Review with Myles Barlow

ABC DVD

R4

While other critics waste time with trivial matters such as film, food or art, one man dares to review all facets of life – our experiences, our emotions, our deepest, darkest desires – to rate them out of five stars. So begins the story of Review with Myles Barlow, a dark, sarcastic and wickedly funny journey into social commentary and humour.

Barlow takes the everyday experiences of life and reviews them in a truly outrageous manner; he takes simple events and pushes them to an utterly absurd degree. Each episode is 30 minutes and includes two or three main reviews or stories punctuated with short reviews and a letter from the public. Each story is completed with a strange and complex review using the sort of language one would expect from an art critic. Each episode ends with what will be supposedly covered in the next episode, but never is. The DVD includes the first season of six episodes plus deleted stories, extras and a doco on Myles Barlow.

Review is incredibly witty, offering insightful social commentary with a cynical view of human nature. The series begins with stealing and shows its addictive qualities from taking a simple comb to becoming a full-on kleptomaniac. It is both extremely amusing and ridiculous at the same time, the concluding remarks are superbly crafted..

Stealing is a reprehensible, dishonest act of exhilaration and daring. And, like a staircase leading to the top of a never-ending lighthouse, it can quickly spiral out of control. The higher I climbed, the more giddy I became. And once I'd stolen the light bulb itself, I stumbled about in an orgy of Kleptomania as ships of moral decency came to grief on the rocks below. Embracing anarchy and ignoring morality became frighteningly normal causing me to chuckle callously at the poor shipwrecked sailors trying to clamber up the cliffs of consequence while I soared to freedom high above them on a hang-glider of corruption. Luckily for me, I was able to evade punishment. But Krystal, if you do give in to this spine-tingling thrill ride and steal Renee's boyfriend, be warned that the pilfering may not stop there. Stealing is an iniquity of unexpected excitement, which is why I'm giving it three stars.

As the series progresses the humour becomes remarkably dark and at times potentially offensive. Murder is rated at half a star (he kills his newsagent who he thinks short changed him eighty cents) while heroism is given three stars even though he had to light the fire himself killing two people to rescue the remaining tenants ! The story on Voyeurism is especially perverse. It opens with a letter from a young boy asking Myles to request his mother to buy him a telescope to watch the stars. Barlow twists this to discuss the dangers of voyeurism. He tells his own tale of watching a reality TV program and becoming obsessed with a young contestant, Kelly. Soon this leads to stalking and being caught with his pants down in her wardrobe, a sad and harrowing review !

Other stories include a rip-roaring tale on divorce, the effects of having a dickhead for a friend and the dangers of self belief. The Self Belief story is especially amusing as he encounters a strange “religious movement” (I wonder which one) offering personality tests on the street. He soon believes he can do anything and attempts to swim to New Zealand; he can’t wait to take the oysters of Auckland. He is dragged back from the ocean unconscious and only just survives with this life.

Review has developed a cult like following but originally was a hard sell. The networks couldn’t really grasp the idea of reviewing aspects of life itself but when it went to air on the ABC it really caught on. The mixture of a serious academic like critic in the studio who throws himself wildly into real life situations to review them is high effective and incredibly funny. In the whole six episodes of series one there wasn’t one dud review ! Awesome ! I give Review five stars !

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This review will appear in Volume 2 No.5 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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