Tag Archives: Briga Heelan

Comedy, FRONT, Netflix

Why Netflix’s Great News is Your New Binge Worthy Show

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Briga Heelan and Nicole Ritchie star in Great News now streaming on Netflix Australia

To kick this review off, I’ll just start off my saying Great News is…well…GREAT!  Low-ball comedy here from me but Great News comes to us from trusted stock in the form of Tracey Wigfield, Tina Fey and Robert Carlock – all familiar names to those who knew and loved (and still love) 30 Rock.  

The pedigree of those behind the scenes shines through in the cutting yet hilarious take on life behind the camera on The Breakdown, a nightly news program broadcast from New Jersey where executive producer Greg (Adam Campbell) has to deal with egotistical and old-school co-anchor Chuck Pierce (John-Michael Higgins) and his millenial co-host Portia (Nicole Richie) while news producer and lead character Katie Wendleson (Briga Heelan) is trying to vie for meatier stories to work on all the while dealing with her helicopter mom Carol (Andrea Martin) who has just been hired as an intern.

But don’t think that the mother-daughter relationship that plays between Katie who is dying to earn more respect and responsibilities at work and her overbearing mother Carol who has found her way into Katie’s work life as an intern is your usual sit-com fare as the snappy and quick witted script pushes this work place comedy into territory seen in Arrested Development (and of course 30 Rock) and the gone-too-soon Ground Floor and Cougar Town.

Martin’s Andrea, who has been out of the workforce for decades has been hired (out of spite by Greg) to be Chuck Pierce’s intern who, in similar age to Andrea, is struggling to keep relevant in a fast moving, technological era where news stories are delivered via Snap Chat and Facebook and becomes increasingly worried his age and lack of ability to keep up will be the end of his reporting career.  And I quote “Like, who is Snapchat and is he one of the Minions? And are they all Pokémen?”

The biggest shame surrounding Great News is the fact it only survived two seasons before being cancelled by NBC only to find a new life in the world of on-demand television on Netflix.

Check out the trailer below:

Great News season one is now streaming on Netflix Australia

FRONT

TBS Comedy Ground Floor Renewed for Season 2

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John C. McGinley and Skylar Astin in TBS comedy Ground Floor

Great news!  TBS have renewed comedy Ground Floor for a second season!

I throoughly enjoyed the first season, Briga Heelan as Jenny and Skylar Astin as Brody are not only believable, but also lovable and with John C. McGinley thrown in, Ground Floor made for a really pleasant and funny comedy.

I must say, my personal favourite from the first season was Rory Scovel as Harvard.  Completely creepy, awkward and unlucky in love, Scovel stole pretty much most scene he was in, and I do hope his infatuation with Jenny is evolved even more in season two (if it’s possible!)

Created by Emmy® nominees Bill Lawrence (Cougar Town, Scrubs)  and Greg Malins (2 Broke Girls, How I Met Your Mother), and starring Skylar Astin, Briga Heelan and John C. McGinley, Ground Floor enjoyed a rather moderately successful first season ranking among basic cable’s Top 10 original sitcoms of 2013 with adults 18-49 with ratings hovering around the 1.8 million viewers mark.

From the TBS press release “Set in the modern world of corporate America, Ground Floor centers on Brody (Astin), a young, hot-shot investment banker who thought he was just having a one-night stand with Jennifer (Heelan), a beautiful woman he met at an office party. He discovers, however, that she works in the maintenance department for the building where his investment bank– Remington Trust – is located. Suddenly their worlds begin to collide in the most unexpected ways. Facing Brody’s critical boss, Mr. Mansfield (McGinley), as well as annoyed colleagues, the pair must find a way to deal with their growing feelings for each other in this modern take on Romeo & Juliet”