Review – Woodley

Woodley – ABC1 – 8:00pm Wednesday – AUS
Episode 1: The Story So Far

The ABC’s latest comedy series Woodley is being pitched as a family friendly slapstick comedy but thankfully there’s more going than just Frank Woodley flailing about in a giant egg costume like he’s a less talkative Yahoo Serious. I’ve always been resistant to Frank Woodley’s particular brand of slapstick where he inevitably breaks whatever prop he’s brought on stage, but there’s such sadness running through this first episode of Woodley that while I’m not completely on board with the show I’m certainly intrigued to see where it will head next.

Frank Woodley plays Woodley an accident prone goofball who always seems to burn the toast, or bump his head, or just generally mess up because he was absentmindedly going about his day without thinking about anybody else. We first meet Woodley’s daughter Ollie as she wakes him in the morning to declare “I’m hungry” (one of the very few lines of dialogue spoken during the entire episode) but slowly she becomes tired of her father’s antics as he struggles to make breakfast without setting something on fire. We also meet his ex-wife Em (Justine Clarke) and we see that while Em doesn’t want anything to do with Woodley anymore, Woodley doesn’t feel the same way.

What really works about Woodley is that all of the slapstick antics have real world consequences. As we’re treated to a flashback to the first time Woodley met Em, and some of the lowlights of their time spent together, we see that all of the wacky shenanigans we may be laughing at have seriously damaged Woodley’s life and in particular his life with Em. While we may find it amusing that Woodley got distracted on the way to his daughter’s birthday party because he was worried that a duck which kept bobbing its head under the water may never resurface, Woodley also misses his daughter’s birthday party completely. That the show chooses to have Em leave Woodley due to his antics rather than have her act as some kind of long-suffering wife who never leaves her klutz of a husband is really kind of brave.

As for the slapstick sequences themselves I found some worked better than others. Most were worthy of a chuckle or a smile, but the long sequence with Woodley in a giant egg costume didn’t do anything for me. If you find the idea of Frank Woodley struggling to do everyday activities whilst trapped in a giant egg costume funny than I’m sure you loved this first episode, but I found it a little tiresome after a while. That said, the scene where Woodley stood on a bridge and contemplated suicide, whilst wearing the egg costume, was pretty dark and amusing and that side of the show really got me.

Woodley works both when the slapstick is funny (like when Woodley climbs onto the wrong bike) but also when the slapstick is irritating (like the sequence where Woodley ends up taping his head to his wife’s head whilst she’s about to give birth). The first sequence is an amusing sight gag and the second sequence is another nail in the coffin of their relationship. The first one works because it’s funny and the second one works because even if you don’t find it funny it shows us why his wife eventually left him. It may take me a few episodes for Woodley to grow on me but if the show continues to back-up is broad buffoonery with that underlying sense of sadness then I’m optimistic about the rest of the season.

Good, Alright, Bad Or Ugly?
Alright

This review is part of Change The Channel’s episode by episode coverage of Woodley. The full list of episode reviews can be found under Series.