Nothing Trivial

After I watched another New Zealand series called Step Dave, I was interested in more shows from NZ. I discovered Nothing Trivial, and figured I'd give it a go. It's soooo good!!! I watched all 3 seasons in like 4 days. Excellent cast, excellent writing. I like the way the story lines straddle between keeping it light-hearted in nature and downright drama-filled. But it's never over the top, at least not in my opinion. Shane Cortese is one very sexy man, and a gifted actor to boot! But the whole cast is wonderful. Bravo! 👏

The series starts off so promising with a fun premise and interesting characters. But by about halfway through the first season, practically every single episode has gay panic and a smattering of homophobic slurs and jokes. The other characters either laugh it off or act completely nonplussed. I made it through a season and a half and had to stop watching because I was so disgusted by how laissez faire the characters were in their homophobia. Most of the writing and storylines are also sexist and misogynistic. Season 2 gets especially bad with calling someone a lesbian or the slang slur term as an insult to the person's character over and over throughout the season. It's startlingly tone deaf and out of date.

I really enjoyed watching this series over the course of a few months, coming to enjoy the characters and care about their stories more and more over time. I'm really going to miss the characters and the story now that I've finished the entire series. I think it's especially good at portraying friendship and to some degree, families, including older parents and teenage kids.

I became interested enough in the actors to look up most of the main characters and in some cases, watch interviews with them. I'm a little sad that there don't seem to be too many other TV shows starring the main actors I can follow up with.

The whole aspect of trivia nights in pubs (we participated in one only once, when travelling through Oregon) was what drew me to the series and I did actually quite enjoy the "quiz" content in the show--it was, at times, cleverly integrated into the story and I loved how the individual episodes were named for pub quiz questions.

This refreshing new comedy is superbly developed and written, with the expertise of Rachel Lang appearing as good as that of Richard Curtis or Justin Theroux. The cast consists of incredibly believable characters and true chemistry. Shane Cortese is a definite stand out, with his character incredibly likable and vastly different than the roles he has played in Shortland Street and Outrageous Fortune.

The rest of the cast, both starring and recurring are also very good, with the characters strong and well developed enough for the audience to understand and follow the story lines. The show overall is a definite winner and I hope to see it return for season two.

A wonderful and refreshing comedy/drama from NZ that centers around 5 friends that meet once a week for quiz night at a local bar. All of them are single, yet dealing with the aftermath of either failed relationships and or on the hunt for that one great love. Well written with some superb performances make this a great escape. The assorted pub quiz questions from a myriad of categories also challenging. Not being a Kiwi, its great to learn about New Zealand and see the beauty of Auckland (and Te Kuiti)

Look for this show to be exported to countries around the globe including Canada, England and the US. Produced by South Pacific, let's hope they are selling it at MIPCOM.