Offspring - Celebrating the Meaningful Moments

Warning
This guide and all of my reviews contain occasional bits of rude language,
and opinions some people might find offensive but for which I won’t apologise.
                    Don’t read any further unless you are open-minded.
As hard as I try not to give away too much, I can't guarantee there are no spoilers.

----------------------------------
Offspring – TV Drama 2010-2017 (7 series) Network 10 Australia // DVD, iTunes and maybe still Netflix

Often amusing, often moving, totally addictive drama series.


Nina Proudman is a 30 something single woman who treasures life, whether it is through her work as an obstetrician at a maternity hospital, or just life as it is lived with her whole crazy family.

The writers find endlessly creative ways of showing us what Nina is thinking, which they have to do because she internalises her insecurities. Sometimes her internal world is pretty mundane, but often it is hilarious.




Although she is a competent obstetrician, when she is within cooee of a bloke she fancies, Nina turns into an inarticulate, blithering idiot, partly because she sometimes can’t distinguish between reality and the truckloads of fantasy-world-images and conversations in her head.

Asher Keddie has said one thing she liked about playing the part of Nina was that Nina is brave. Nina needs to be brave – while she internalises her insecurities, her sister Billie externalises hers, and it can be ouchy to watch when Billie lashes out. Billie is, at times, seriously toxic.

“Your family know you longer than anyone else,” says Nina. Personally, I don’t think that’s any reason to keep forgiving excessively bad behaviour that no one is prepared to change. And if I would not be likely to forgive it as a family member, how likely am I to forgive it as a viewer?

At times, it seems to me, some of the Proudman family betray trust or confidences a little too easily. I don’t know if that’s normal, I have no idea. And if manipulative behaviour is normal or reasonable, that still shouldn't make it okay, should it? And lying just seems odd to me. I know I've told one or two lies in 60 plus years, but not many cos I've a shit memory and a transparent face which means I'm a crap liar so I'm basically honest. The way people lie on this show is almost an Olympic sport, and one or two other things they do make me cringe - but maybe that's just the early episodes and it just takes some getting used to. In spite of all that I love to death almost everything about Offspring. Yes, the good bits are so good they more than make up for the annoying bits, which is really saying something.

With shows like this there is eventually a character or storyline that resonates at a visceral level - with me it is Patrick's father who reminds me there is no male equivalent of "the c word". He has an attachment disorder, but as I always say: there are two types of people with a mental illness, those who are arseholes, and those who are not. Patrick's father is in the first category. Why don't people believe us when we say they exist? Most importantly, why don't the people we are supposed to be able to count on believe us when we say they exist? (Mercifully, the character only makes a brief appearance.)

Rewatching Offspring and I'm only halfway through episode 3 and Billie is just a total knob but I'm already weeping snot and the next minute Nina notices something odd and I'm grinning madly cos life is just about the little moments -- and good drama is about the writers who think to share little moments with us.

Offspring is not just a drama it’s a comedy drama. Sure, sometimes a storyline demands tissues but more often – especially once the writers hit their stride in season 2 – I found myself laughing like a drain through entire episodes, not just because they are funny but sometimes because they are brave, or creative or surprising.

Scripts are decidedly apolitical but (family dysfunction aside) the show’s values are excellent. It’s clever, it’s intelligent, and occasionally someone even sneaks a moment or two of something surreal that is pure gold on to the screen.

I have no frame of reference for judging whether the “sister” bond between Nina and Billie makes sense; at first Billie just strikes me as inordinately self-absorbed at times, though over the full seven series the two sisters both end up supporting and hurting each other in extreme ways in equal measure.

Deborah Mailman continues to be a brilliant actor. Until Love My Way I’d never seen Asher Keddie before, and here she actually has a chance to do something interesting. Asher not only surprises with her comic range, sometimes she astonishes in other ways; – there is one scene where Nina expresses a feeling of shame at having said something awful and her ears actually burn scarlet. How does she do that? Billie is not always a sympathetic character but Kat Stewart is mind bogglingly good in the role.

A great bonus is that Billie’s boyfriend Mick (Eddie Perfect) is a singer/songwriter (in later seasons he is joined by Clare Bowditch) providing some “live music”, and personal songs that reflect the storylines and characters.

“Deb [Oswald] said that she conceived Offspring as the opposite of those shows where there's a dead prostitute lying in a dumpster in the beginning of the episode. This is a show that's affirming of all the things that make life great: food, sex, love, family, babies, dogs. The things that make life meaningful are our relationships to other people, those tiny moments when you have a connection with another human being. Offspring is a celebration of that.”

 

M Rating – The characters of Offspring never get completely naked while they are on our screens, but it is quite clear what is happening when sperm donations are being made or people are sexing. The language is perfectly frank, though never gratuitously crude. Brave standards for a free-to-air soap.

Note re Subtitles/ Dialogue: Some seasons of the DVDs have no subtitles, while some do.

On the Netflix version, the dialogue is sometimes censored and in other episodes not censored at all, which is weirdly inconsistent.
The subtitles for the witty exchange between Nina and Patrick shown above “You have a problem/ Fuck you / Could be Tourette’s” is missing the “Fuck you” which not only kills the joke but consequently no longer even makes sense. English subtitles on Netflix are not prepared by a human who knows much English at all so often the subtitles are wrong. With Offspring, this is a bigger tragedy than usual because the added gap between English English and Australian English not only makes some of the subtitles utter nonsense but kills a lot of really great humour.

Bingeability: - Extremely high. Offspring doesn’t generate a desperate need to know what happens next, but from the second season I cared enough about the characters and had such great laughs that it was always a joy to just keep watching.

AFTER YOU'VE FINISHED BINGEING OFFSPRING (when you no longer need worry about spoilers) you get to search YouTube for one of those parodies... "Hitler finds out about... Offspring".

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One of the characters I really like and which doesn’t often rate a mention in reviews is Inner Melbourne. It’s an area where I spent many of my early years (before it was gentrified). If you don’t know Melbourne but want to do some armchair travelling with Google Maps, you’ll find a list of Offspring sites at http://www.theworldswaiting.com/2014/05/offspring-tour-of-fitzroy-melbourne.html

Other "location" stuff:
*Mick's Place is at 101 Kerr St Fitzroy
*The church spires often visible from the back balcony of the maternity hospital are St Patrick's Cathedral
*01x11 Westgarth Cinema, 89 High St Northcote is used in several episodes
*01x13 The Grandstand is at the Brunswick St Oval, the original home of the Fitzroy Football club, one of the first Australian Rules Football Clubs.
*Edinburgh Gardens are used in many episodes, and even incorporate, in one corner, the Brunswick St Oval. In 01x13 when the family gathers for a picnic you can see a band rotunda.
*02x02 When Mick is running to take his sample to a lab he talks to Billie on the phone from the corner of Nicholson St and Gertrude Street Fitzroy. The red Brick building to his left is the old Cable Tram Depot. The gardens directly ahead of Mick are the Carlton Gardens, and there is a tiny cream-coloured speck of the Exhibition Building showing. These gardens and the Exhibition Buildings feature in a later season.
*02x04 The liquor store where Mick goes to find his brother is Piedimonte's Best St Fitzroy (near Scotchmer St)
*02x06 The Nunnery backpack hostel where Jimmy and Tammy stay is at 116 Nicholson St Fitzroy
*02x06 The Marriage Registry Office is located in the Old Treasury Buildings in Spring St Melbourne
*02x08 Jimmy goes to Federation Square at the corner of Flinders and Swanston Streets Melbourne
*03x01 Cubbie St Adventure Playground Fitzroy
*03x05 Roller Coaster is at Luna Park in St Kilda
*03x11 The Moorabbin Bowl (since demolished)
*04x04 Lawn Tennis Courts 11 Nicholson St Carlton
*05x08 Exhibition Building
*06x01 Billie & Jimmy are sitting at the cnr of Gertrude and Smith Sts Fitzroy
Later everyone goes to the Fitzroy Town Hall, 201 Napier St

Get Krack!n's Ikonik

Warning
This guide and all of my reviews contain occasional bits of rude language,
and opinions some people might find offensive but for which I won’t apologise.
                    Don’t read any further unless you are open-minded.
As hard as I try not to give away too much, I can't guarantee there are no spoilers.

--------------------------------
Get Krack!n TV Comedy Series Australia 2 Seasons 2017 ABC TV, DVD, iTunes

Iconic, almost subversive.

Kate McLennan and Kate McCartney take a swipe at morning lifestyle television.


To be fair, I really, really love about 5% of the men and women I meet and I just tolerate about 90%, while the remaining 5% do my head in… And the 5% that do my head in all seem to be on morning television or talkback radio.

As if most Australian TV isn’t absolute crap – real lowest common denominator stuff relieved only by the tedium of ads for rubbish nobody in their right mind could possibly want or consider paying for – all over the country, people get up early and for some reason turn on their TVs and let morons tell them what to think or do.

Get Krackin's two Kates first became popular with their web-based pretend cooking series The Katering Show. This latest ABC series has never a dull moment – it’s “packed like a colon after a long haul flight”.

Get Krack!n is crude AF so be warned - if you don’t like bad language or are in any way sensitive, stay away. It’s not for the faint hearted. The last episode of season 2 features a segment on how to clean a dick properly so naturally we see one – then pan to a picture of a bottle of quick lime. Ouch.

The crawl at the bottom of the screen throughout each episode shows the time like morning TV usually does, and also provides constant snarky headlines letting us know how the world really ticks. These are as much fun as any of the guest, advertiser, infomercial or other segments.

(The show is ostensibly broadcast to the US, at 3.00 a.m. Australian EST in time for the mid-morning market in the USA.)

As some of the sample headlines shown here suggest, Get Krack!n is decidedly anti-hate and at times subversive. The show – much like Australia itself – is predominantly white, but is actively anti-racist. One or two episodes or segments are duds, but for the most part Get Krack!n is brilliant.

Here's a great trick - For Disability Day, we have two AUSLAN interpreters in the bottom left of our screen and I can only speak two words of AUSLAN. The word "dickhead" appears just often enough to confirm what I suspect, which is that what the interpreters are talking about sometimes has little to do with what's happening elsewhere on the set. It's possibly healthy for me to feel excluded occasionally.


Disability Day Episode asks "What is diversity and..." 

The crawl message "What is diversity and how can white people monetize it?" probably deserves an honourable mention. Get Krack!n doesn't take this any further, but as hate speech is a real problem and I live in a country built on denial and devoid of leadership, let me provide you with this message from Jay Smooth:

https://twitter.com/jsmooth995/status/996799108525514753?lang=en

Now, after that word from your sponsor (Maude) back to the show!

Episode 02x08 of Get Krack!n is a special treat that went viral – featuring Miranda Tapsell and Nakkiah Lui as hosts, it ends with a savage but long overdue denunciation of Australia’s Systemic Racism.

(For outsiders, Sunrise is an early morning breakfast show on the 7 network that regularly hosts extreme right wing politicians, and is hosted by people with typically racist white political views.)

IT'S ACTUALLY A GIF - PLEASE KLIK

Although I was able to get subtitles while streaming the show from the ABC online, and can usually get subtitles when I buy ABC series on disc, this is the first ABC production I’ve bought through iTunes and I’m disappointed there are no subtitles with it.

MA 15+ cos the language is crude AF, though the content is refreshingly inoffensive from my POV.

Orphan Black - Poking At Things With Sticks

Warning

This guide and all of my reviews contain occasional bits of rude language,
and opinions some people might find offensive but for which I won’t apologise.
                    Don’t read any further unless you are open-minded.
As hard as I try not to give away too much, I can't guarantee there are no spoilers.

 

-----------------------------------
Orphan Black  TV Sci Fi Drama Series, Canada, 5 Series 2013-2017 BBC America and Temple St Productions, DVD

Sets an almost impossibly high standard for entertaining, intelligent drama.

A street-wise hustler is pulled into a compelling conspiracy after witnessing the suicide of a girl who looks just like her.


The very first thing that happens in the pilot episode is that Sarah Manning arrives in Toronto by train.

There she notices a woman who is distressed, at the other end of the railway platform. Sarah was an orphan, so she is shocked to see the woman at the other end of the train platform looks exactly like herself. She is even more shocked when the woman jumps in front of a train, committing suicide.

Possibly because Sarah is a hustler and an opportunist, but perhaps also because she is curious, Sarah grabs the woman’s handbag from the station platform, taking her ID and house keys. She has no idea what a can of worms she is about to open.


If you like hustles, cons or stings, this show should draw you in straight away. This show would also appeal instantly if you like mysteries or puzzles because, like the streetwise hustler Sarah, you will be trying to work out just what is going on and you will be doing it at the same pace as Sarah, from the very beginning, one bit of information at a time.
Orphan Black begins as great drama. As we get to know the characters, the drama is balanced by great comic moments until the show becomes a full blown dramedy. A brilliant dramedy.

The underlying conspiracy story of Orphan Black is based on real gene science, so it is technically science fiction, but the story is set in the same world we live in – it’s gene science meets a contemporary police procedural and family drama. The problems the characters face – aside from cloning /corporate conspiracy/ government conspiracy related story problems – are day to day problems in a contemporary setting.

Some of the important characters look identical because although they are not twins or triplets or quads, they are clones. This means they have the same DNA but, like identical twins or other multiples, don’t all look exactly alike. They only look the same at first glance and do, in fact, have different personalities as well as physical differences. (There is nothing inherently creepy about clones unless the clones themselves have creepy personalities.)
Because the story is about clones and because of the timing and nature of the movement that generated the cloning, the clones are white, but the larger world in which the story is told is racially blended and “non-white” people / females occupy positions of power where this would not be historically ridiculous.

Race, gender and sexuality are mostly treated as the non-issues they would be in any Canadian made drama.

Suspension of disbelief
All fiction requires that we buy some sort of lie. Yes, this series is built on real gene science but, NO, there was no company cloning humans when these characters were “born” (that I know of…).
There is much talk in this show of things like gene therapy, gene sequencing and other technical blah blah blah which apparently is all quite “plausible” – the only thing the show’s producers will concede is they stretched the truth about fingerprints: - for dramatic purposes it was convenient to hold that people with the same DNA could have the same fingerprints, but this is not quite true. This lie helps the story, so let’s just roll with it – there are fascinating ideas to explore, and there are some wonderful characters to meet.
The characters are well drawn and complex. Before the first episode is over Sarah has already dragged her foster brother Felix back into her own drama all over again, and he is not only emotionally hurt but at risk because of her.

Although dysfunction would normally put me off, there’s not enough of it to over-ride my love of a good hustle. Besides, I’ve already decided I like Sarah as a person, and I’ve already fallen for Felix.
Before the pilot episode is over, I’m fascinated to meet a third clone and realise I’ve forgotten several female characters are all played by the same actress and I’ve already accepted them as separate characters and can’t wait to find out where this is all going next.

For a while I was confused about why so many strangers in the story were identical, but that was okay because Sarah was confused too. This is not confusion caused by poor story-telling – the confusion IS the story itself; the puzzle is more interesting than a jigsaw or crossword. Right til the end of series 5, to be honest, I wondered if the writers weren’t sometimes making stuff up as they went along, but the truth is I’m a slow and plodding thinker. When I watched the show a second time through from start to finish it all started to make sense and I realised the clues I needed had been in the script all along. All writing contains some mistakes, but the mistakes here are the equivalent of typos – there are no holes in the storylines.
The humour is incredibly rich – occasionally situational or general but mostly character driven. The casting, from the most casual extra up, never disappoints.

 

I suspect at first the showrunners did not realise what they had in the characters Alison and Donnie, but Tatiana Maslany and Kristian Bruun acting together eventually make any comic couple who have ever appeared on screen before seem dull and untalented.
Among the themes that made Orphan Black interesting for me and/or friends were gene science, the moral questions associated with eugenics, stories of government/corporate conspiracy, religion vs science, psychology and questions of nature vs nurture – all interwoven with a challenging puzzle and awesome, incredibly creative and intelligent humour.

My only criticism is that in season 1, a supposedly intelligent, well educated, modern French woman has an intellectual and sexual relationship with a man who is a manipulative, sexist and condescending twat, and I find it very hard to buy. He even encourages her to pimp herself out, and it seems a bit of a stretch. In later seasons, her personality seems to grow and become more acceptable. Other people think the character works right from the start.

Accents
A few people like to complain about accents in this show. It might be worth remembering that while there once was a time when accents in an English street or council area might not change for generations, that is no longer the case. As an Australian baby boomer who grew up listening almost exclusively, at first, to BBC radio and TV shows, absorbing RP and English regional accents, I think the English accents on Orphan Black are fine from actors who otherwise deliver so very much. The character of Sarah Manning is, in theory, born in an era after accents in English streets and council areas were definitely influenced by population changes due to international and internal migration, changes in employment and a breakdown in the traditional class system as well as UK membership of the EEU and a massive shift in international media. Sarah was born in Wales, spent the first 7 or so years of her life moving from one foster home to another, was raised by an Irish traveller living at first in London and then migrating to Canada – if she spoke with what anyone thought of as a “correct” or specific English accent something would definitely be wrong.
As an Australian I could say complaints that Sarah sounds Australian are ludicrous – but to be fair, I can no longer swear I know what all Australians sound like because the world is changing. I know what my own generation sounds like, and I know what regional accents once sounded like, but electronic media and the influence of international film and TV is incalculable. To be honest our voices and accents often change depending on who were talking with and the situation. I think we need to stop being too rigid and inflexible or precious about what actors give us, or we will end up unable to enjoy anything.

MA 15+ Rating: Orphan Black contains the usual dope, violence and sex with an occasional rude word that we see in this category, but it also contains exceptional stuff that might be triggering if you are in a vulnerable state: I can cope with it, but it was all unexpected first time round so if you don’t mind spoilers, perhaps a warning might be all you need. It’s such a good series it’s worth considering watching it if you can, knowing you are prepared. Anything appearing during a specific scene could be repeated during a recap at the beginning of any random future episode.
Most of the exceptional stuff is idea driven – for example, one soldier has his skull opened and brain exposed as part of an experiment. The idea of it is fairly gross, even though we know it’s not real, and even though we know that touching brain tissue never actually causes physical pain. In season four, a biological “advance” is introduced into the bodies of a few characters that consists of a “mechanical” robot the size of a small maggot. It acts a bit like a computer chip, but the idea freaks people out, and the maggot bot contains a defence mechanism.
One character who had an abusive childhood cuts herself in early episodes – it’s not overly gross to watch, but it happens, and her back has scars in the shape of angel’s wings. Some of the fights show people doing rather brutal things that shocked me at first but made me laugh on second viewing.
Often characters we care about are in situations that seem quite threatening but we eventually find they are safe after all. Further, most of the time if something awful is coming you will get plenty of warning from the situation and the music and so on in time to look away.
Definitely Look Away Warnings Episode 0309 13:40-15:05 Mrs S sings while Ferdinand gives Terry a brutal beating Episode 0309 20:10 – 21:40 Mrs S finds Terry beaten. Episode 0502 33:00-35:50 Ferdinand kills MK.

Bingeability Rating – 10 out 10. That’s right: the writing is not perfect, but even despite that, it is still so good I’ll give this show 10 out of 10. Orphan Black moved me to tears, lots of times. It also made me roar with laughter, lots of times. Orphan Black is definitely on my Desert Island List – if I can’t take my “black orphans” with me, I’m going down with the ship. Lots of these characters will be my best friends forever.

The 100 - a Simply Awesome Series

Warning
This guide and all of my reviews contain occasional bits of rude language,
and opinions some people might find offensive but for which I won’t apologise.
                    Don’t read any further unless you are open-minded.
As hard as I try not to give away too much, I can't guarantee there are no spoilers.

---------------------------
The 100 (“The Hundred”) TV Series 2014 Ongoing. CW / Netflix/ DVD

Riveting, kick-ass storytelling that never looks tired with repeat viewing


97 years after nuclear war wiped out life on earth the “ARK” space station is failing. 100 juvenile offenders are sent to Earth to see if the planet is now habitable.

Similarities to the story of Australian colonisation are ironic, as 4 of the main character parts are played by Australian actors – two of them former stars of the soap opera Neighbours. Irony is heaped on irony when Terra Nullius once again proves to be a lie.

In this brave new world the focus is on survival, and there are only two types of people – strong people or weak.
Because this is about a post-nuclear world the storylines have a darkness to them; what lends the series much of its appeal is that ordinary characters are extraordinarily heroic.

 

It only takes a few episodes to become invested in some of the characters - this is excellent, character driven storytelling that quickly developed a huge following, with fans adopting some of the sayings and language of the show - a sign that even if this isn’t the greatest story ever told, it’s still very engaging.

I've been intrigued to see which of the main characters’ moral compass never wavers: Where characters do sometimes lose their way, the about-turn somehow never seems improbable. Moral ambiguity is what prevents The 100 from being “just another good story”, and the series is always fresh because storylines aren't formulaic and don’t just re-hash old moral questions.

This is supposedly a young adult series - I know I’m not the only old fart who has relished every moment of this show.

Relationships are well drawn on this show, and sexuality is refreshingly fluid. Even more refreshing: - strong female characters.

Season 1 is a bit Lord of the Flies meets Lost in Space: At first the most interesting bits are about the kids who've been sent to Earth, while in deep space back on the Ark the grown up stuff is less exciting as survivors work out if or how to get everyone else back down to Earth.
This is all held together by a fascinating exploration of who survived the nuclear war on Earth and how they did or did not get along.

Spoiler Alert
You can scroll down to the Ratings part of this review – or if you don’t mind a few spoilers, read right through for a brief outline of where each season goes.

Season 2 is a little more dystopian vs utopian as we look at Earth survivors and later what happens when the grown ups from the Ark reach Earth and try to rein in The 100. (Seriously, I’m a geriatric and I just want to strangle the olds in this show, which means they work as characters because they really irritate.)
Mix in a Josef Mengele type and introduce the two impressive characters Indra and Lexa.

 

 

Season 3 delivers an interesting spin on “belief”. It’s almost an exploration of the way Nazi Germany replaced "Proper" Religion with a State Ideology, this is served up with a tossed salad of myth, science and nuke history.
Jaha, leader of the “cult” doesn’t dress like a Bishop or ask for money but he reminds me enough of Catholic School 50 years ago I just want to stab him in the eye every time his smug fake serene face appears on-screen. The whole City of Light/ ALIE / Flame thing is so well put together, though, that I can’t fault it.

The 100’s other, more likeable characters are increasingly awesome this season; there is a fight scene in 0304 that makes for a really special moment – and that’s just early in the season before it builds to a great final episode.

There is not a lot of humour in the scripts, but I found myself grinning like a Cheshire cat every time Prince Roan appeared on the screen.

Season 4 Jaha is no longer a Happy Clappy but I still wish he would get written out of the show for no other reason than just ecch. Murphy has grown properly into who he is and makes for good “set dressing”. The overall story arc and narrative framework continue to impress mightily as all the clans face new challenges leaving us still caring about what is coming next.

Season 5 is marginally less riveting. Some episodes gave us important answers we were desperately searching for. Things are also just not quite the same with the loss of a couple of characters (romantic leads) that had the biggest fan following.

 

 

On the other hand, the shift in focus and introduction of new characters prevents the series becoming predictable, and allows it to re-invent itself. This season did not end with a cliff-hanger, but although the novelty has worn off, the quality of the story-telling is still high. I’ll be curious to see where the next season takes us.

M15+ Rating: There is regular, gory, visual grossness which is not gratuitous, but which could make some episodes of this series triggering. Some interesting challenges, and riveting fight and battle scenes.

Bingeability – I did watch the first 3 series straight through, to see what would happen – no mean feat for someone who has never been able to sit through one whole Star Wars movie. After that I had to wait for new seasons to become available, and waiting was hard. Definitely a desert island set.

Misfits (The UK Series) - Awfully Good (Literally)

Warning
This guide and all of my reviews contain occasional bits of rude language,
and opinions some people might find offensive but for which I won’t apologise.
                    Don’t read any further unless you are open-minded.
As hard as I try not to give away too much, I can't guarantee there are no spoilers.

------------------------------
Misfits - TV Series UK Clerkenwell Films  - 5 Series 2009-2013 - DVD, Netflix

Probably the Best Brit-Anarcho-Dramedy Ever Made

A group of young offenders sentenced to community service work are caught outside during an electrical storm. After the storm they discover they each have different and quite odd new “powers”.

• This show is absolutely brilliant and very entertaining
• This show contains really truly offensive language and opinions, and other stuff

Misfits has been described as a “Sci-Fi comedy drama” which sounds like a stretch – someone has probably demanded a genre label for marketing purposes but there is no serious "scientific" justification for the powers these young offenders gain after an electrical storm. There are no logical laws to explain these or other events that follow – you just need to be willing to suspend disbelief and that’s why I’m going for the anarchy label instead.

The imaginative leaps of the writing are part of what make this show special – I can’t remember any show ever delivering so many delightful surprises, twists and turns as I enjoyed while I binged on the whole of the first two series of Misfits. Let go of your disbelief and enjoy the rewards.

While I’ve opted for an “Anarcho-Dramedy” label – this is not because I am really that fussed about getting the label right, but because if you are looking for something that follows a tried and tested predictable formula this show is probably not for you. So, how different is it?

Absolutely Fabulous was very clever because it built up and distorted a shallow stereotype and then took the piss out of that type mercilessly; AbFab delivered surprises but was not overly warm.

The Young Ones was radically anarchistic but bordered on existentially negative.

Crazy Head was clever but not good enough to sustain my  interest for more than a few episodes.

 

In Nathan, Misfits gives us one of the most relentlessly loathsome characters to ever appear on a screen but perhaps Nathan is what makes it possible for Misfits to give us what are, at times, some of the most moving moments TV has the power to deliver.

 

The writing is so brilliant I don’t want to do spoilers. Nathan is not just puerile he is so disgusting on so many levels he has become something of a cult hero – imagine something wildly offensive or inappropriate he might say in any given situation and he will say something far worse, but the show is so well structured and written it draws me back in spite of him. At the very end of season 1 it’s his predicament, not his gob, that gets the biggest laugh.

 

There is NOTHING likeable about this tool. So why do I like the show?
The answer is probably "honesty". Maybe.
Not Sure.

In season 3 Nathan disappears and the role of loathsome twat is taken on by the character of Rudy who is crudely and basely sexist. Unlike Nathan he has no intelligence or other almost-redeeming features at all. The first episode is a bit tedious because we don’t know him yet, but by episode 0302 the writing returns to full strength as Rudy’s crass nature gives us a chance to start exploring sexism. Although the writing is a little uneven at first, most of the season is as hilarious as ever.

 

MA 15+ Strong Everything

If you were sensitive you probably would not be reading my reviews at all but be warned the language used on Misfits is relentlessly and unapologetically crude. By season 3 it is as if the character Rudy exists for the sole purpose of saying or doing the crudest nonsense imaginable. As for violent images, most are hilarious because they are just ludicrous in context, but if you are at all vulnerable and likely to be triggered you should be aware the humour takes on a dark tone near the end of season 3 and occasional images may be triggering from episode 0307 onwards.

 

Bingeability The first 2 seasons (a total of 13 episodes) blew my mind. Then I needed a break. There is some churn of cast members after that. Even though the element of surprise was a big part of the fun first time round – especially in the first 2 seasons - I will definitely be happy to re-watch this at some point.

 

 

Contact

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this post may contain names or images of people who have died.

Warning
This guide and all of my reviews contain occasional bits of rude language,

and opinions some people might find offensive but for which I won’t apologise.

                    Don’t read any further unless you are open-minded.

As hard as I try not to give away too much, I can't guarantee there are no spoilers.

 

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Contact - Documentary 2009 Australia - DVD or free on Kanopy

If you are even mildly curious about the world we live in, you have to see this at least once.

There won't be many reviews of documentaries posted on this site, despite the fact that I’m a documentary nut, so if you see a review of a documentary here I hope you trust that it’s pretty special.

This one includes genuine footage from 1964 when 20 Martu people, who had never in their lives seen white people before, finally made contact for the first time in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia.

This is the story of how and why contact was finally made, what happened since, and how the people involved felt about it all.

An engineer who helped build the roads into the Great Sandy Desert between 1947 and 1963 described it as 1 million square miles

“which hadn’t been touched by anybody since the world began”

 

That’s a direct quote from a talk he gave in 1991. He seems to have been a kindly, affable and intelligent bloke who saw Aboriginals as human, which is exactly why this is the sort of hurtful, ignorant comment he shouldn’t have made. (On the other hand, if this is the sort of comment that comes from the good guys, it should provide a clue about the sort of shit Indigenous Australians read, see, hear, find and so on all the time.)

Most of the British and Australian overlords in charge of the post WWII nukiller/space program did not really expect to find any “Natives” at all in the Percival Lakes target area by the time the Blue Streak test program was scheduled in 1964, let alone Indigenous Australians who had never before had any contact with white people.

When I first heard the Martu people at the centre of this story gave a couple of Native Welfare Patrol Officers a run for their money, I was rather chuffed. It was not until I saw this documentary that I appreciated how truly terrifying the first contact experience must have been for them.

For those who are not Australian, a quick and nasty guide to provide some context:
*Australia is just a bee’s dick smaller in size than the lower 48 States of the U.S.
*The population of Australia 12 March 2018 is 24.6 Million (Yes, about 7 and ½ % the size of the population of the U.S.).
*Even though we have one or two mountains where it snows and a few rainforests quite a distance from the mountains, Australia is actually the second driest country in the world – after Antarctica.

Most of the population is dotted around the coastline, while a great deal of the mainland/ inland would not support population stress of any sort at all.

*This story is about people in the path of a planned rocket launch from Woomera in South Australia, towards Percival Lakes in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia.

The stars at night might be big and bright deep in the heart of Texas, but they’ve never seemed anywhere near as bright in the Northern Hemisphere to me as they do “at home”. In the outback or in the bush, the stars are awesome as there are no competing lights or other infrastructure to dim them.
No wonder, then, that amongst the many firsts of Australia’s First Peoples, we can list astronomy. (Yes, folks, structures that pre-date Stonehenge. But I digress).

Plenty of opportunities in this documentary to see there can be two completely different ways of interpreting a single event. And after you’ve seen this doco, make a note of the question “What does a lack of eye contact mean in a non-Western world view?” The question is only posed between lines of dialogue in this documentary, so no one bothered to try and answer it here.
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It seems from this music video the stars are very important to the Martu People.
Lyrics of this song Ruka Ruka (Sunset) from the Wild Dingo Band's web page.

I'm getting homesick,
I want to go back,
Home is still living by itself,
For a long time I haven't been back,

There is a place I grew up in the East,
and every sunset in a different place somebody else's land,
I'm standing by myself wondering,
Sun is going down and the night came,

I'm lying down in my bed thinking about my homeland,
Punmu Parngurr Kunawaritji,
Its our home for martu people,
(Kartugarra warnmun margiljarra)
Its Our Home

Essential Movies - Freedom Writers

Warning
This guide and all of my reviews contain occasional bits of rude language,

and opinions some people might find offensive but for which I won’t apologise.

                    Don’t read any further unless you are open-minded.

As hard as I try not to give away too much, I can't guarantee there are no spoilers.

 

------------------------

Freedom Writers – Movie 2007 USA 122 Mins 

 

Not just a story about disadvantaged people of colour, but a story of white privilege.

In 1994, in Long Beach, California, an idealistic first timer has been accepted to teach English for at-risk students at a school where racial tensions have increased since the Riots of 1992.

Inspirational teacher stories are my drug. When I first saw Freedom Writers I was on a plane flying from the UK to Australia - one of the modern world’s longest, most torturous journeys - so I watched this on a loop to pass the time. I was wrecked by the time I got home.

Let’s start with the most obvious problem - non-white teachers have been helping at-risk children in similar situations for years, and nobody sees what they are doing as special. I get it – why is something only important when white people do it?

Freedom Writers is not just a movie about something being important because somebody white did it, though the marketing could make it seem that way.

Like To Sir With Love (1967) this is not just a story about the students, it is also a story about a teacher being transformed by their teaching experience.

At the very beginning of Freedom Writers, Erin bravely ignores all the people who are being condescending arseholes to her about her idealism. Some might watch this and see a “white teacher” being unrealistically devoted to her students. All I could see was a woman prepared to ignore the scorn of her peers, and prepared to make a total twat of herself in front of her students. Yes, she was clueless, but when someone is trying to do the right thing they don't necessarily deserve a kick in the head for failing. Nobody knows something til they learn it.

The turning point occurs when someone sends a racist caricature around the room, and Erin finally snaps. There follows a discussion that reveals just how wide the gap is between her own perception of her role at the school and how the world ticks, and what the students believe is happening. It was also the discussion that helped me finally understand what my own white privilege really means, not to me, but to others.

 

 

This is the bit that makes a movie like this movie necessary, and makes it necessary for this particular teacher to be a very privileged white one.

So, watching this movie through the eyes of a white person, this was a big deal. Nobody likes to be an object of scorn, we all want approval (especially from our daddy) etc etc. Through the eyes of a person of colour, yes, thanks a lot, Erin, you made a choice. We don't have the luxury of choice. Racism shouldn't happen, you don't get a medal for not being a racist etc etc.

I hear the objections and I don't dismiss them, but may I say this?

Yes, if we "colourless" people care we will make an effort to learn: People of Colour are not responsible for ‘splaining it to us all the time – but it’s stories like this one that make it possible for us to learn independently. And sadly, some of us need to hear a message over and over before it "clicks" and suddenly has real meaning.

That said, this is also a story of a teacher who would be good value regardless of colour. What makes Erin a hero to me - what made me weep watching this movie - is that Erin sees her students as people. Being visible is a basic human need. This is the scene that tore me to shreds, every single time:



She got this, that Andre was Andre, not his brother. And she understood how to share this with all her students – that it is in seeing each other and in living “respect” that we become the heroes of our own life stories.

Apart from that, the soundtrack is great.
 

The Librarians - (The Australian Series)

WarningThis guide and all of my reviews contain occasional bits of rude language,
and opinions some people might find offensive but for which I won’t apologise.
                    Don’t read any further unless you are open-minded.
As hard as I try not to give away too much, I can't guarantee there are no spoilers.

-----------------------------
The Librarians -TV Series - Australia ABC 2007; 2009; 2010


What happens when you put a passive aggressive Catholic bigot in charge of a public library?

A pisser – brought to us by the same team who gave the world Upper Middle Bogan. Some of the humour is library related, but most of it arises out of the small mindedness of Frances O’Brien, who had 12 brothers and sisters growing up but did not think it odd.

Although episode one starts with a staff meeting / workshop that’s too realistically horrible for words, the series picks up once it moves on from meaningless ideas no one gives a toss about. Ultimately, The Librarians works because it really is character driven.

Let me re-iterate - I don’t object to people having some kind of religious faith if it makes them better people, it’s small-mindedness I find offensive.

This is not an anti-Catholic show, but if you were raised inside an Australian Irish-Catholic ghetto, you will love the insanity that drives Frances O’Brien.

M Rating Terry O’Brien’s awfully fond of having a Barclay’s Bank, but on the whole his wife is the only thing in this show that’s remotely offensive.

Bingeability – Very easy to keep watching. Always amusing; often hilarious. It just rings so true sometimes, it’s mesmerising.

Mr & Mrs Smith

Warning
This guide and all of my reviews contain occasional bits of rude language,
and opinions some people might find offensive but for which I won’t apologise.
                    Don’t read any further unless you are open-minded.
As hard as I try not to give away too much, I can't guarantee there are no spoilers.

---------------------------

Mr & Mrs Smith - 2005 Movie USA 126 Mins - Romantic Comedy Action Film

Not the first story of a contract killer who is married, but definitely the most fun.

After 5 or 6 years together the Smiths are in a rut, so they visit a marriage counsellor.

This was the perfect story for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, because the chemistry between them made a fantastic movie from a mundane script.

Although I can’t personally identify with the “day to day boredom of life as a hit man” angle, some things resonate, like the horror Jane Smith feels at being trapped in the suburbs where women assume she is just dying to crank out babies. Which is to say there are lots of slick moments in this movie with guns and bullets and knives, but lots of very relatable human moments as well.

It’s just awesome fun.