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(More customer reviews)Australia has given us some excellent character actors: script-ripping stagemen who can become larger than life caricatures. Think Crocodile Dundee, or -- better yet -- Dame Edna.
But Chris Lilley has come along and surpassed them all. Indeed, his versatility and roaringly off-putting humour surpasses any of the dark humour in 'Little Britain' or other such countrywide satires.
Now we in North America can enjoy 'Summer Heights High', one of the truly wicked and funny send-ups of a secondary school mini-universe, its cliques, turf wars, and teachers (who are barely more mature than the students).
'Summer Heights High' deserves proper sequential viewing -- one cannot simply dive into a later episode and acquire the plot. Lilley's immense talent for character-forming deserves close attention and patience as he lays down, through improvisation, innuendo, and sheer brilliance for skit acting, three distinct narratives (which amazingly never cross paths) in a suburban Australian school. Details of these three personas which he takes on can be found widely, so I won't repeat the background stories here. I just want to state that Lilley's ability to assume different characters is positively uncanny. I mean, uncanny. Take an excellent method actor and combine it with a razor mouthed pirrahna of improv and quick-thinking, and you get a sense of just how kooky and unpredictable Lilley is.
For my money, it surpasses the muti-headed hydra pranks of Cohen (of 'Borat' fame). Because Lilley can deliver sinister and scathing satire on racism, drugs, and just about every other taboo -- but just when you wonder if he's a nihilist, out comes a breathtaking moment of magnificent spirit and heart. The final scenes involving Jonah Takalua are simply headshakingly good, without any hint of that 'very special moment' that usually mars most dramas supposedly about teens.
Chris Lilley, you're brilliant, mate.
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In this hilarious series set in a real Australian high school, actor/comedian Chris Lilley stars as three different characters: a vain drama teacher, a self-absorbed boy, and a haughty female exchange student. Hysterical, absurd and frequently shocking, Summer Heights High reveals a world where small issues become huge, social groups are critical, young minds are molded, hopes are shattered and dreams are realized.
DVD Features:Deleted ScenesOuttakes
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