TV review: Diplomatic Immunity
BY JANE CLIFTON
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OPINION: A suspicious person - and there are a few of those in Wellington since the change of government - could wonder if TV One's new comedy Diplomatic Immunity is covert propaganda.
At a time when the Government is controversially overhauling our foreign aid bureaucracy, here is a comedy series based on one - blessedly fictional - Pacific nation's wiliness in extorting, rorting and squandering New Zealand taxpayers' money.
Perhaps this is an inappropriate response, but this is inherently funny. The people of The Most Royal Royal Kingdom of Fe'ausi are so likeably dodgy and ingenious, the implication is that our Foreign Affairs wallahs have been so flat-footed they deserve to be made monkeys.
The plot is in the fine old Yes, Minister tradition, taking place in the alternative universe created by bureaucrats. Bright, young foreign-affairs star Leighton (Craig Parker) has put himself in the dogbox by being caught shagging a young British royal in a limousine outside Government House.
One assumes State Services Commissioner Iain Rennie conducted the inquiry into this malfeasance, because Leighton has managed to keep his job, but his penalty has been to be banished to the biggest hospital pass the foreign service can conceive: attache to the Fe'ausian High Commission, which is the Mickey Mouse haven of a staff of Fe'ausians whose sole purpose is to rip off aid money.
In order to redeem his brilliant career, Leighton has to clean up Fe'ausi's act. But he is up against the High Commissioner, Jonah, played with a stupendous blend of hauteur, venality, cheek and gloriously flashy suits by Dave Fane - who it's good to see getting a starring role.
Naturally, Leighton is stitched up immediately, given an office in a cupboard, and has his head filled with conflicting nonsense by the variously batty commission staff.
There is the dippy young receptionist who, although as silly as 10 chooks, is about the most reliable source of information; the nymphomaniac tourism officer; the creepy, extremely thick cultural officer; and most bizarrely, John Leigh playing the supposedly albino Fe'ausian economic adviser, whose main job seems to be to do the cleaning.
In and out of the commission storms Leilani (Lesley-Ann Brandt), Jonah's beautiful young daughter, who has been banished from the kingdom for her militant leadership of the Fe'ausian democratic movement.
It appears she is this movement's sole adherent, but nonetheless effective for it. Her self-appointed job is to sabotage her father's interests, while rampaging about in fetching bathing gear waving pro-democracy placards.
The series will follow the Yes, Minister see-saw pattern of the forces of reason - Leighton, being overwhelmed by the forces of barmy bureaucracy, Jonah - but sometimes prevailing, at least for a few beats between the ad breaks.
Naturally, Leighton falls hopelessly in love with Leilani.
So is it any good? Yes, in a curious way. So far, there are not many laugh-out-loud moments. It's the premise that's funny, rather than the dialogue.
This is a bit of a disconnect, because it's a bold, hammy, superbright sort of comedy, from which you expect major pratfalls and belly laughs.
But the laughs it generates are more for its subtleties - the ironies in the plot, the quite believable farce of the diplomacy involved.
It's possible that the capering is too big for the content. The supporting cast is a little lurid, using up too much oxygen.
Then again, if this had been styled in the understated mockumentary way of The Office, say, it wouldn't have been as accessible to a general audience.
Uber-liberals beware: no-one with tender ethnic sensibilities should watch it, because it's possible to become gravely offended at the portrayal of Fe'ausians.
But as a sit-com, Diplomatic Immunity is highly watchable. What's not to like about wiley diplomats who bamboozle foreign affairs officials with bogus cultural traditions, made up as they go along, and changed abruptly - "We've discovered new ancient lore"?
It's also an ongoing gag that Leighton, who isn't stupid, has to intuit when it would be wise to play stupid - one of the arts of diplomacy.
Sadly, the odds of this show being a hit, which it deserves to be, have been diminished by its late 10pm timeslot.
* What do you think of Diplomatic Immunity? Post your comments below.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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Just flew back to Oz from NZ and saw this hilarious comedy on the flight .. I want more ... it is a little 'Arrested Development' style of funny (yeah, sure it is a bit silly but a good laugh) not meant to be taken seriously.
Really love this show! But if it wasn't for tvnzondemand.co.nz I would have missed nearly all the episodes. Perfect way to waste a brilliant programme, put it on TV1 at 10pm - its really not the kind of programme that is going to appeal to a TV1 crowd to start with. Change the channel and viewing time and it would be massively popular. They just better put it out on DVD.
in response to mams #55
Not quite sure what you mean about people who not liking the show must "...prefer a particular cultural worldview".
I watched two eps. I didn't laugh. Why? Because -the humour is stale. Past its use-by -date. I didnt laugh because- I don't find puns funny. Because -the sight of a bare bum to get a laugh takes me back to the days of Benny Hill. because -the 'cultural clash' aspect you mention isn't 'politically incorrect', ("Dumb whitey!" "Nah- You a dumb Brownie!")it's lazy. Because -the characters are all sub HI DE HI! cliches (do we really need to see another sex-starved nymphomaniac dressing up in silly costumes?, groan) Still, in a country where Billy T dvds get rereleased every yr and people still seEm to think thats funny, I guess DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY tickles a few funny bones.
Geez, lighten up people. I watched this show for the first time this week and found it a total and delightful crackup! I was actually expecting to cringe and found I didn't have to. I found myself laughing out loud at the sheer bloody cheek of much of it. There are some pretty spot-on yet affectionate observations about clashes of culture and about cultural stereotypes here that worked for me and many of my acquaintance. I wonder if any of the vitriol above comes from, well, let's just say those who prefer a particular cultural worldview. This is not the Office, this is not Conchords, this is more Bro' town without some of the m-rated vulgarity but the same sort of poking the borax at our cultural assumptions and political correctness. Not perfect, but gleeful and takes the piss nicely. Thanks Dave Fane and co! LOL!!!!
Sadly, once again, the feel of this New Zealand "comedy" show is very much that of a 70's sitcom ... it seems, yet again, subtlety is a risk TVNZ (or production companies) are not prepared to take. Have we learnt nothing from 'Welcome to Paradise'?
It's all clearly reflective of TVNZ's "one-show-for-all" strategy - which is inevitably doomed. I personly can't stand 'Bro Town', but love 'The Office'. Many would be diameterically opposed to me. That's fine, that's the way comedy goes, but the idea we can make a PURE comedy that will appeal to eveyone is fatally flawed.
But what I REALLY can't understand is why all (excuse the hyperbole, MOST) of New Zealand's television comedy budget via NZoA and TVNZ seems to be spent on Samoan-related shows. I'm not saying that the Naked Samoans et al don't make some good stuff ... but the vast majority of New Zealand are not Pacific Islanders, and many (in my humble opinion) might like to see a better cross section of "kiwi humour".
'Flight of the Conchords' and 'Diplomatic Immunity' are both "kiwi comedy" ... but under TVNZ and co, only the likes of the latter get made. Perhaps it's time we gave someone else a chance? Can't we look to some stand-up comedians - ie. follow the American system - and see if we can develop something from the grass-roots, rather than the established production companies that continue to fail us?
Ahhh...New Zealand and sitcoms, they just never work. I don't know where they go wrong, we have funny people, we have funny ideas, yet we can't put them together for 1/2 hour.
Billy T James a hilarous comedian, awful sitcom, Welcome to Paradise...HA the only joke was the actual show and the fact someone gave it money.
I think Flight of the conchords should thank their lucky stars tvnz didn't pick them up otherwise their show would have sucked too. Yes Bret and Jermaine surely provide most of the jokes and their acting brillant, but the american sitcom experiance manages to collate and present it in a workable format. That kiwis just cannot get right.
I think New Zealanders should stick with what we know and that is sketch comedy, why not fund a programme like saturday night live....we can do improv and sketchs, but 1/2 hour that is too much...
And who are these people defending these shows, how many people can these shows employ? they all seem to defend it. And how much money does it really take to bribe all reviewers in NZ. Saying this show was not universally panned refers of course to the bribed reviewers not the general public who think its horrible...
The 'Diplomatic Immunity' show was garbage - terribly unfunny. The worldview was embarrassingly primitive and infantile. - It resembled something put together by school kids for performance at school Assembly... Scene after scene of the script falling back on laboured and lazy stereotypes which at times could be viewed as ethnically insulting...
Last nights second installment kept pushing this wafer-thin 'gag' about a cyclone - was it really coming - or was it an 'April fool' / 'Punk'd' type prank ? Did a certain island exist or was the map wrong? Could the islanders fool the NZ Government into giving them $3 million or would they perhaps see through their ruse? (!) Boring and witless. Far from actually raising a smile, it just made you cringe... It was about as funny as witnessing someone putting a drawing-pin on someone's chair before launching into loud, raucous & forced laughter. - A bit they did in fact feature in this episode in order to pad out the running time (and they chucked in the whoopee-cushion fart joke too while they were at it). All sad and brain-dead stuff.
The amount of mediocre and sub-mediocre crap coming from TVNZ over recent years is amazing. Especially attempts at situation-comedy, but 'Sugar Shack' and 'Dare to Win' from other genres stand out as other low points. How does so much sub-standard talent keep getting the green light from their management team...
JD Christchurch
Rarely have I seen anything as embarassingly awful as this rubbish. Diplomatic Immunity was confused and confusing, very poorly written, and not at all funny. I suspect a ten year old could write a funnier and more literate script- or was it written by a ten year old? The comparisons with Yes Minister is the only joke here, and it is at the expense of TV One.
This show is like watching the worst seventies comedy you remember on valium. It makes every episode of 'Joani loves Chauchi' seem like the best episode of Seinfeld. If global comedy war beaks out tvnz can proudly wave their flagship comedy as a surrender flag. What ever Jane was smoking when she reviewed this I want some too!
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