Lee Lin Chin’s New Sitcom Looks Like A Cross Between ‘The Newsroom’ And ’30 Rock’
"It proves the old saying: if you give someone an inch, they'll never be sexually satisfied."
Even the most faithful of Aaron Sorkin fans had a few problems with The Newsroom. It was too idealistic. Too pompous. Too reductive in its depiction of both modern-day journalists and each and every human woman on the planet. Now, I realise, it was also too lacking in angry yet glamorous Australian women telling their confused, overworked and occasionally vomiting staff to “fuck off”.
Thankfully SBS have now delivered the show we deserve.
Dialling back the overblown drama of The Newsroom and matching it with the behind-the-scenes absurdity of shows like 30 Rock, The Weekend Shift is a new series which is set to premiere on SBS On Demand next week. Though only currently commissioned for a pilot, the series shows a hell of a lot of promise and has a great team behind it too.
The Weekend Shift is created by Chris Leben and Nick McDougal (who worked together on Plonk and Hungry Beast) and features Renee Lim (Please Like Me), Madeleine Madden (Tomorrow When The War Began) and Miles Bence (Fresh Blood, The Feed). Bence was actually nominated for a Walkley for his work alongside Lee Lin Chin in The Feed and was one of the great minds behind the now-infamous ‘Broadcast Battleground’ sketch.
Speaking of, I will take any excuse to watch this again:
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The Weekend Shift premieres on SBS On Demand on May 9.