The Fat Kid Chronicles Endorsement: Angry Boys

     I love television. I mean, I LOVE television. After my mother and grandmother, television raised me. If my journey stays the course I've mapped out for myself here in New York, creating television will hopefully be a big part of my future. Until that day comes though, I'll continue to throw my server apron in the wash at the end of the night, and plunk down on the couch as an adoring fan of this glowing magic thing that has brought so many awesome adventures into my life day after day.
      I'm a firm believer that we are in the golden age of television. An age that I feel really began just over a decade ago, and was led primarily by HBO. With shows like The Sopranos and The Wire, HBO raised the bar for what television could be. That bar is now swung from by shows like Breaking Bad, Louie, and Boardwalk Empire. That same bar is walked under by shows like Whitney, Terra Nova, and Last Man Standing.
     The problem is, and in some ways always has been, the fact that television is a business of formula. Once a formula works its hard to get networks to take a chance on anything else for a long time. The folks in the suits who make the calls on what shows get on the air to be seen by couch penguins like myself, are scared. They've always been scared. That's why we end up with a dozen different shows about crime scenes investigators and dozen more about vampires. (I'm wondering why I haven written a script for CSI: Transylvania yet. I'd have a Yacht by now.)
      Some shows give me hope though. Shows with the balls and the creative intuition, to tell stories in a fresh and exciting way that goes against the paint by number garbage that sadly still floods much of television today. While I do believe that there have been enough interesting and groundbreaking programs emerging over the last decade to deem this TV's golden age, there is still a lot of shit on television. So when a new show does make it's way through the airwaves and into my living room, and I do think it's something special, I want people to know about it. I want people talking about it and quoting it. I want it to succeed.
     Angry Boys is the third series created, written by, and starring Australian born actor, writer, and comedian Chris Lilly. Produced by ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) and HBO, Angry boys is a mockumentary style series focusing on the lives of six different characters all played brilliantly by Lilly.
There's identical twins Daniel and Nathan Sims; former Surfing World Champion Blake Oakfield; US rapper S.mouse; Japanese mother and manager of a skateboarding champion, Jen Okazaki; and Juvenile Justice Center worker Ruth Sims, aka Gran. Lilly's commitment to the ridiculousness of his characters allows for tons of laughs broken up now and then, ever so quietly, by truly touching, heartfelt, and sometimes very sad, family moments.
      Since the season finale premiered to tonight, and the show was only scheduled to run for one season, I'm not really trying to convince you to get out there and save this thing. It's more about giving attention, where is due. Creating buzz about shows like this is something that I believe helps convince networks like HBO to let people, like Mr. Lilly, continue to do their hilarious thing. People like him are the ones who smash through that formulaic door and lead the way for the yet to be discovered generations of innovative television creators.
 

Angry Boys Trailer