Frontline

Frontline is the best, most intelligent series to have come out of Australia. It is as insightful as it is funny. For anyone who believes in the validity of what you watch on current affairs television, this show is for you.

Rob, Santo, Tom, and Jane (the creators, and producers) should have kept making these episodes, television is worse off without them. They did go on to great things though, and their same brand of humour is evident. These people, are the creators of the brilliant Australian movies "The Castle", and "The Dish", and you would enjoy this series if you liked those movies.

This series is made up of a host of hilarious characters who help to expose aspects of journalists that we all can identify with, like the huge egos, (Brooke van den Burg), the stupidity and lack of talent accept as an actor pretending to be serious and intelligent (Mike Moore - the classic anchorman), and the drive for ratings (executive producer Brian Thompson was the best of the three - R.I.P Brian).

"Frontline" was an apt satire that exposed current affairs television for the uncaring, sexist, ratings-grabbing, irresponsible shows they are.

What's more, the show is hilarious! Funny in an intelligent way.

9 out of 10

This series was the watershed of satirical description of TV current affairs. After the rubbish that the commercial stations dish up as current affairs it was at times hard to tell the difference between this and the real thing.

This series is just marvellous, another gem by the great team of Santo Cilauro, Rob Sitch, Tom Gleisner etc.

It is basically a satirical look at the ficticious current affairs program 'Fronline'. It has a great cast of characters including Mike Moore, the slightly naive host of the show.

Each episode revolves around a storyline, usually involving the team trying to chase a big story or, for example, their night at the Logie awards. Each episode is carried along brilliantly by it's humour, sometimes subtle but none-the-less excellent.

Definently a must see.

As I am so far the only non-Australian to post a comment, I'll assume no-one in the UK knows much about this gem of a show. In fact I happened to catch it when I was on holiday and haven't seen it anywhere in Britain, whether it be on Sky or terrestrial TV.

Anyway, to get a flavour, it is 'The Larry Sanders Show' crossed with 'Drop The Dead Donkey'. It doesn't have a laughter track but unlike 'DTDD', there is no attempt to make it topical ('DTDD' had segments that were filmed the day before to get a current, satirical comment in the script).

The real star of this show was Bruno Lawrence (such a shame to hear he died in 1995), who was simply hysterical as the Executive Producer Brian Thompson. He was the first person I saw as EP and so far (I've only seen him and Sam Murphy) the best by far.

The script is tight, although sometimes, albeit very occasionally, it does decend into pure sit-com territory. While this does not prevent the show from being funny, I feel that the show succeeds more as a satire.

I feel that it could work in Britain as the humour is very similar to British humour, although we do not have these daily tabloid current affairs programmes that seem so popular in the USA and Australia. So assuming no-one in the UK has bought it already, SOMEONE GET THE RIGHTS AND SHOW THIS DAMN FUNNY COMEDY! NOW!!!

Now I'm off to watch 'The Castle'. I'll let you know...

I'm not from Australia, but this show is one my favorite all-time television satires. It does a better job showing the venality, cynicism and amorality of the broadcast news business than anything I've ever seen. It's also wickedly dark, and it succeeds in one crucial aspect that sinks many lesser comedies: it's got great characters, acted with impressive naturalism by a fantastic cast.

From ignorant airhead anchor Mike Moore (Rob Sitch) to the perpetually harried line producer Emma (Alison Whyte), to the cruel yet resourceful reporter Brooke (Jane Kennedy) and the apathetic senior reporter Marty (Tiriel Mora), there's a great cast of characters here who start out by conforming to type and then, as the series goes on, actually reveal a surprising amount of nuance. Like many comedies (Seinfeld, Always Sunny, Archer etc.) the characters are essentially jerkoffs, but you come to like them and - sometimes! - even see things from their point of view. Each of the three seasons also features a different executive producer character, from the sage Bruno Lawrence to the ratings-driven Kevin J. Wilson to the gleefully boorish Steve Bisley.

The naturalistic acting and cinéma vérité-style camerawork makes it all feel like a real newsroom. It's a great example of how (what was obviously) a low budget can still yield something special when you have great acting and writing.

And the writing really is that good here, with plenty storylines following our amoral news team as they report on such sensitive issues as immigration, hostage situations, sexual harassment, Nazis, little kids getting open heart surgery and more. There's plenty of references to Australian news events and media scandals, and some fun cameos from the likes of Harry Shearer and real-life Aussie politicians.

Overall this is a phenomenal comedy, and clips from it should be shown in journalism, media literacy and ethics classes around the world.