By TANIA PHILLIPS
THE Weekly with Charlie Pickering, ABC, Wednesday, 8.30pm
SOME shows hit the ground running and others are a slow burn, quietly getting better as they go along.
Here’s hoping The Weekly with Charlie Pickering is the latter because the first episode was a little uninspiring and not quite there.
There was a bit to love although comparisons were immediately being made to John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, though Pickering himself said he’d been watching a lot of Clive James in preparation.
Even if Oliver or James are the starting point for this show – they’re damned good starting points and something to build on and let develop into its own beast.
I love a good satirical program and let’s face it -they are few and far between on Australian television these days.
There were big hopes for this show – Charlie Pickering was the main reason I tuned in to The Project – he is affable, thoughtful, intelligent and funny. His piracy piece at the top of the show was funny and thought-provoking but after a while I was hoping it would end soon.
The first episode had sporadic moments of humour thanks to Pickering and the usually dependable Tom Gleeson however Kitty Flanagan, often a solid comedic presence, fell flat as things veered from mildly funny to try-hard. First night nerves? One can only hope!
Pickering’s interview with Sam Neill, including the actor promising to name a duck after him, was the high point, Flanagan’s cringe-worthy piece on question time, the low.
But hey – everyone has to start somewhere, right? And it can’t be that easy following in the footsteps of Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell which was previously screening on a Wednesday night on the ABC. It’s too easy to make a comparison between the two shows but with this one just settling in and Mad As Hell on air for four years it’s hardly fair. Micallef has hit his stride – Pickering is still finding his way.
But at this stage with so little satirical comedy making it onto the main networks and with Pickering’s previous performances it’s too early to give up on this. The potential is there – on paper it looked great. Fingers crossed it lives up to the hype!
– Tania Phillips
