Feldman). Bess is a hypochondriac doctor, while Danny is a successful architect.

In a rare return to television Robyn Nevin plays Margaret, Bess’ society mother who is forever meddling in family life. But when Margaret goes to hospital and has a blood test, Bess learns the truth that has always been hidden from her: that she was adopted. And with that Upper Middle Bogan is off and running, all the way to the Wheeler family.

The Wheelers are a family of redneck drag racers with Julie (Robyn Malcolm), Wayne (Glenn Robbins), and their adult children Amber (Michala Banas), Briana (Madeleine Jevic), Kayne (Rhys Mitchell) and grandson Shawn (Douggie Baldwin). When they are not racing hot rods, they live in a McMansion and argue a lot.

The two opposites of Upper Middle Bogan set up a rich terrain for conflict and class comedy. One family speaks with a plum in their mouth. The other are no-frills, straight-shooters with a swear jar. When the worlds collide it’s necessarily awkward. Bess is nervous about meeting her real parents, while they are guarded but excited at the prospect.

Maynard shines in her central role with great comic timing. Robyn Nevin is wonderful as a mother who sneers down her nose at the world and Robyn Malcolm is on fire as a forthright, working-class mum, dominating all her scenes. Maynard and Brammall both seem pretty young to play parents to teenagers, as well as leading such affluent lives.

Michala Banas also makes the most of her brash daughter, if somewhat resembling a role she played in Winners and Losers. But Harrison Feldman in the supporting role of Oscar steals all his scenes with an hilarious congested voice and a performance ringing in child-like truth.

The inclusion of the hot-rod world gives Upper Middle Bogan all kinds of colour and individuality, however the sea-sick camerawork, which feels like it is trying to resemble The Office is a distraction.

Upper Middle Bogan is raucous fun, settling in an ABC suburb somewhere between Moody Christmas and Kath and Kim.

Upper Middle Bogan airs 8:30pm Thursday on ABC1.

4dateIT’S A DATE

Peter Helliar’s new offering is also a narrative comedy from Princess Pictures, but with an anthology format: every week the cast changes.

Each episode centres around two dates, with a range of actors, comedians and even a few personalities, playing fictional characters going on a date.

In the first episode Patrick (Dave Lawson) takes Jasmine (Poh Ling Yeow) on a date to a mini-golf range to propose to her. In a separate story Em (Lisa McCune) and Greg (Peter Helliar) dine out in a Mexican restaurant. The theme for the episode is “When Should You Abandon A Date?” explored by both plots.

Jasmine’s date quickly goes from bad to worse. She’s urinated on by an angry window washer, she learns Greg has a propensity for Asian women (she accuses him of having “Yellow Fever”) and both their parents are giddy with glee over the possibility of nuptials. Meanwhile Greg fumbles his way through a risque dinner date with an adventurous Em, while she flirts continuously, plays footsies under the table and even joins in the thrill of a girly bar with Greg.

Like her coquettish role in Rake, McCune comtrasts her nice-girl image here, while Poh Ling Yeow makes a strong debut as the short-tempered Jasmine. The roles of both males in the first episode are written as hapless men in love, but the beauty of this format is that in episode two we get four more performers: John Wood, Denise Scott, Sibylla Budd and Luke McGregor. Many more will follow.

It’s a Date is a playful and observational look at the trials of dating and Helliar is to be commended for devising a versatile format, that is as amusing for its style as its content. You may not split your sides at its comic tone, but chances are there are moments we’ve all experienced before.

It’s a Date premieres 9pm Thursday on ABC1.

35 Responses

  1. Have seen ‘It’s a Date twice now. To be called a comedy?…No.Not for my standards. It is drama, and as light entertainment it’s fine. Problem is; its on the ABC on a Wednesday night! well; that must be; has to be; a comedy.It’s their comedy night! Sorry I didnt laugh or find humor in it. But its engaging and watchable. I suspect the ABC have really invented a new genre ‘Australian Con’medy’.

  4. Just watched UMB…..one of the unfunniest comedies i’ve seen in years. Apart from the script the main problem is with the castings. In the opening scenes, we are introduced to an immature couple in their early twenties, and then we are introduced to their 13 year old twins. So that would make them around 36. Then the entire bogan family are actually quite middle class looking and sounding. If you want to see how bogans should look like just watch housos. Back to the middle class family, who are so over exaggerated that when trying to do serious scenes you can’t empathise with them as they are drawn like cartoon characters.

  6. JimboJones, I’ll concede that you’ve made very good modern choices. I forgot to mention some of those in my list. I like some of your classic choices too, but many I don’t. It’s one thing for a TV comedy to be ground breaking in its day, but for me to want to watch it again, it’ll have to have aged well (like Seinfeld & Frontline). Unfortunately TV comedy has a shorter used-by-date than drama.

    David Knox, you make a very good point. But I can’t help judging people by their comedy choices more than anything else. I think it says a lot about a particular person, their beliefs, actions & their political leanings. Some fashionable people judge shoes, I judge comedy. 🙂

  7. @Stan – OK, here goes.

    Modern – The Thick of It, Peep Show, Getting On, Party Down, South Park, Louis CK, The Office (UK only), Extras, Curb Your Enthusiam, Review With Miles Barlow, The IT Crowd, League of Gentlmen, Summer Heights High, Hollowmen.

    Classic – MASH, Cheers, Seinfeld, Simpsons (first six seasons), Everybody Loves Raymond, Family Ties, Roseanne, Golden Girls, Frasier, The Goodies, The New Statesman, The Young Ones, Bottom, Ripping Yarns, Yes Minister, Yes Prime Minister, Blackadder, Fawlty Towers, Vicar of Dibley, Men Behaving Badly, Dad’s Army, Porridge, Frontline.

    These are just the ones I have on DVD. Good enough for ya? 🙂

    1. Comedy is always more divisive than drama. We rarely say “That wasn’t dramatic enough, what rubbish!” We usually just tune in a week later and hope it’s a stronger episode, or we walk away from the show. But heaven forbid if a comedy does not hit our funny bone. We are collectively outraged. Comedy is a genre that usually stems from anger and you can go as far back to the Greeks to see that. Ultimately, we all have different comic sensibilities and I’ve pretty much learned to live and let live. What I like, what you like may differ wildly. I’m just bloody happy to see somebody making Comedy at all!

  8. JimboJones, you still haven’t named your favourite comedies. Some of my faves that I can think of now are; Wilfred, Louie, New Girl, The Office (UK & US), Drawn Together, South Park, Frontline, Laid, Danger 5, The Thick Of It, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Review With Miles Barlow, any Chaser show, Modern Family, Crank Yankers, 30 Rock, Getting On, Pulling, Corner Gas & Party Down, just to name a few.

    Over to you…

  10. My wife and I laughed out loud at much of both programs – we’ll definitely be watching next week.

    I think a lot of comedy comes from how you relate yourself to the situation onscreen, and particularly with “Its a Date”, I would think the situation comedy of McCune and Helliar’s story would be something that a lot of the ABC audience would relate to – the stress of young family life, etc.

    I love lots of old & new British comedy (not so much US) but not everything has to be side-splittingly funny all the time – and comparing Australian comedy to the US and UK isn’t really fair. Why shouldn’t we have our own brand and type of comedy/drama/whatever? Is everyone so brainwashed by content produced elsewhere that anything produced here is written off because it doesn’t have the correct “jokes-per-minute” ratio??

  12. @hughsy – wow, the class warfare card. Just because something is “working class” does not mean it has to be lame and unfunny. Funny is funny, regardless of its class. Anyway, it looks like you got your wish – the ABC now seems determined to only produce content for, ahem, normal people. I expect to see some great bogan reality TV shows coming soon on the ABC.

    For the record, given my eduction, postcode, profession and income, I can only be described as working class.

    A question – if the majority are “normal people”, then why do so few “normal people” watch the bogan comedies on ABC and SBS?

  13. Well my wife and I enjoyed middle class bogans , maybe you people who don’t like it should probally get the plumb out of your mouth we are Australians not bloody poms so I
    Think it just about sums up the difference between middle class and the normal people who by the way are the majority, Good on you ABC

  14. @Stan – what’s a great comedy? Simple – one with funny characters, funny situations, funny dialogue and jokes. All preferably based on wit and irony (hard to write) rather than bodily functions and swearing (easy to write).

    For the record I don’t think MBB or TBBT are particularly funny.

    Yes, I just watched Upper Middle Bogan and, like I suspected, it wasn’t actually funny. There were some attempts at humour at the beginning, but they were Librarian-level lame. The second half didn’t even attempt to be funny – but it did do a splendid job of trying to be just like a soap opera. Note to Gristmill – comic tone is not enhanced by having people yell their lines at each other. Like Percy said, it’s more a light drama than a comedy.

    However, it did get some things right – the characters were well drawn and established quickly, and have the potential to be funny. We’ll have to…

  15. Just watched the first episodes of both shows tonight, & I’m still making my mind up about Upper Middle Bogan (will continue to watch), but I really loved It’s A Date!

    As for the likes of PercyPervis & JimboJones, it’d be nice if someone here – even before watching a single episode – who criticises a new comedy lay their cards on the table & tell us what *they* think is a great comedy. We should be able to gauge their taste & I’d rather not waste my time reading some random’s comment if they think The Big Bang Theory or Mrs Brown’s Boys is funny.

  16. From the writer/producer team of The Librarians! Sorry but 500,000 plus people have just switched off. PercyPervis is right. Australia comedy has been struggling for years to be funny mainly due to often the same unfunny teams being allowed to continue to write only occasionally funny comedy. Chris Lilley, may have tripped recently but he is miles ahead of the rest on the ABC, a genuine, eccentric talent.

  17. I agree Effdee, it’s good we all have different taste and there are things to appeal to all different people. I personally absolutely love Please Like Me and The Librarians – I haven’t seem the other shows mentioned – and definitely laugh out loud at them. I think it’s odd when people declare ‘that’s not funny’, surely it’s ‘I don’t find that funny’ given how subjective humour is?

  18. I don’t know if some people even know what comedy is, it has many shades and styles, I can laugh at very different types of comedy.

    My fav ABC comedies are those like Laid, The Librarians, Outland, A Moody Christmas etc

    can’t stand the repetitive rubbish Chris Lilley keeps churning out

    It would be very boring if all comedy shows were only one style, it might mean some of us could never enjoy any of them, because they were all to someone else’s taste!

  19. I have to disagree with PercyPervis. I “laughed out loud” at both Outland and Please Like Me. Both were brilliantly written comedies, and both have gone on to major international success.

    But I do agree that the majority of Australian “comedy” shows are at best lame.

  21. I agree with Percy & Jimbo. With rare exception, such as Shaun Micaleff’s ‘Mad As Hell’, Australian TV ‘comedy’ is truly appalling at the moment. The people making it just don’t seem to understand comedy at all and it says a lot that by far the funniest Aussie comedy currently on TV is Fast Forward!

  22. @PercyPervis – you hit the nail on the head. I get stitches from watching UK and US comedy. From what I’ve seen of these two shows, they look grossly unfunny. C’mon, how many more crude bogan comedies does the ABC really think its audience wants to see? If people liked Peter Helliar’s romcom writing, then you’d think his movie “I Love You Too” would have been a massive hit.

    I predict these shows will suffer the same fate as Elegant Gentleman’s Guide, The Strange Calls, Outland, Laid, etc, and fail to reach 300,000 viewers.

    I admire David, because only he has the cojones to write a gem of a sentence like “You may not split your sides at its comic tone.” There’s an unwritten rule in Oz that all new TV shows get glowing reviews, even if they are lame (in which case they are damned with faint praise, using words like “quirky” and “low key”). Look at the number of…

  24. “…You may not split your sides at its comic tone…”

    And herein lies the problem with all Aussie “comedies” these days.

    Yeah, it was sorta good. Not too bad for Aussies. Not hilarious but yeah alright.

    That’s like watching a horror and saying “yeah, wasn’t scared at all” – well then it’s not a horror.

    These latest offerings, Outland, Librarians, Lowdown, 20Something, Please Like Me, they’re not funny. Just fairly amusing light drama scenes that are mildly entertaining and easy to watch.

    Is anyone actually “laughing out loud” and wiping tears from the brilliant jokes? Anyone? Flick over to see what the UK and US demand in terms of jokes per page and quality of comedy content and then we have us. We sit in this safe middle of the road area where we don’t try for jokes therefore we can’t fail, so we lightly dip our comedic toe in the swimming pool and…

Leave a Reply