Comedy series a viewing winner
At last, we have an actress with comedic talent. Now, I don’t mean comediennes who tell grubby jokes on 7 Days, but personalities who take a modest script and infuse it with their talent and personality.
Morgana O’reilly is one of those. She could read the Whanganui telephone directory aloud and make it funny. I’d like her to read the extensions for Gloriavale – Hopeful Christian (ex 66), Joyful Geriatric (ex 99), Dove Love (ex 36) and Happy Clappy (ex 73).
O’reilly is Jess in a homegrown series,
Mean Mums (TV3, Tuesdays). She’s new to the town and brings her son Ryan to Kate Sheppard Primary. She joins uptight Heather and laid-back Hine on the junior fundraising committee. Sounds familiar?
It could be any New Zealand primary school. They organise a sausage sizzle to raise $150,000 for the school and, after costs are met, hand over $243 and a packet of raisins.
O’reilly sizzles more than the rest as she mixes up the halal, vegan and kosha snarlers. Then she dumps the orders by mistake in the compost bin.
Jess is a wonderful character. Sometimes she’s a banger short of a barbecue. Often her elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top. Then she offers a sausage to the PC staff and they take the lot. But, on other occasions, she’s the saving grace.
Mean Mums is a promising new series with O’reilly as its key ingredient, besides the sausage.
Instant Hotel (TV2, Mondays) had the sort of contrived finish that only a World Cup Cricket final can bring. It’s contrived to begin with and, I imagine, it deserved that sort of ending.
In the reality show, four Australian couples turn their homes into instant hotels. They host each other and then assess their experience.
Criteria for judging is home, location, night’s sleep and value for money. Woe betide a stray hair, dirty sheet, runny egg or lack of privacy in the toilet. That would start a chain reaction.
In the final episode, the couples gathered at Gene and Sharon’s North Queensland eco-hideaway.
Gene is an ageing rocker or raging Ocker, many transplants ago. He once did the New Zealand pop circuit in the 1960s to avoid military service in Vietnam. Now, the couple have an impressive property in tropical rain forest, south of Cairns. Modesty is not part of their lexicon.
In Monday’s episode they had to beat Debbie and Justin’s total of 100 out of 120. They came up short by one point when Juliet marked them lower than her fellow judge, Lawrence.
Gene and Sharon were indignant, but everyone else was pleased. So were the viewers.
Yes, it’s the season for TV contests. The bigger, the glitzier, the better. None comes with more razzmatazz than America’s Got Talent (TV3, Saturdays).
Sometimes she’s a banger short of a barbecue.
While it makes for a spectacle, two features areevident. The quartet of judges, including Simon Cowell, are no longer judging. They’re just fawning individuals who deliver a dynasty of drivel.
Unbelievable, amazing, incredible and ‘‘I love you a lot’’ have replaced valued judgments. Mind you, most of the acts are superb, but all deserve evaluation.
Secondly, novelty acts have mostly replaced talented individuals who can sing, dance or act. If you can set yourself on fire, toss people in the air, be triple jointed, impersonate Donald Trump and impale yourself while playing the piano from the inside, you’ll progress to the next round.
Yes, it’s a great spectacle and, when blind and autistic Kodi Lee sang A Song For You, it was almost worthwhile.
There’s something inherently strange about The £100k Drop (TV2, Sundays). All teams start with £100,000, but gradually lose it if their answer is incorrect or they place their money on the wrong ‘‘drop’’. There’s no fun in that.
It’s better to start with nothing, increase your winnings with every correct answer and leave with a few thousand. Just ignore the Good Book about gaining the whole world and losing your soul. It’s not good for quiz shows.