Local comedy laying it on thick
Agent Anna needs a good helping of subtlety to execute promising premise without the cringe factor
took on Grant, the sleaziest client in the universe, in the first scene alone.
I felt sorry for Joel Tobeck having to play Grant, whose sleaziness was writ so large he kept calling Anna “Tits”, before moving on to some dislocated humour involving housebreaking and a sex toy.
Back at the office, Clint the boss does seem faintly real as a bit of an old duffer in the hands of Roy Billing, who looks (and acts) like our own Bob Hoskins.
But elsewhere the character cliches are laid on pretty thick with uber-alpha star salesman Leon (Adam Gardiner) and ultra-cougar Sandi (Theresa Healey) stalking the scenes like the good actors they are, unfortunately in search of a good line.
I’m not sure Adam’s advice to Anna on how to handle the boss was one of those. “Lick the royal sausage and he’ll never fire you,” he told her. I wrote that down under my list of awkward moments, which was pretty long by the end of it. Others included a ridiculous nightclub scene and some weird business in the back of a cab with Anna and Clint.
To be fair, there was one funny moment — when Anna was presented with her tiny office car, her face painted all over the side, with her eyes eye-catchingly missing where the windows met the doors.
Not laugh-out-loud exactly, but certainly funnier than all the mugging that went before.
Though, strangely, the promo shots for episode two looked livelier, as if something might rise from all this awkwardness. Here’s hoping.
I do so much want to like disliking real estate agents.