Summer Heights High » Reviews

Episode Five
Sydney Morning Herald

Tonight Ja'mie pleads for a year 11 formal.

Tonight Ja'mie pleads for a year 11 formal, Jonah mentors a year 7 boy and Mr G is furious when told to include special-ed kids in his musical production.

Chris Lilley has been copping flak for this show, which is not surprising as the humour is deliberately provocative. The humour, however, needs to be seen in context and that can't be appreciated until all eight episodes have aired. The fuss over the ecstasy death storyline, for example, will seem ludicrously overblown as the show develops. Even Jonah, who seems at first to be little more than a negative racial stereotype played for laughs, develops into a more complex, sympathetic figure.

Summer Heights High is an ambitious project. It is an impressive acting exercise (you never doubt Mr G, Ja'mie and Jonah are distinct characters), a hilarious study of self-absorption (Mr G and Ja'mie are like Australian versions of David Brent) and social critique (Jonah is as much a victim as a bully). It may not fully realise its considerable potential but it is streets ahead of most TV comedy.

- Greg Hassall