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The misfit staff who are somehow running the school in Educators.
The misfit staff who are somehow running the school in Educators.

Pop CultureOctober 9, 2020

Review: Educators is New Zealand’s darkest and funniest comedy

The misfit staff who are somehow running the school in Educators.
The misfit staff who are somehow running the school in Educators.

The second season of TVNZ on Demand satire Educators continues to skewer New Zealand’s school system, brilliantly and brutally.

Is there anything bleaker than a New Zealand high school? As local comedy Educators tells it, probably not. The show, created by Jesse Griffin, Jackie van Beek and Johnny Brugh, has returned for its second season on TVNZ on Demand to continue the tale of a middling public high school that is made no better by its equally middling, semi-deranged staff. It remains  fruitful territory for a comedy: we’ve all been to school, we all probably hated it, and we can all relate to a cast of characters who hate it, regardless of what side of the desk they’re on.

The second season gets even darker than the first, with one teacher harbouring a bizarre crush on a student and another student having to attend school alongside her father (much funnier than it sounds). Being a largely improvised show, it lives and dies on its cast. There’s not a single likeable character in the show – even the students walk a fine line  between sympathetic and annoying as hell – so the ensemble has to work extra hard to keep the audience invested. If we’re laughing it’s a lot less of a concern that we don’t actually care if these people live or die.

Jackie van Beek is typically excellent as the morally bereft guidance counsellor Robyn Duffy. (Photo: SPP)

While Educators is an ensemble show, Jackie van Beek is undoubtedly the star. As Robyn Duffy, who spends the entire season living illegally in the school’s infirmary, van Beek takes every joke and absolutely runs with it. Then she does another lap. Any show revolving around terrible people needs a solid centre, and van Beek provides this by making Robyn the most consistently reprehensible participant in any given situation. If a child reports an injury on school camp, she’ll be the one bribing them to not report it. Indeed, one of her earliest actions this season is to start shredding documents when she discovers the school is under review. Every show needs a soul, and while Educators absolutely does not have one, van Beek’s Robyn substitutes a glass of chardonnay and an ashtray where a soul should be. It’s one of the best comic performances I’ve seen on TV in quite some time, even more remarkable because van Beek is also firing off punchlines like a machine gun.

Even though van Beek is the glue that holds Educators together there’s not a weak link among the group. Kura Forrester nearly matches van Beek for magnetism as drama teacher Judy, pregnant for the entire second season and determined to star in the school production that is, yes, about her pregnancy (said production is the absolute highlight of the season and rings painfully true). Everyone gets their moment though, whether it’s Olivia Parker as type-A student Georgina or Yvette Parsons as the slightly batty receptionist Sheree. It’s a show where the cast is asked to do some heavy lifting, and they answer with a resounding “hell yes”.

The excellent cast of Educators, still killing it in season two. (Photo: SPP)

Credit has to go to the team behind the camera – particularly director Griffin, director of photography Ryan Heron and editor Stuart Boone – for the show’s consistency. As with any improvised show, they no doubt had a massive amount of footage to work with, but Educators never feels stitched together. In fact, it often feels tighter than some of our fully scripted shows. It’s a great demonstration of how clarity of concept and purpose – and a cast who are fully clued into both – can do wonders for a show.

If I have one thing to pick at, it’s a wish that the show was more targeted in its satire of the public school system; its consistent underfunding and the way it risks draining the humanity from anybody stuck in it, student and teacher alike. More so than the first season, this one is about the characters and their struggles within the system, rather than their struggles against it. It’s a subtle shift, and while it might make for a funnier show, it limits how much the show stays with the viewer after the credits roll. It might be for the best, though. Despite the stylistic similarities, Educators isn’t The Thick of It, and its relatively thin premise might struggle to shoulder truly weighty satire. But it’s a demonstration that this creative trio could take that leap if the desire was there. The cast is certainly game enough for it.

But in the meantime – and lord, this show deserves a third season and a healthy streaming life – it’s more than enough to watch some of New Zealand’s funniest actors dig their teeth into our darkest comedy. 

The second season of Educators is available on TVNZ on Demand now. Episodes drop weekly on Wednesday.

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Benee’s new label, Olive, has signed Raglan artist Muroki (left).
Benee’s new label, Olive, has signed Raglan artist Muroki (left).

Pop CultureOctober 9, 2020

Benee launches a record label

Benee’s new label, Olive, has signed Raglan artist Muroki (left).
Benee’s new label, Olive, has signed Raglan artist Muroki (left).

Pop star Benee has launched her own record label, Olive and her first signed artist is a young Raglan lad called Muroki. The Spinoff spoke to them both about their next moves.

Young Benee’s having a big week. Her latest music video, for the wavy post-lockdown song ‘Snail’, was released this morning. She’s just been named as a finalist in three categories at the Aotearoa Music Awards. She’s performing a sold-out nationwide tour, and during last night’s show, she announced she’d be live-streaming her final date.

And today she adds a new feather to her cap: record label owner.

The 20-year-old singer told The Spinoff she’s “always loved the idea” of finding new artists, and hopes her new record label, Olive, will put some of her favourites in front of an audience. “Other musicians have helped me in this way, and I want to pass it on,” she said.

Olive will start out small as she wants to be able to “give any artist signed to the label the attention they deserve, so that will naturally limit numbers”.

And why call it Olive? “I love olives,” she said.

Her first signing is Muroki, a 19-year-old artist from Raglan who’s inspired by the region’s reggae history. He told The Spinoff that so far he’s found Benee to be a hands-on label runner.

“I’ve been writing heaps of songs,” he said, but wouldn’t say if an album was due out. He’s waiting for Benee to tell him what to do. “She’s in charge.”

Muroki’s been passionate about music for most of his short life, first learning guitar at the age of nine from the Cornerstone Roots’ Nicky Keys. When Benee approached him to sign on to Olive a decade later, he was stoked. “I was just losing it. I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “She’s been so supportive of this whole thing. It’s been amazing having her helping out.”

When Benee appeared on Elton John’s podcast Rocket Hour earlier this year, she played Muroki’s single ‘For Better or Worse’ for the international icon. “I was pretty stoked about that,” said Muroki. “He’s pretty well-known.”

Raglan artist Muroki. (Photo: Reagan Butler.)

He spent the lockdown in the Coromandel trying to write more tunes. “I was recording [an EP] in this little shed that used solar panels. It was raining quite a lot so I had to use the generator to record a lot of it.”

“It’s been weird, man. The lockdown was a bit trippy for me. There was all this stuff bubbling away, and we got out and now everything’s crankin’.”

Benee said having Muroki on tour with her was another way to get him out there. “It is great to bring him out on tour in front of my supporters ‘cause I know they’re gonna love this guy, his band and his music.”

Today Muroki’s new single ‘Light Me Up’ was released. Benee also announced that her Spark Arena show on October 17 would be live-streamed around the world, and the recording would be available to ticket holders for 48 hours following the show.

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