I mentioned last week that I was excited about this show coming up and now that I've seen the first episode, I'm still excited.
I'm a believer that you need to give any new show a grace period of a couple of episodes to find its feet - and when you're dealing with a show that is heavily reliant on the news events of the week you could probably even give it a little longer.
The good news is that Newstopia is pretty well up to speed already - there were a few bumps and jitters - Micallef didn't seem 100% at home just yet and some of the pacing was a tiny bit off - but seriously, this is all stuff that comes with practice. When it was good it was very very good and when it was bad it was still ok.
There's nothing up on YouTube just yet but you can watch the full episode (minus the ads, which is nice) here on the SBS website.
A few of the highlights - off the top of my head - were:
- making the connection that Wallabies is a cross between wallies and wannabes
- an interview with an ACTU rep who interrupted the first question with her answer and then proceeded into a spectacular asking yourself the question then answering it then asking yourself another question then answering it etc monologue that is becoming a popular media tactic these days (made famous by Donald Rumsfeld)
- a 3way interview where the Liberal and Labor party reps frantically searched for reasons why they are the underdogs in the upcoming election, most of the points revolving around how good the other side are
- a trick sbs drama promo - first one into the "ad break" that turned out to be Inspector Herring (hopefully they won't over-milk this gag)
- and a good swag of Kevin Andrews Sudan stuff
(Might have to take another look as there was a lot more to it - including the usual Micallef shattering the fourth wall stuff)
Just for a taster, here's the promo
