Grass Roots

Grass Roots is amongst the best serial comedy television on Australian TV in its era, being at the turn of the 21st century. With super-tight writing, directing and editing, all episodes in both series are excellently paced and engage the viewer both from the start to end of each episode as well as from the start to end of each of the two seasons. While the dialogue has a similar dry sense of humour to other notable ABC TV comedy shows such as Utopia and Up in the Air, its almost hour long episodes each comedically and engagement wise succeed more the other aforementioned shows didn't thanks to super-tight and we'll paced directing editing acting and scripting (of its dialogue, humour and story arcs) occurring throughout every episode of the show's 2 season run, and without any episode or the show 'overstaying its welcome'.

The acting performances of the lead and supporting cast are excellent and befitting of the script's content, including the myriad of characters comprising the highly politicised realms of council (from it's council, to staff, to media, local lobbyists and interest groups, and other local residents).

Geoff Morrell stars as Arcadia Waters Council's Mayor Col Dunkley, a politically / socially fascinating character who, while being fundamentally well intentioned, is politically (and morally) very flexible depending on the political and social waters (scenarios) at any given moment. While Cole is (mostly) likeable, he is a savvy political operator who (like several others intbhe show) can be politically slippery and (at times) forceful, a point which the program never shies away from starkly portraying. Regardless, it's hard not to subtly root for him as the show's main character, in spite of all his flaws. In a part that could very easily be overplayed or underplayed, Morrell finely threads the needle in every scene, producing an assured and suitably straight (and occassionally colourful) performance that (as the character) is frequently both likeable and bemusing to the viewer, all the while portraying an intriguing character one always wants to see more of within the world of Arcadia Waters and it's locally-led politics. This was well prior to his equally well delivered portrayal of the (arguably slighty more layered) fictional politician character of Joe Sandilands (a fictional NSW Labour Party Attorney General) in season 1 of the ABC's 'dramedy' Rake, for which he also received acclaim.

The performances of the supporting lead cast suit the writing and direction of their characters and respective shifting situations/positions with aplomb, including (the generally unheralded) Rhondda Findleton as pure minded and bluntly honest independent councilor Karen Schumaker, Rhys Muldoon as the uptight, biased and often hamfisted General Manager Greg Dominelli (who has an MBA degree from the "University of Far North Queensland", no less), Zoe Carides as valiant Social Services manager Liz Murray (whose efforts are often undermined by a certain GM), Chris Haywood as the laconic, somewhat underhanded, chain-smoking Building and Planning Manager George Hasnakov, Sophie Heathcote (Season 1) and Jodie Dry (Season 2) as the forthright and, often politically cut-throat and (ultimately quite) layered lead opposition councillor character (who is Col's main political opponent in council) Biddy Marchant, Sacha Horler as the slightly conflicted yet highly empathetic council Public Relations manager Helen Mansoufis (who has close and, moatly, professional relationship with Col, despite her job's apolitical requirements) and John Clayton as the blue-collar, non-sentence completing deputy mayor Harry Bond. The of the other supporting and single episode cast (such as the ever wonderful and colourful William Zappa) all deliver very good and appropriately pitched/ paced and dynamic performances (and any lack of mention of any of them here is not to diminish the value / quality of their performance).

All the featured characters are flawed, have vested interests (albeit to wildly varying degrees), and are relatable to some degree, even though I hazard a guess that some of the highly politically motivated characters would be barely related for many people, but that feels by design.

The writing team was lead by Geoffrey Atherton (who wrote 13 episodes outright and contributed to the remaining 5 episodes), and also including Katherine Thompson and Michael Brindley (who wrote on 1 and 4 episodes respectively). They each delivered scripts that were each 'on point' for the respective story threads and situations they were depicting, with showrunner Geoffrey Atherton and producer John Eastway masterfully delivering 2 successful and very well received seasons (by both critics and its viewing audience alike), which is a particularly impressive achievement given season 1's very unique mixed delivery (per episode) of story telling / time (and events) depiction (as I'll expand upon later in this review).

Music is very selectively used throughout the series, but when it is employed the largely jazz / rhythmically based sound track embodies sections of the episodes in which it appears with lightly pulse-settimt anticipation, intrigue, apprehension, celebration and (occasionally) sorrow. The fact that the sound track successfully portrays all these moods while helping propell narrative momentmtum within each episode while having most of its tracks / sections being either melodically or harmonically based around the show's main theme is a testament to the tonally highly appropriate composing and skill of composer Peter Best (and inspired 2 related musical compositions, one being the title music of a very short lived online attempt at a satircal socio-political commentary show and the later being a jazz-influenced movement of an orchestral suite, written by this review's author).

The show mostly wizzes along at a quick pace and is easily very engaging from the start to end of both each episode and each season. While many fans of it may have longer for a 3rd season they definitely left the viewer wanting more by leaving on a high (and before the show would need to significantly evolve without starting to narratively over-tread what would then be very familiar ground, a mistake which many of the best Australian Comedy and Drama shows eventually make, including the likes of the initially brilliant Rake and one of the other shows mentioned earlier in this review). While somewhat brief on-screen appearances of mobile phones/computers and vehicles plus a few era specific references date the program somewhat (including some lines that reflect specific social attitudes of the time, namely of women, even though in their depiction the show doesn't seem to codone them), their occurrences are few and the show's reflections of certain common social issues in suburban Australia and of certain types of social and political machinations (namely of local politics, both of councils and other types of local organisations/groups) are still all-too-familiar in Australia currently (being the early 2020's).

Grass Roots' charm primarily lies in the crafting of its characters, it's astute / often uncanny observations about certain politics and socio-political issues, and it's flowing and easy to follow storytelling. The show succeeds in all these (and more) areas throughout both seasons, even though season 2's episodes each (largely) depict series of events from a few week period in major contrast with season 1's (also very well delivered) episodes in how they depict threads of story and time with varying amounts of detail (dependant on the the specific focusses of an episode). Season 1 starts out by representing one week of time via episode 1 (titled "One week in September"), before representing a couple of weeks in episode 2, then multiple months in episode 3-6, before episode 7 presents (as per its title) only "Late July Friday 4:00 PM to 10:30 PM" and the season then ends with episode 8 which includes pertinent threads/moments of the season's story arc from all previous episodes (as well as showing the portrayed few final days in mild detail), thus aptly being titled "The whole year". While season 1's mode of portraying elements of the mostly ongoing story threads varying between different episodes ia certainly highly unique, and may come as quite a surprise to viewers, but due to every episode from 2-8 portraying any previously already previously depicted scenes via mostly 'extra' / previously unscenes components and dialogue I found that such mixed delivery worked well (aurprisingly so in practice, as opposed to how it may sound when described via or other reviews/season descriptions), although I believe that the initial viewing experience of episodes 1 and 2 of Season 1 is best done by viewing them both in the one sitting.

It is a real shame that the show is not (and, as far as I'm aware, never has been) available to stream or to digitally purchase, and the ABC ended DVD sales of the show around a decade ago. Some second-hand copies remain for private sale online, and if you have not yet seen the series but have an interest in Australian comedy (or wish to re-watch the series) I recommend snapping up one of the remaining legally acquired second-hand copies before they become even rarer.

I unashamedly love this series, and would love to see the ABC again make it available again to the public, if not in the form of putting it on its streaming service iView then at least for digital sale for new viewers to discover it and previous viewers of it to relive it. While I'm not holding my breath that any of this will happen, but here's hoping!

In conclusion, while not 'perfect' (although in real life, particularly when it comes to politics, I don't think much is truly 'perfect') I think that for its story setting and scope, not to mention its fairly modest TV budget, for what it is show is (or is close to being) as good as it could possibly be.