CHRIS LILLEY GOES BACK TO SCHOOL — AFTER A VISIT TO THE MAKEUP CHAIR

TV shows set in high schools are notorious for having overly mature actors relive their teen years. Even still, it’s particularly disconcerting to watch Chris Lilley, 34-year-old writer/creator of the Australian series Summer Heights High, assume the part of 13-year-old delinquent Jonah Takalua or, alternately, transform into the stuck-up grade 11 student Ja’mie King (spelling is pretentiously correct).

But that feeling quickly fades thanks to Lilley’s preternatural performing ability. He plays — no, he inhabits — his characters with such subtle force, nailing the mannerisms, body language and vocal tics, that you almost forget it’s a grown man in drag discussing crushes with a group of teen girls.

Lilley does do one character his own age, and he’s priceless. Drama teacher Mr. G is a flamboyant narcissist with absolutely no self-awareness. He prefers to write his own musicals for his class to perform, such as Tsunamarama (“a musical about the tsunami tragedy set to the music of Banarama”).

Summer Heights High is an eight-part mockumentary in the vein of The Office or Waiting for Guffman — Mr. G’s story arc revolves around his newest production, which is based on the ecstasy overdose of one of the students. (A dance remix of the musical’s theme, “Naughty Girl,” became a smash single in Australia.)  The epically self-involved Ja’mie is a privileged exchange student from a private school where she was, “like, the smartest non-Asian in year 11.” The Blair Waldorf–wannabe quickly leads a pack of mean girls played, as all the other kids on the show are, by the actual students of a Melbourne school.

In a very silly way, Lilley delves into racism, classism, social cliques and delinquency without any of the grotesquerie of a comedy like Little Britain. There’s no disdain for his characters, no matter how self-absorbed, egotistical or unruly they are, and that gives Summer Heights heart.


Six Degrees of Celebration
Teen comedies must be relatable in order to score. That’s why the best examples of the oeuvre — from Sixteen Candles to Can’t Hardly Wait to Superbad — rely on the house party scene: we’ve all been there, drunk that.

Comedy Network’s unimaginatively named House Party (Kid ’n’ Play already used that title, yo) uses contradictory perspectives so that the entire six-part series takes place over a single night, but each main character gets their own episode, illuminating past behaviour and adding new pieces to the plot puzzle.

The unwitting party host is the ever-awkward Adam (Michael Grajewski), a university student who’s returned to Winnipeg to housesit for his vacationing parents (they’re off to Fargo!) and, he hopes, woo his old high school non-sweetie Megan (Sarah Podemski). Along for the ride is pudgy, booze-and-porn-obsessed best friend Eric (Dylan Taylor, doing a poor man’s version of Reaper’s Tyler Labine), snarky platonic best friend Allison (Grace Lynn Kung) and random girl-nobody-knows Mandy (Melanie Leishman).

The show nails some hilarious overheard conversation snippets (“Skulling is rowing. Skull-fucking is when you fuck a skull.” “So what’s shellacking?”) and while you may not remember much of House Party afterwards, it’s fun while it lasts.