Spare Room Be our guest…

Comparing new drama Go Girls to TV3’s Outrageous Fortune is an obvious angle. The drama, which debuted last night is made by South Pacific Pictures and has a similar sense of humour to their westie hit; just swap the rabid rooting with drinking and set it on the North Shore.

The title could’ve been better; not only is “Go Girl” a new device which allows girls to pee standing up; it’s a bit of a 90s self-help cliche. But this is minor stuff, there’s plenty to like about this show.

Although ALAC wouldn’t agree, I thought it was kind of refreshing to see shots being knocked back and wine glass being clutched throughout, without suggesting rabid alcoholism. But what I like most about Go Girls is that it’s about a group of young women friends who aren’t bitches. And who aren’t obscenely rich or impossibly beautiful — Amy (Delphie from Shortland Street) works in a Time Share call centre, Cody has a kid and Britta is a sweetheart who likes a shag. Plus they have a male friend Kevin, who does the voiceover — a device used liberally in girl-dramas — but this one is blokey, dry and keeps thing bubbling along nicely.

Good New Zealand content is so much more engaging than your American or British dramas. The local references are a treat (the wedding band singing The Mockers’ “Forever Tuesday Morning”, Rangitoto gratuitously taking pride of place in the background). There are great slapstick scenes — where Amy’s former boyfriend Brad (who is now marrying Angelina, geddit?) is Gladwrapped naked to a power pole with “I heart fellatio” written on his bum, and another when Cody is arrested for assaulting a parking warden while trying to exit a bridal shop while wearing her yet-to-be-paid-for wedding dress.

But Amy’s Dad sums up Go Girls for me: done for fraud, he wafts around in his dressing gown, watching day time TV … “Silly as buggary, but it sucks you in”.

Go Girls,
TV2, 8.30, Thursdays.

Herald review here.