Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Gen review: bring on X, Y and Z

This is not, it’s safe to say, your parents’ Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation.

Putting aside the title change that’s reduced Generation to Gen, Ten’s 2025 reboot of the once-loved gameshow is leaning into the whole game show thing a bit harder than the previous two Shaun Micallef-hosted editions.

They were pretty much what’s you’d expect a game show hosted by him to be like (unlike his fairly generic kids game show Shaun Micallef’s Brain Eisteddfod); this version doesn’t really try to follow in his footsteps, a few quirky moments and winning the chance to hug someone in a rat costume aside.

The premise is a pretty solid one for a game show even without the wackiness. Representatives from three generations – here it’s X, Y and Z, with the Baby Boomers now too old to appear on television outside of news and current affairs – are presented by host Anne Edmonds with a variety of quizzes and puzzles which will help determine which is the greatest generation of all time until next week.

Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Gen: aircraft hanger

One odd element is that it’s seemingly filmed in an aircraft hanger on a set designed to make everyone involved look tiny. If they were trying for a setting designed to drain all the warmth and comedy out of proceedings, mission accomplished: putting everyone together in a studio half the size and half the budget would have made this twice as cosy and engaging.

Team captain for Gen X is Dave Hughes, continuing Ten’s policy of putting Dave Hughes in every single show that’s not produced by Working Dog, while Gen Y get Tommy Little and Z has Anisa Nandaula. They don’t get a lot of chances to define themselves, but they fit the roles: Hughes is a bit of an old crank, Little is a bit of a smartarse, and Nandaula is like ‘why am I hanging around these oldies?’

Staring off a quiz by asking Dave Hughes to recognise a singer is pretty funny considering his complete failure to get anything even remotely right on The Masked Singer, but most of what follows is standard quiz show material.

Identify the mullet, guess the prices of old stuff, name the mystery figure in this historical photo – they’re the kind of games families can play at home, which has always been central to this show. Hopefully there are still families out there who watch television together.

In theory, the moment where Gen Z ask ‘who’s John Farnham?’ should be the point of the whole thing; why pit the generations against each other if the result isn’t everyone coming off as hilariously blinkered and ignorant? But many of the games are generation-neutral culture quizzes or the kind of history tests everyone is going to struggle at. The battle here isn’t between the generations, it’s between everyone and pop culture.

Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Gen: the OG

What the original Micallef version did so well was shift the focus just a little: it wasn’t a show pitting the generations against each other, but a show that featured three distinct team captains who each embodied their generation in ways Micallef could make fun of.

Gen Y might not have been easily distracted and unfocused, but Josh Thomas certainly was: it’s a subtle distinction, but it definitely made things a lot funnier.

That kind of character-based comedy takes time to develop; Hughsey aside, the team captains here are yet to stand out. While we’re waiting, there’s always Edmonds. She’s easily the strongest part of the show as far as comedy goes, able to make even sub-par material (that would be the opening monologues) worth a smile.

Getting to see her writhe about on a core-strengthening chair is pretty much worth the price of admission on its own.

Like a lot of comedy game shows, the hour timeslot is a bit unkind; shaving ten minutes off the run time would make the whole thing a lot more pacy and memorable. Fresh out the gate, all the pieces are in place for a third-time-lucky result; the big question now is, can this generation’s version of Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Gen come out on top?

Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Gen is broadcast on Ten weekly on Tuesdays at 7.30pm.

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