By Ben Pobjie
There was a fascinating conversation at Channel Seven headquarters when the concept of Best Bits (Seven, 10pm) was pitched. It went like this: "What about a show that's just bits of other shows, sort of stuck together, so people can see funny clips?" "Interesting idea, but . . . hang on, is the internet a thing?" "No, not as far as I know." "Then this is definitely a goer!" And so Best Bits was born, the unholy offspring of a menage a trois between Gogglebox, Gruen and Cats Make You Laugh Out Loud.
Hosted by Sam Mac, the well-known human being, Best Bits tries its best to dress up as a proper panel show rather than a new frontier in the eternal quest to discover the cheapest television show ever made. Mac joins a quartet of comedians of varying profile to comment on a bunch of stuff that has been on TV in the past week. That stuff immediately makes a liar of the show's title, because, naturally, if you're going to get some professional funny folk to snigger at some clips, they're not going to be the "best bits": they're going to be the dumbest, stupidest, most incompetent bits possible.
Best Bits host Sam Mac.
Which is all well and good, but, generally, even the most basic of panel shows has some kind of unifying concept, like how Gruen probes advertising, or Q&A examines the darkness of the human soul. Best Bits' theme is literally just, "some stuff what was on TV", and there's no attempt at insight, it's just clip, zinger, clip, zinger, ad infinitum. And yet it doesn't go the whole hog in the other direction the way Gogglebox does either; there's nothing spontaneous or natural about the panel's reactions to the "bits".
This thing has been scripted to within an inch of its life. What a pity, because the one way Best Bits could have been worth its subterranean budget was if it was all off-the-cuff riffing, with the ever-present threat of the whole thing descending into chaos. It's not often you say a show can benefit from less preparation, but Best Bits is that show. In fact, it could benefit from a few stiff drinks. Whether it's the cast or the audience downing them doesn't matter. But let's not scoff too much at what is after all a brilliant achievement in cost-cutting. Let's just recognise that you'll get a better half-hour finding your own best bits on YouTube.
Further viewing: Married At First Sight (Nine, 7.30pm) shows us that marrying someone you've never met is both not all it's cracked up to be, and also not what happens on this show.
Neighbours (Eleven, 6.30pm) deals with the aftermath of the explosion as Paul possibly gets his comeuppance but probably not.
Banged Up Abroad (ABC2, 9.30pm) looks at the glamorous world of witness protection.