Son of a Donkey review: Superwog goes bigger … and better?

Superwog – the comedy team of Theo and Nathan Saidden – have consistently produced comedy that’s smarter than it looks. There’s plenty of hooning around and shouting and cartoony violence, but under the hood? It’s sharp observations, smart jokes, and solid character comedy all the way.

Which is why Son of a Donkey is a bit of a head scratcher. The Saidden’s first series for Netflix, it takes their well-honed comedy characters – Superwog (here renamed Theo), his parents, and best mate Johnny – and gives them room to stretch out with a six-episode series that’s one big ongoing story. Does bigger mean better? It depends what you’re looking for.

Theo getting enraged at a driver who won’t let him change lanes is nothing new. Even his revenge (which involves jumping into the other car and repeatedly driving it through red light cameras while holding the other guy’s face up to get photographed) is pretty much what you’d expect.

But this seemingly innocent example of terrifyingly violent road rage quickly spirals into an ongoing nightmare – one that threatens to tear Theo and his ‘little girl’ (that’d be his car, a 1988 twin cam Corolla) apart forever.

Back at home, Dad (Nathan) has decided that, as Australia is the richest country in the world, why bother paying for food when you can get perfectly good supplies from the dump? Much shouting and yelling and throwing of trash follows, much to the horror of Mum (Theo).

Turns out treating the dump as an all you can eat buffet results in some firehose vomiting and exploding kidneys.

Son of a Donkey: on a mission

Everyone here is on a mission. Theo and Johnny need money to cover the fines and get back the car. Dad needs new kidneys – bad news for Theo – while for Mum all of this is the last straw. Her family are pushing for a divorce, and there’s no good reason to stick around. Is this the end of the Superwog family?

There’s plenty of what they do best here. Seeing Dad smash open a fruit he got from the dump on his windshield and then drink it like a can of beer is not something you’re going to see in any other Australian comedy this year. As for old ladies giving the finger, licence plates that read DOUCHE, and smacking people in the head while saying ‘ya dumb shit’… look, you can’t beat the classics.

And unlike a lot of recent examples of so-called ‘wog humour’, this largely manages to avoid simplistic stereotypes. The four main characters – and at least some of the supporting ones – are comedy types pushed to extremes. Dad is a barely articulate force of nature, chopping his way through doors and walls to steal his son’s kidneys, grunting and spitting and barely able to wear human clothing (seriously, Nathan deserves a Logie for his work here).

Meanwhile, Theo and Johnny are cartoon idiots – they lost their job at the local burger joint because they tried to clean out the oil fryer by dropping a vacuum in it. But they’re also both so knowledgeable about burgers they stumble into a gig advising the chain’s senior management on condiments and the correct placement of cheese to hamburger patty.

Son of a Donkey: good pacing

As an ongoing series, Son of a Donkey keeps the pace up. Storylines move quickly, with new developments piling on the obstacles. But it comes at a price: where the last Superwog series for ABC iView managed to pack a lot of different kinds of humour into each stand-alone episode, the focus here is more on big set-pieces. They’re still funny, but it’s a different kind of funny.

These extended action sequences can be impressive in their own right. There’s a fight scene in episode two that features some surprisingly dramatic shots – Theo smashing through a window is verging on Hollywood-level quality cinematography, which is probably not something you’d expect in a chase that a minute earlier featured a laundry basket labelled ‘Poo Stained Undies’. Are a pair of those undies used by Dad to restrain Theo? Do you really have to ask?

Son of a Donkey: big action

In going big with the action (and the poo stains), some of the edge has been lost. There’s still the broad comedy that comes from a bunch of idiots running around screaming at each other, and there’s so much going on here that there’s always going to be a joke that sneaks up on you.

But where in earlier series paying close attention often paid off in multiple ways, here what you see is pretty much what you get.

Again, that’s not automatically a bad thing. The Saiddens definitely know what they’re doing, and some of the big scenes get big laughs. But where earlier series could be surprising with the directions they’d spin off in or the jokes they’d make, this feels more like a straightforward, entry-level introduction to what Superwog is all about.

At least they get to say that working 9-to-5 is for ‘slaves who have no soul and just want to die’.

All six episodes of Son of a Donkey are now available on Netflix.

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