Twitch City

'Twitch City' is one of television's best kept secrets here in Australia. Only shown on cable TV very briefly, if you even managed to HEAR about it you deserve some kind of medal. It's a pity none of the commercial TV channels over here had enough foresight to broadcast it during a reasonable time-slot, as I'm sure it would have eventually have found an appreciative audience.

The brains behind this incredibly cool series are director Bruce McDonald, and writer/actor Don McKellar, whose previous collaborations were the wonderful movies 'Roadkill' and 'Highway 61'. 'Twitch City' share a similar refreshingly original and quirkily subversive world view. McKellar stars as unrepentant couch potato Curtis, who after the unfortunate arrest of his uptight housemate Nathan, manages to woo Nathan's girlfriend Hope (Molly Parker, who gave such an outstanding performance in the controversial 'Kissed'), while dealing with the never-ending series of oddball situations created by their potential new housemates. All this while never missing a minute of his beloved Rex Reilly talk show.

'Twitch City' displays more originality and smarts in one episode than most American or British sit-coms do in a whole series, and manages to be clever and unpredictable while, most importantly for a comedy, being genuinely FUNNY. To me it's as good as ANY comedy series anywhere in the last decade, but sadly it remains one of the least known great shows of the small screen. I'm hoping that one day it will get the attention it deserves, but until then try and see it you WILL enjoy it, believe me!