Television - This Week: Blurring the Lines
The Sunday Age
Sunday June 7, 2009
In the new melting-pot media world, trying to figure out what kind of show you're watching is part of the fun, writes Melinda Houston. Look! There on the telly! Is it a drama? Is it a comedy? Is it a documentary? No, it's a dramockumentary. Or maybe a comedentary. Or perhaps a dramedentary? Whatever label you want to give it, Office Tigers is compelling, largely thanks to some imaginative genre-bending.British filmmaker Liz Mermin has used the techniques and mood of The Office to turn the mockumentary style back on itself. Her material - a US-run outsourcing operation in Chennai - is 100 per cent factual and unrehearsed. But the result is a documentary that's as funny, and as discomforting, as the scripted comedy it affectionately emulates.It's an approach we'd like to see more of. And not just in documentaries. Once you decide to throw away the rule book, the possibilities are endless.For instance, politics has already been turned into one very successful drama, The West Wing. But how about politics as a soap? Question time isn't exactly a ratings blockbuster, but imagine if we reshaped it as a daily half-hour relationship drama as, say, a lead-in to the news. There's all the passion, infighting, backstabbing, scheming, inappropriate liaisons, gazing into the middle distance and sheer tedium of a soap all on tap. All it would take is a brainstorming session between Fremantle Media and the various Canberra bureaus to knock it into shape, and voila! Appointment television.60 Minutes and Sunday Night are already in the process of remaking themselves as Shitscared, regularly featuring reporters engaging in dangerous stunts to no obvious end. But we could take this further. Other segments, like the interviews and profiles, could be enlivened by conducting them over a Wipeout or Gladiators-like course. Political interviews in particular would find a whole new audience. Who wouldn't want to see Joe Hockey and Wayne Swan going at it with giant styrofoam cudgels?And speaking of political interviews, maybe we could bring a little "faction" to proceedings by recruiting Lie to Me's Cal Lightman or The Mentalist's Patrick Jane as expert commentators. As part of a panel or in some kind of split-screen arrangement, these master readers of facial expressions and body language could provide invaluable feedback on who's telling the biggest porkies, and why. And perhaps spot the odd serial killer.As for the list of real-life events we'd prefer to see as fiction - well, it's endless really. How much more pleasant if all those wars, domestic tragedies and natural catastrophes were presented to us simply as ripping yarns, a whole stable of Band of Brothers, SVUs and Underbellys.We're already blurring the lines. Next week ABC1 screens Three Acts of Murder - a dramatisation of the true story of a murderer who uses a novel as a blueprint for dastardly crimes - directly against Seven's Castle, a complete fiction in which a crime writer helps a detective solve "real life" murders.Dramas and comedies being presented as documentaries have a long and honourable history; the docudrama (RPA, Find My Family, Bondi Rescue) is now a primetime staple; as is the dramedy (Bones, NCIS, Grey's Anatomy).Perhaps the greatest practitioner of genre-bending is David E. Kelly, who brought not just comedy but musical numbers and hallucinogenic fantasy to a legal drama in Ally McBeal and then pushed the boat out further with Boston Legal.While makers of reality shows already know that whatever else happens, a series must follow the traditional narrative arc, once we're committed to thinking outside the box, there's plenty of scope for cross fertilisation even within the genre.Imagine a Biggest Loser-meets-Australian Idol-via-MasterChef. It'd bring a whole new meaning to singing for your supper. Wannabe models could be compelled to learn a second skill (dressmaking, interior design) for the inevitable day - sometime in the next 18 months - when their looks fail them. Or maybe the next time a photographer or talent scout criticises a 16-year-old for having "chunky" thighs, the Biggest Loser's Shannan and Michelle could burst onto set and force them to perform 200 squats while holding the 40-kilo schoolgirl above their heads.Put simply, television works better when we bend the rules and blur the boundaries. Sure, there'll always be a place for the pure: the comedies that are nothing but silliness, the dramas that leave you wracked and drained, the unadorned docos where the content speaks for itself. But in the new melting-pot media world, trying to figure out exactly what it is you're watching is already a big part of the fun. And we're only just scratching the surface.Office Tigers, Wednesday 8pm, SBSARE YOU FOR REAL?Some of the best shows on telly blur the lines between fact and fiction.We Could Be Heroes Plenty of people tuning into the Chris Lilley comedy for the first time thought they were actually watching a documentary. A credit to him, but a sad reflection on the typical Aussie hero.Creature Comforts The delicious Aardman animation combines genuine vox pops with plasticine animals to create a not-so-alternate reality where dogs, cats, beetles and blowflies really are just like us.Spooks The simple trick of presenting a drama without opening or closing credits created the powerful impression we were watching real covert spy footage. Add a propensity to kill off key characters at the drop of a hat, and Spooks has us at least wanting to believe.
© 2009 The Sunday Age