Please Enjoy Margaret Pomeranz’s Brutally Honest ‘Byron Baes’ Review
"A bold experiment that asks: what if someone from The Gold Coast, was to move an hour away?"
We regret to inform you that At The Movies has not, to our knowledge, been resurrected.
But you wouldn’t know it from this perfect bit of satire from The Weekly, where beloved film critic Margaret Pomeranz takes to a very familiar looking set to deliver a brutally honest review of Netflix’s reality TV series Byron Baes.
“Good evening, I’m Margaret Pomeranz, and a hive of bees once made me their queen”, the clip begins, setting the tone for the no-holds-barred review to come. Byron Baes, she explains, is a “bold experiment that asks: what if someone from the Gold Coast — was to move an hour away?” Ooof.
Don’t worry, though. Margaret clarifies that the reality series isn’t about “your every day, garden variety wankers”, but instead Australia’s social media elite, which apparently includes the country’s most followed man on Instagram.
We’re also treated to pieces of footage from the show, including clips from some kind of sound healing ceremony. “Are you meant to drink while you sound heal?” we see one man query. “I would argue yes”, Margaret intercepts, adding, “but at this point I was so hammered it was hard to be objective.”
“One could be forgiven for seeing these characters as soulless and superficial,” Margaret muses towards the end of the review, “but beneath the linen and absence of personality, there’s a lack of self-awareness here that is undeniably captivating.”
A note to the ABC: we respectfully demand that Margaret Pomeranz Watches Bad TV is commissioned as soon as possible. David Stratton can be in it too, I’m not bothered either way. The important thing is that we get to watch her dissect the “surrealist” and “Lynchesque” masterpiece that is Is It Cake?
Watch the full clip below.