“Two cops, on a stakeout, where nothing ever happens.” This was the television show idea Patrick Brammall and Trent O’Donnell devised in late 2013 during production of the ABC comedy series The Moodys.
Produced by Jungleboys, that idea is now a six-part comedy series called No Activity, debuting Thursday on the Australian streaming service Stan.
It doesn’t exactly sound like the formula for a television hit. Sure, it may be one shade away from Seinfeld’s “a show about nothing”, but that was never actually Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David’s pitch to NBC back in 1988 (it was actually “to show how a comedian gets his material”).
No Activity is closer to David’s later show, the retroscripted Curb Your Enthusiasm – where scripts might be nothing more than plot outlines or beats, and actors fill in the rest through improvisation – rather than the tightly orchestrated screwball mayhem of Seinfeld. Brammall and O’Donnell’s initial idea was expanded upon, adding a pair of dispatch officers (Genevieve Morris, Harriet Dyer) and a few criminals to the cast (Dan Wylie, David Field, Sam Simmons); but the show’s key premise remains: nothing much really happens.
Instead there’s a lot of shooting the breeze, which can get pretty weird and very funny, particularly when the conversations taking place are between two solid comedy actors like Brammall and Darren Gilshenan, who play the cops. There are also memorable guest appearances from Jake Johnson (New Girl), Tim Minchin and Kat Stewart (Offspring, Underbelly).
Brammall says because the show is unscripted the actors are “entirely present” and it leads to “conversations you don’t normally see on television: people speaking on top of one another, making weird noises and going down these strange cul-de-sacs”.
That format demands a certain kind of actor who can think quick on their feet, he says. “Improvising is a skill which not all actors have, and it’s basically about being able to say ‘yes, and ... ’. That’s rule number one: when somebody makes an offer, like ‘here we are in France’, you go ‘yes, and why is that donkey there?’ You don’t block what the other person says and go, ‘no, we’re in Germany’.”
A show without a script might seem like a gamble, especially for a fledging video on-demand service in a country where audiences are only just introducing online streaming into their television diet, but No Activity is exactly the kind of unconventional show Stan, a joint venture between Nine Entertainment Co and Fairfax Media, wants to excel at.
Brammall notes the creative freedom afforded when sponsors are removed from the equation. “The guys at Stan were like, ‘we think it’s funny and we’d like to put our brand behind it’. So they gave us carte blanche to do what we thought was good.”
Script-free and action-free, No Activity was able to be shot in just 10 days on a fraction of the budget of a usual TV comedy. It borrows the light-footed, left-field approach to comedy of the web (think Funny or Die), boosted by broadcast-quality production values and top acting talent. With each episode just 22 minutes long, the entire series can be “binge-watched” in just under two-and-a-half hours.
Netflix established itself as a real player on the TV landscape with glossy hit dramas House of Cards and Orange is the New Black – proof it could rival the networks giants in commissioning original high-quality shows. Stan may be banking on No Activity, and perhaps more so their second original series Wolf Creek, based on the film, becoming similar calling cards.
Currently in production with primary shooting to take place in South Australia, the television spin-off will feature the film’s original creator Greg McLean, with John Jarratt reprising his role as the villainous Mick Taylor. And while the world of Wolf Creek remains the same, the plot quickly diverges when 19-year-old Eve (played by Lucy Fry) survives Taylor’s killing spree and embarks on a mission of revenge. Chief executive of Stan, Mike Sneesby says by inserting a female lead the show “represents a shift in direction” from traditional revenge psychological thrillers.
While he won’t confirm exactly how many subscribers Stan has, Sneesby says since their 26 January launch they have had 400,000 people sign on for a free trial, with 70% continuing with a paid subscription. That’s less than half of the 968,000 Australian homes that have a Netflix subscription, according to figures by Roy Morgan (Netflix don’t release figures by territory).
But Sneesby emphasises this is not a “winner-takes-all” game. Australian consumers are quickly discovering that – much like on the traditional television networks – no one online service will have the rights to every show. He predicts Neflix will increasingly focus on their original content, while Stan’s modus operandi is “bringing the best of the studios from around the world”. In 2015 they have first Australian runs of 21 shows including Better Call Saul and the upcoming Ash vs Evil Dead, plus an extensive back catalogue of nostalgia-tinged viewing, like the complete series of Friends and The OC.
Original productions like No Activity and Wolf Creek complement this curation and Sneesby says Stan’s originals will not be anything like what is on broadcast TV. “We’re not bound by constraints like time slots or drawing in ratings for broad audiences on a specific night of the week. We can afford to be a lot edgier with our content – more sex, drugs and rock and roll.”
- No Activity is on Stan from 22 October
View all comments >
comments
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion.
This discussion is closed for comments.
We’re doing some maintenance right now. You can still read comments, but please come back later to add your own.
Commenting has been disabled for this account (why?)