Just to get it out of the way: The Cheap Seats is the most consistently funny show on Australian television. A clip show where they’re constantly turning up clips that go well beyond the obvious targets, it’s built around making fun of the news and yet never turns mean about it. Well, unless you’re the Cash Cow.
Hosts Melanie Bracewell and Tim McDonald are likeable, charming and extremely good at delivering both scripted gags and off-the-cuff banter in a way that leaves most Australian on-camera talent looking like they’re auditioning for a gig modelling outfits in the front window at Myers. They’ve taken one of current television’s most generic formats and made it into something special.
Anthony Morris is a freelance film and television writer. He’s been a regular contributor to The Big Issue, Empire Magazine, Junkee, Broadsheet, The Wheeler Centre and Forte Magazine, where he’s currently the film editor. Other publications he’s contributed to include Vice, The Vine, Kill Your Darlings (where he was their online film columnist), The Lifted Brow, Urban Walkabout and Spook Magazine. He’s the co-author of hit romantic comedy novel The Hot Guy, and he’s also written some short stories he’d rather you didn’t mention. You can follow him on Twitter @morrbeat and read some of his reviews on the blog It’s Better in the Dark.
