Summer School

TV’s high school-set series fall roughly into four categories: sharp (Strangers With Candy), incisive (Freaks and Geeks), bittersweet (My So-Called Life) and utter crap (Saved by the Bell). Luckily, Summer Heights High, the Australian mockumentary series imported by HBO (premieres November 9), belongs firmly in the first camp.

Chameleonic comedian Chris Lilley plays all three main characters: Greg Gregson, aka “Mr. G,” a flamboyant drama teacher who writes original musicals like Tsunamara, “about the tsunami tragedy, set to the music of Bananarama”; Ja’ime (pronounced Ja-May), a bitchy private school exchange student who boasts that she’s “the smartest non-Asian in year 11”; and Jonah, an oafish bully preoccupied with defacing the school with graffiti penises.

The more the camera follows the characters, Lilley — who also writes and produces the show — dissolves their few redeeming qualities, making each a love-to-hate-them caricature. As Mr. G becomes drunk on power with his new Director of Performing Arts title, he rips down a deceased colleague’s memorial on the crowded faculty bulletin board to make room to post his flyer. A drama teacher who lives up to his title!


Summer Heights High premieres on HBO November 9 at 10:30pm.