ThingsAmongMany

I’m not usually much of one to go ga-ga over a TV show. Most of what’s on the air these days doesn’t warrant mention, let alone the time it takes to watch. And I won’t even touch on reality TV. Though, I’ll admit, I’m a huge fan of Hulu and have been known to kill an evening over a couple of episodes of whatever catches my eye here and there. So it was with that in mind that I turned on the double-length premier of Kings, NBC’s newest drama starring Ian McShane (of Deadwood).

While I enjoyed the first episode, I watched it in the background while playing online and didn’t give it a ton of though. It wasn’t until I was chatting with a fellow theatre-minded friend who pointed out the Shakespearean nature that it hit me. The following couple episodes really hit home for me. Not only is the show well produced, the writing is phenomenal. Absolutely fantastic! And the character development and storyline could have been ripped directly from your favorite Shakespeare play. Don’t take my word for it though. Just listen to the language in this clip (sorry about the ad - you can thank NBC for that one):

I sat down a few weeks ago to watch TV, always gravitating towards some mindless reality show when I really wanna veg, and decided to see what HBO had to offer. There was this show called Summer Height High. With a quick skimming of the program synopsis, “A reality crew follows the lives of the students and staff at a typical Australian public highschool for one term”, I knew I was gonna love it.

And did I love it — but the joke was on me. I thought I was going to be watching a real documentary. Well it didn’t take long for me to figure it out, Summer Heights High is a Mokumentary (think The Office meets Best In Show). And it captures the hilarity/absurdity/stupidity/awesomness of reality tv drama in the smartest of ways.

Just like the synopsis promised it follows the lives of three students/staff at a public highschool.
There are the three subjects:

• 1. Jonah Takalua: a year 8, 13 year old boy with severe ADD and an attitude problem.
• 2. Mr. G: A 36 year old overly enthusiastic drama teacher, with an affinity for his chihuahua and himself.
• 3. Ja’Mie: An exchange student from a prestigious all-girls private school.

Here are clips from each of the characters if you still need some convincing: Mr G, Jonah, Ja’Mie.