The TV Set: It's Hard To Like Josh Thomas

Unfortunately for Josh Thomas, the first many people heard about about the local comedian's new TV show was that it was originally slotted to air on ABC1 last year but turned up in 2013 on ABC2.

Then came the theories. Some think Please Like Me (Thursdays, 9.30pm) was moved because its humour is too dark. Others suggest it was moved because it was too gay. But there are those of us who believe that it was moved because it was too bad.

Since when has ABC1 shied away from dark laughs? Did you not see Laid? It was about a serial-killing vagina. As for too gay. Did you not see Outland? The five leading characters were gay and lesbian of all flavours. Please Like Me dishes up a rather vanilla serving of gay in comparison.

Josh Thomas does good stand-up and his presence on commercial network TV let him into Straight Australia via hit panel show Talkin' Bout Your Generation. In the UK, giving a cult comic a low-budget short-run series was once a common way to ease stand-up comedians into the mainstream for the BBC. In Australia, the ABC have been having a good go at it as well in recent years. From Adam Richards' aforementioned Outland to Sam Simmons' Problems, the ABC (both 1 and 2) have been attempting to bring us new kinds of laughs. The hope being that sooner or later another comedy act will connect in the way that Chris Lilley, Jane Turner and Gina Riley did, then the government-funded network can ring up some more merchandise earnings. Thomas would seem a likely candidate to earn Aunty some Lilley-like dollars. 

But a Josh Thomas sit-com brings a unique distraction with it. That accent. What is it? Melbourne hipster by way of Brisbane, Ireland? [Yeah, yeah, Irish parentage, we know... but that doesn't explain its continual phonological shifts.] Anyway, concentrating on Please Like Me's debut was overshadowed by a game of Pin The Accent On The Comedian. A bit of a google for 'josh thomas accent' put that distraction to rest (the parents... as mentioned in the square parenthesis earlier). That's when it hits. The title's needs can't be met.

There are things you could almost like. The writing, credited to Thomas, is funny in theory. It's just not funny in delivery - last year's twentysomething had a similar problem on ABC1. Both shows are attempting to give voices to a specific generation niche, one that wants to appear edgier than any that came before it yet needing to appear nonchalant about being that way (you know the types, likely to name their pet rabbit Ketamine because they name all their pets after retro recreational drugs). It's a hard act to pull off and, like twentysomething, Please Like Me fails at it. Girls it ain't.

It's possible that the rehearsing-for-a-regional-play dialogue is an attempt at stylised delivery but many of the actors are not up to it. Scenes between Thomas' character Josh and his bff Tom, played by Thomas Ward, seem to drag on endlessly. While Thomas' naturally cheeky off-screen charm can get him through most scenes, Ward always sounds like he's reading out text from the side of a cereal box.  

The show attempts to slip between whimsical laughs and moments of poignant drama as Thomas romps through a coming-out tale of sorts. [And by ep two it was veering horribly close to the set-up of UK comic Simon Amstell's Grandma's House.] But the comedy and soap drama sit uncomfortably together. Director Matthew Saville has worked on impressive dramas in the past (Tangle, The Slap) but has had mixed results in comedy (the good: We Can Be Heroes; the bad: Big Bite; and the meh: Hamish & Andy). It's possible that much of what's gone wrong here may be more Saville's fault than Thomas' problems.

Likely lads Wade Briggs and Josh Thomas

But it's not all bad. Please Like Me provides a couple of impressive showings from the support cast. TV noob Wade Briggs, as Josh's boyfriend - who at first glance seemed likely to be the token non-talent pretty boy – is the only one of the young cast to pull off a naturalistic performance and he comfortably rolls between the comic and dramatic moments. Then there's veteran Judi Farr (Laid, The Year My Voice Broke), who is just one of those people you can watch on TV until the cows come home. Her, we do like.