I watched the new ABC social comedy ‘Marking Time’ last night. I was just going to watch a few minutes and then change over to view the awfully slick Indiana Jones movie again, but I got caught up in it and watched the whole show. Normally, coming of age in a country town and overcoming cultural boundaries are not themes that excite me, but the show was so uniformly good that I really enjoyed it.
We are seeing the rise of two genuine talents in Oz TV – John Doyle and Geof Morrell. Doyle is taking on some of those issues mainstream Oz, and it chorus leader, John Howard, would rather forget about. His Roy Slaven persona shows just how easy it is to be a ‘normal’ Aussie bloke – just talk loud and tough all the time. In his writing Doyle shows what a fraud this attitude really is. Geof Morrell is showng what the Aussie bloke should be like – smart, sensitive and articulate, and decent, even when, like the Mayor in ‘Grass Roots’, he doesn’t particularly want to be.
When the political culture stagnates – like ours has – popular culture has to help keep our consciences active, so it’s great to see such excellent material.