On one hand, the fact that a grown man can dress up as an obnoxious private school girl that is obsessed with winning a year-end achievement award and doing so in some of the most outrageous fashion you’ve seen on a mockumentary television show is nothing short of brilliant. On the other hand, it’s a grown man dressed up as a private school girl doing this.
It’s tough to appreciate…again, at first.
Of course, we’re talking about a show that comes from the same country (Australia) that brought us one of the most insane, yet entertaining shows to hit cable television — Wilfred. So, its’ no surprise that sometimes you just need to sit back and watch Australian entertainment unfold in front of your eyes and accept it without much argument. That’s the best way to take Ja’mie.
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The charm of Ja’mie is how actor Chris Lilley convinces you that he is indeed part of the popular private school girl clique. It’s a bit awkward to get used to at first, especially if you haven’t seen his Ja’mie character in her previous shows, but once the comedy starts subtly rolling in (somewhere during a car scene where Ja’mie is texting, while her mother is yelling at her) the show really starts to pick up and never stops.
The six episodes included on the HBO DVD release span Ja’mie’s entire senior year of school. You’ll see wonderful things like her inviting a Ugandan named Kwami to stay at her house, basically as her pet project. You’ll have beautiful moments where she dates and is quickly dumped by a boy named Mitchell (via Facebook), only to find out her best friend Madison is cheating with her ex — and a brilliantly violent fight ensues. There are plenty of moments that lead up to the climax of the season to make this worth your time. You’ll want more from this series after the last episode ends. It’s a great show that makes you forget that it’s a mockumentary at times.
The genius of Ja’mie isn’t solely through Chris Lilley’s talent to bring the sassy lass to life. Lilley is enormously convincing once you look beyond the fact that he’s a grown man playing a school girl. None of what Lilley does would be believable if the supporting cast around him doesn’t adopt the masquerade as well. From her rich father to her panicky mom, every moment of this show has the comedy engulfing and being distributed by Ja’mie’s supporting cast. They buy into the world that Lilley has built for them and in turn it amplifies Ja’mie’s believability, thus hooking the audience. For a show that should be pretty shallow and almost formulaic, the comedy is methodically built, cultivated and delivered quite well thanks to a group effort.
As a whole the show is mesmerizing to watch, as much as it’s tough at first to accept. Falling into it and joining the Ja’mie series clique is all part of the charm of the show. Once you do that, you’ll love what it brings to the table.
Moving on to the more technical parts of this release, the special features have a slew of ‘Behind the Scenes’ on the episodes. They start with the creation of the opening, go into how schedules and the cast came together and continue with a bit by bit account of how everything was created. For a show of this type, it’s nice to see that HBO gave some love to the ‘behind the scenes’. It’s not exactly Game of Thrones, so this much detail was unnecessary, but it came with the DVD package anyway and adds to the value of the overall purchase.
The other features you have here are some deleted scenes (which don’t shatter the show or add to it all that much) and some bloopers. Now, I have to admit that the bloopers were a bit on the dull side. It’s funny to see things go wrong here and there, but the humor never gets above a certain level. I think this is one of the few times I didn’t love bloopers. I’m just thrilled the show causes more laughs.