Goodbye Ja’mie, hello Jonah: can Chris Lilley win back his fans?

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/nov/28/goodbye-jamie-hello-jonah

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Ja’mie King’s head has rolled, and it looks like Jonah Takalua may be next in line for the guillotine of overexposure. Even as the US broadcast of Ja’mie: Private School Girl was greeted by a spate of brutal reviews, the ABC was announcing Chris Lilley’s latest venture for them: Jonah’s own series, created and written by Chris Lilley.

The big question is what kind of Lilley we’re going to get. After Private School Girl flamed out in bizarre fashion on Wednesday night, it’s not unreasonable to fear the loss of the steady hand that guided Summer Heights High to its tender ending. But with Ja’mie and much of Angry Boys displaying a commitment to juvenilia far beyond any of Jonah’s “dick-tation” tags, it’s possible that Lilley’s revival of the character will allow him to focus on the quieter moments.

And Jonah may prove to be Lilley’s last chance to do something differently. We watched with hesitant concern as he recycled material week after week in Private School Girl, but the set-up of this coming series – which sees Jonah “in the midst of island life and experiencing the familiar frustrations of a bored teenage delinquent” – and the point at which Summer Heights High left the character, indicate that he could here make his most dramatically compelling work yet.

Jonah’s status as a roguish outsider will provide us a way to sympathise with his plight, and also brings with him a cadre of already developed supporting characters, including Jonah’s father, his past teachers, and his group of friends who were sweetly loyal to the end. This stands in contrast to Private School Girl, which squandered all secondary characters who weren’t Jhyll King.

The series could also be a now-or-never proposition for Lilley, who at 39 may be reaching the point where his teenage characters are decreasingly feasible for him to play – although the performer has promised the return of the third axis of Summer Heights High’s excellence, Mr Greg Gregson, at some point in the future.

Interestingly, where Angry Boys and Ja’mie: Private School Girl were announced with fanfare to be co-productions with the BBC and HBO, the conspicuous absence of America’s premium cable giant from the announcement of Jonah is a concerning one for Lilley. It may be that they are waiting to gauge the success of Ja’mie.

Or it may be that they are simply no longer interested in cycling through old characters – and audiences may be agreeing.

But the part of me that adores Summer Heights High can see past the two relative failures that have come since. As long as Lilley remembers that what made Jonah so winsome and memorable was never his poor behaviour but that he was simply a quiet boy who needed the right kind of support, then he could find a creative renaissance in his most developed character.

And if not, it looks like the ABC isn’t planning to end its relationship with Lilley any time soon. But cautious optimism can’t last forever if the results are poor.

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