Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell

(Review updated after 2018 season).

If you know Shaun Micallef's previous work - The Micallef Program/Programme/Pogram, Newstopia plus his work on Full Frontal - you'll know what to expect. Clever dialogue-driven comedy, where every word matters and the joke often hinges on a single word. Throw in some Pythonesque left-field randomness and there you have his modus operandi.

Now put that in a fake newscast environment (a la The Colbert Report) and any item of news is a source for comedy.

Very intelligent comedy...with a touch of the absurd throw in.

This was, until about 2016/17. At a point Micallef either got reminded by ABC senior management that the ABC is in the Liberal-bashing business or he himself decided to pander to the average ABC viewer. From then on, instead of being clever, politically-neutral satire the show became clearly left-wing and the originality went out of it, being reduced to empty, tiresome, predictable jibes.

I got through 10 minutes of the 2018 season before giving up.

9/10 for the first 5-6 seasons, 3/10 thereafter.