'Thank god you're here, grandma's been raped!'

Jacob here. Thanks again to Chesty for adding me as a contributor to this blog, and a big hoy-hoy to the readers of this now fledgling blog escapade. I just know we'll be the best of friends! *curtsy*

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Now, down to my first ever post!



Tonight was of course the first episode of Chris Lilley's new series Summer Heights High, his first project since the wildly successful (and milk-snortingly hilarious) We Can Be Heroes. I watched that series and loved every episode, all six of the fictional nominees for Australian of the Year seemed to strike a chord in some way or another, and Chris Lilley's aptitude for character acting impressed me no end.



I remember that by the end of the series I was completely hooked. Unfortunately I missed the final episode because I was at some thing for school - against my will mind you - so I didn't know what happened in the end. When I bought the DVD, I couldn't wait to find out which one of them won, and I am ashamed to say that I actually cried when Pat Mullins died. I cried for poor Terry ("you make me very merry!") for having lost his wife, and she didn't even get to complete her roll to Uluru! Sad.

That's what is so great about Chris Lilley: making his creations so bloody convincing. Some of you might remember when he was interviewed on radio as Ja'mie King that a few idiotic listeners called in to complain about her, believing she was for real. How stupid of the Seven network to let the ABC snatch him up for his own show, when he was on The Big Bite, a show that I can't even remember, so it must have been a while ago. In fact, Wednesday night is such an enviable night for the other commercial stations, what with Spicks and Spicks (which I love) and followed by the Chaser (which, awesomely, has returned after a short break), but that's another post entirely.

After watching the first episode tonight, I quite like the set of characters this series. Ja'mie King is back again. How could she not be? She's clearly his best character: she's offensive, in a funny way, and Shiva H Vishnu does she ever ring a few familiar bells! You know the kind... overachieving beeyatches with a superiority complex and a gaggle of subservient girlfriends and a penchant for describing everything as “random”. I love the bit where she's giving a welcoming speech to the school, subtly insulting the students as she shows them a gratuitous slide show of her modelling photos. I wonder if there will be another group dance routine, like in Heroes? That’d be ace.



There's also Mr G, the effeminate drama teacher, and Jonah, the recidivist bully who likes to draw the ‘cock and balls’ sign on every available surface. I think he's supposed to be an "Islander" or something, but his accent was sort of a weird jumble of South African and New Zealand, with a bit of a wog inflection thrown in for good measure. A quick shuffle over to the Summer Heights High website informs me that he is indeed Tongan. Hm. Anyway. I didn't find Jonah as funny as the other two characters, but there's still seven more glorious episodes to go... yay!

Lots of gay jokes abound in the character of Mr G. He makes me wonder whether my high school drama experience might have been different if I didn't always have female drama teachers. He sounds a lot like Pat Mullins, but he's channelling a bit of Ricky Wong's spirit, labouring under the misapprehension that he is, in fact, a decent actor. Once again I love the reactions of his students, who are all actual students at the high school where the mockumentary was filmed, when he says and does completely bizarre stuff.
In case you were a little bemused by the title of this post, that's one of the lines that Mr G came out with at the start of one of his improvisational theatre-sports type games. I laughed until my clacker ached. Grandma wasn't too impressed with my sense of humour.

I liked also the support cast, who I firmly believe were a great factor in the success of Heroes. The principal, a few of the teachers, Jonah and Ja’mie’s friends, and Jonah’s dad all make Chris Lilley’s interactions as funny as they are. I hope that in the coming episodes Ja’mie’s mother from the previous series will make an appearance - that scene where Ja’mie raged into the telephone and to her mum was pure molten comedy gold.

Summer Heights High - I thought it was a terrific first episode. Chris Lilley's performances all sort of seem to be a bit rehashed from his earlier characters, but that's to be expected I suppose.

The newsies are saying that this series will be "controversial" which is journalist speak for "it will prompt someone somewhere to complain" but what really matters is that he does it well, extremely well in fact, and I already can't wait for next week.

What did y'all think? Was it as good as We Can Be Heroes?


Summer Heights High airs on ABC TV at 9:30 on Wednesday nights.