After launching several underwhelming Australian TV shows –from the soapy supernatural drama Tidelands to the meek and messy Heartbreak High redux – Netflix has delivered a surprise early Christmas present: this very cunning, funny and bingeable 10-part comedy series based in a small coastal Queensland town. Creator Paddy Macrae uses a Welcome to Woop Woop-esque trajectory to plonk an on-the-run Chicago criminal way, way, way down under, into the backwater community of Clump, a technologically retrograde (to say the least) place situated on the edge of existence, with weird locals and an internet connection accessed by a desktop computer rolled on to the beach.
Small Aussie towns have been used as comedic settings many times before, including in the recent TV series Rosehaven and films such as Rams, Strange Bedfellows and Dimboola. But Irreverent, a US/Australia co-production, leans towards a more American sentiment with its peppy pacing and precisely intersecting plotlines offsetting the laidback setting and supporting cast.
