Starring as the main actor, producer and director in all of his critically acclaimed sketches, Chris Lilley was my favourite one-man band. So, when I sat down to watch his new Netflix show ‘Lunatics,’ I expected nothing other than his usual ingenious writing, slick directing and clever producing. Unfortunately, I watched the opposite unfold.
Amongst the bunch of Australian lunatics is Becky, an abnormally large teen, loveable but painfully naive. She’s relentlessly bullied by boys in baseball jackets (of course) and spends her day making her room look like a nursery classroom.
Then there’s Quentin, an egotistical real estate agent who spends his father’s money like a kid who’s just discovered his parents’ Ebay. He’s arrogant, annoying and egotistical. There were a few other characters but these two were probably the least funny out of the lot. Well, not just unfunny, but painfully unfunny. A severe choice of words maybe, but it seemed rather fitting as I sat in front of my screen cringing and wincing at Lilley’s characters unfold without any solid entertainment value or integrity.
I tried to laugh, I really did, and I suppose a giggle surfaced when the giant teen got her hair caught in a fan when running down a hallway. But the laughs were far too rare throughout the series to call this show funny. The estate agent randomly had a massive arse, which could provide a strong base for humour, but instead Lilley stuck with the most obvious and predictable of gags, leaving me unsure at which points I was meant to laugh at.
The friends and family of his main acts are arguably even more annoying. Quentin’s brothers float around in the background and respond to Quentin like puppies eager to please, an unlikely brotherly relationship. Becky’s sister abandons her for the ‘cool’ kids and reunites with her near the end after she gets over the embarrassment for her sister. The relationship between these two seems awkward and forced and unfortunately, the acting seems to match this rather well.
The most disappointing aspect of the show is that it showed potential to be a work of comedy genius. But Lilley managed to swerve all subtlety and landed straight into the arms of cheap and unsophisticated humour.
Mockumentaries are no longer anything new, so maybe they’ve grown tired and stale, or maybe it’s just Lilley’s writing that’s run its course. But determined the series was going to improve, I forced myself through each episode – needless to say, it doesn’t improve. If you’re looking for something to lighten your mood, switch on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, or maybe some of Lilley’s earlier work because Lunatics will leave you staring at the screen, confused and subdued, thinking “…was that it?”
Loud Mouthed 