All My Friends Are Racist

Adult Content

Heads up, All My Friends Are Racist is the queerest, most outrageous thing you’ll see on TV this week.

If you’re ok with that we’re good to go….

The bite-size series (5 x episodes are just 14 mins long) is an arresting, penetrating take on cancel culture from a black perspective, but creator Enoch Mailangi insists it is first and foremost a story about friendship, love, demise, and what being in your 20s might look like.

The world of Indigenous Influencer Casey (Davey Thompson) and best friend Belle (Tuuli Narkle), is also a no holds-barred, rapid-fire take down of Influencers and a desperate desire for validation.

The scene is set at their house party where booze and caps flow as freely as the likes and selfies, along with a constant need to impress frenemies. Photos or it didn’t happen, bitches.

Overt host Casey is fierce with the insults, personality and opinions while the script throws in everything from Invasion Day to fun facts: “Did you know that Rita Ora is white?” Be warned, there’s even a very sloppy rimming scene that gives The White Lotus a run for its money… “Lick me Captain Cook!” Yikes.

Casey and Belle are also concealing their private “Racist Dawgs” wall which has snapshots of all their friends at their most offensive moments. But when their dirty little secret is revealed, enraged guests cancel the party and friendships. Suddenly the coolest, queerest, blackest kids on the block are both viral and shamed.

Scraping back some semblance of humanity and followers is where the series then navigates, all without turning down the dial from 11.

There are plans to conquer Coachella, a meeting with Casey’s parents (Leah Purcell and Damion Hunter), an ‘indigenous’ art show from Belle’s offended white mother, employment as a Reconciliation Action Plan Officer, and a face-off with an African Refugee poet.

Expect plenty of digs at the expense of parliamentary staffers, unpaid interns, Young Libs, Margot Robbie, “White Jesus DiCaprio,” didgeridoos and didgeri-donts.

Davey Thompson delivers an in-your-face performance with a character that is defiantly queer and abrasive at the same time. He arrives as the life-force of this series, with Tuuli Narkle as a (slightly) more grounded voice of reason.

With Casey as the centre of this universe, the show is an all-or-nothing play. Although I presume to be outside the demographic, I was often grasping for what the series was trying to say, and yearning for some oxygen. But hey, comedy has its roots in anger and offence, and you have to admire the guts to go there -and to empower emerging voices.

Despite its brevity, the production values are nonetheless strong with costumes that pop and vivid lighting.

Some of this is so shocking it’s laugh out loud, but I suspect not every funny bone will be tickled by this one, which probably explains the low-level timeslot afforded by ABC.

If you’re over broadly-appealing, safe comedy then Casey and Belle are ready to serve up their very own brand of “revenge with a slice of lovable c***.”

All My Friends Are Racist screens 10:15pm Tuesday on ABC TV Plus and iview.