Matafeo starstruck on small screen
Tvnzonto a winner withrose Matafeo’s Notting Hill-esque Starstruck, writes Jamescroot.
Kiwi comedian Rose Matafeo’s plans for global domination remain on track with the release of this charming and clever sitcom.
Having followed up her Edinburgh fringe festival comedy award victory with increasing ubiquity on United Kingdom panel shows and her first cinematic starring role in
last year’s Baby Done, the multi-talentedmatafeo now has her own sitcom made by the heavy-hitting transAtlantic duo of the BBC and HBO Max.
Starstruck (which debuts on TVNZ2 tomorrow at 9.30pm), co-written with fellow New Zealand funnywoman Alice Snedden, has Matafeo playing Jessie, a London millennial juggling jobs as a feckless nanny and argumentative upmarket cinema worker.
Unhappy with her nonexistent love life, she has to be dragged out on New Year’s Eve by her flatmate Kate (Emma Sidi). Bored senseless – and to excessive drink – by one young man’s exhortations to invest in aluminium and Bitcoin – and that’s before he informs her that he’s ‘‘only interested in Kate’’ – Jessie escapes to the queue-free men’s bathroom to try to regather herself. There, she encounters aman who pulls her up on the faults of her James Bond impression.
Back in the club, attempts not to compliment him and catch his attention fail spectacularly and Jessie soon finds herself in the throes of passion, repeatedly checking that he’s consenting to all this close attention.
Then, with last night a hazy memory, Jessie wakes up stoked with her success, but shocked to discover his picture on a poster downstairs. Turns out he’s the famous film star Tom Kapoor (Nikesh Patel). ‘‘This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me,’’ she stammers, before their banter leads them back into bed again.
Attempting to make sense of it all and consoling herself that she’ll at least always ‘‘be a stain on his sexual history’’, Jessie almost can’t believe it when she runs into him on her way home from the movie theatre. Heading back to his place, Tom expresses a keenness to get to know her better ‘‘so I can describe you to police when you steal my cup’’.
However, her reticence to share becomes even more pronounced when she finds something while fumbling for a cellphone charger in one of his drawers. Hastily making her exit, she runs into a phalanx of paparazzi who, to her relief, instantly decide she must be the cleaner, rather than a potential love interest.
Delivering the same winningly candid, self-effacing style that has been a hallmark of Matafeo’s stand-up shows,
Starstruck is a cringe and charm-filled comedic delight. A kind of gender-swapped
Notting Hill, set around Hackney, it takes aim at modern relationships and mores, more than the nature of celebrity and its impact on the other half. It allows Matafeo to play to her physical and verbal gymnastic strengths, Jessie poorly navigating her way through the nascent ‘‘relationship’’ with Tom, as well as previous partners, co-workers and her flatmate.
Director Karen Maine, who has previously helmed bigscreen, envelope-pushing Jenny Slate and Stranger Things’ Natalia Dyer vehicles Obvious Child and Yes God Yes, here seems to gel well with Matafeo, playing out awkward moments to their full comedic potential, but also ensuring the story never drags.
Viewers may also notice a slight difference between episodes 1 and 2. In the latter, Jessie is more confident and appears to have amore colourful past – perhaps highlighting a distinction between what was essentially a pilot and the series proper.
However, the second stanza does offer an extra reason to watch, a scene-stealing turn by the brilliant Minnie Driver ( Grosse Pointe Blank) as Tom’s agent. Dispensing advice such as, ‘‘if you’re thinking about eating bread, call me, I’ll talk you down’’, she could be just the foil for Matafeo to take Starstruck to even greater heights.