Bad Company, ABC review: grab onto this Anne Edmonds’ comedy with both hands

When it comes to comedy, the ABC rarely knows how to follow up a hit. Panel shows, sure: they couldn’t come up with enough versions of Gruen for a while there. But for decades now, a hit sitcom is almost always followed up by a lengthy silence (and then a relaunch of Mother & Son).

So win, lose or draw (spoiler alert: it’s a win), Anne Edmonds’ new sitcom Bad Company is a step forward: in the wake of the massive success of Fisk, for once the ABC has decided to give audiences more of the kind of thing they like.

Bad Company: what’s the premise?

The Argyle Theatre is an avant-guard theatre company who avant got any money. As far as creative director Margie Argyle (Edmonds), that’s not her concern: the play’s the thing, and she’s fully committed – maybe a little too committed – to performances that focus on her giving impromptu monologues and getting her gear off. Unfortunately, it seems audiences have seen it all before.

For corporate hatchet woman Julia McNamara (Kitty Flanagan), the theatre is none of her concern: doesn’t everyone just watch Netflix now anyway? While she’s showing her 65-year-old mentor the door, her boss Carmel delivers some bad news of her own: Julia’s son Ryan (Will Gibb) has been caught committing the stupidest form of bank fraud ever.

Watch the Bad Company trailer.

Luckily, Carmel is also chair at the Argyle, where the CEO has just walked out. So if Julia takes on the job and turns the place around, Ryan’s fraud charges will vanish and Julia will be able to walk back into her old job. Julia might know nothing about how the arts work, but don’t worry – Margie is more than willing to teach her a thing or two.

Bad Company: Edmonds and Flanagan

This is a comedy crossover of sorts. Edmonds, who is the series writer and creator, is playing exactly the kind of character she’s built her career on, only with a few of the rougher edges sanded down. And while Flanagan isn’t exactly playing a more successful version of Fisk’s Helen Tudor-Fisk, Julia isn’t a hundred miles from that kind of character either.

Obviously, these two aren’t going to get along. Julia is loud, self-obsessed, and arty, though most of her art looks teeth-grindingly self-obsessed (one of the better jokes is the first episode is a poster for one of her previous performances simply titled DISPAIR).

Her big push for the new season at The Argyle is to replace the planned centrepiece – a revival of Grease that’s bound to fill the coffers – with obscure French play Le Paysan à Moitié Enterré. It’s four hours, involves Margie monologuing while buried up to her neck in sand, and as the promotional video makes clear, there will be ‘No Interval’.

Julia is not on board, for a number of reasons. Artistically, she’s dead inside: her idea of a good time is watching Dancing With the Stars. More importantly, the sooner she can get the finances sorted the sooner she can get back to the bank. Her plan involves cutting budgets, slashing staff, sticking to crowd-pleasing performances, and just generally opposing everything that Margie stands for.

Bad Company: main focus of the show

There’s a bit of interaction between the two, but not as much as you might have thought. They’re both such strong characters, and so clearly opposed to one another, that it takes the series quite a while to figure out ways to keep them in the same room. Often in the early episodes they’re largely separate, with Julia either muttering to herself or talking to marketing manager Christian (Cameron James), while Julia… well, she doesn’t really need to talk to anyone in particular, the entire staff are her audience.

Those staff take a while to make much of an impression (aside from the extremely dramatic wig maker, played by Ben Pfeiffer). The gormless Ryan takes on a more central role once he makes his way to the theatre, where Margie realises she can bring him on board as leverage on Julia. But this is largely the Julia and Margie show, even when Margie’s worst nightmare – her more successful sister Caitlen (Sibylla Budd) – looms as a threat later in the series.

Bad Company: type of comedy

This isn’t afraid to go for laughs in all directions, whether it’s wordplay (the magic word in episode one is ‘totes’), pretentious performances, character flaws or silly costumes, of which there are many. The arts setting provides a solid source of jokes – when Julia forces her way into speaking first at a staff meeting, Margie moans ‘what, no Welcome to Country?’ – but Julia’s dead-eyed corporate ways are mined for comedy just as often.

If the presence of the two leading ladies turns this into more of a two-hander than an ensemble piece, that’s hardly a fatal flaw. It’s a rarity these days to see a comedy featuring two equally strong lead performances; in troubled economic times, a two for the price of one is a deal worth grabbing with both hands.

Bad Company premieres Sunday 26 April at 8:15pm on ABC TV, with all episodes available to stream on ABC iview.

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