Dark delights in black comedy
A Kiwi comedy collective has risen to the top of its game with a new series, writes James Croot.
All it took was 30 days. Just a month to wipe one-half of the population off the Earth. Eight years on and the remaining residents of Hiro Valley are living in seemingly perfect harmony.
Sure there might not be any men any more, but judicious use of the pre-virus sperm bank supplies is ensuring repopulation is possible (although only girls have a chance of a live birth).
Like everything else, that’s run by Wellness and its charismatic leader Lane (Tandi Wright). Being bloke-free has enabled them to provide free education and healthcare for all, as well as mandatory menstruation leave. That’s the seemingly utopian backdrop to TVNZ’s new acerbic, sci-fiinfused black comedy Creamerie (streaming now on TVNZ OnDemand, as well as screening on Monday nights on TVNZ2).
But while most of the populace are content with their way of life, three disparate dairy farmers each have their own reasons to want change. Jamie (JJ Fong) is desperate to have another baby, Alex (Ally Xue) rails against all the ‘‘rules’’ (‘‘guys’’ is now a trigger word and weekly orgasms are more than encouraged) and Pip (Perlina Lau) is struggling to climb the Wellness corporate ladder.
The latter is definitely not helped by Alex’s outrageous behaviour, especially the most recent incident involving a very public flaxseed and spinach smoothie ‘‘assault’’ on Lane. That earned Alex a five-day ‘‘bliss-recorrection’’ and accusatory looks from the crowd towards the other two.
Fortunately, that didn’t stop Jamie ‘‘winning’’ the winter population lottery and a chance at pregnancy. However, she is doubly dismayed when she discovers that there’s not only another hurdle to overcome, but Alex has taken pre-meditated steps to ensure her time-out is much shorter than the authorities had planned.
When Jamie and Pip arrive back home to find her missing, they begin a frantic search to ensure she and, more importantly, others don’t come to any harm. However, the first person they run into is certainly not who they would ever have expected.
Despite the premise, initial aesthetics and the presence of the luminous Wright, this is no dystopian drama akin to the underrated, sadly shortlived This is Not My Life. Instead it’s an at times anarchic, kind of antiHandmaid’s Tale that’s not for the easily offended.
Our main trio are messy, complicated, straight-talking women and those unfamiliar with the production team’s previous shows Flat3 and Friday Night Bites could be in for either a hilarious surprise, or rude shock. Fans of the work of Fong, Lau, Xue and director Roseanne Liang (hotter than hot right now thanks to her brilliant Chloe Grace Moretz-starring action
movie Shadow in the Cloud), who also serves as one of Creamerie’s four writers, will be delighted to see them tackle another genre and network prime-time with their sensibilities and subversiveness intact.
It is also great to see a production that gathers together
large numbers of our deep bench of phenomenally talented female actors/comedians for something that isn’t a sketch comedy. As well as those mentioned earlier, look out for Kim Crossman, Rachel House, Brynley Stent and Sara Wiseman.
From the faux Wellness advertisements to the Goop-y
leadership of Wright’s Lane and farming-influenced ‘‘dirty talk’’ involving silage, Creamerie delivers full-bodied and flavoured adult humour with no trace of cheese.
Creamerie is streaming now on TVNZ OnDemand, and is on Monday nights on TVNZ2.