Boxing Clever: FISK
Every week, Michael Telfer – aka Mike TV – recommends a box set to crack open. This week's selection is a hidden comedy gem from the depths of the Netflix and ITVX catalogues
If you like television, there are few greater pleasures than discovering a new show you like, and then finding there are multiple seasons waiting for you to get your eyeballs into.
This happened to me last month, when my sister recommended FISK, an Australian sitcom on Netflix and ITVX I’d never heard of. Having watched a lot of films and meaty dramas over Christmas I was in the just the mood for a bit of irreverent fun, it turned out to be just what the probate lawyer ordered.
FISK invites us into the world of Helen Tudor Fisk (Kitty Flanagan), a recently divorced lawyer who makes the unglamorous move from a big Sydney law firm to Gruber and Gruber, a small family business on the outskirts of Melbourne specialising in wills and probate.
The Grubers are siblings Ray (Marty Sheargold) and Roz (Julia Zemiro). Ray’s minimum effort, minimum fuss approach to life and work means he is happy for the wonderfully coiffed Roz to make most of the decisions for the practice, which puts her at loggerheads with Helen.
Fisk makes practicality into an Olympic sport, she wears the same loose, brown suit to work every day, never speaks above volume level three and just wants to get on with her work.
Unfortunately for Helen, she is terrible at holding her tongue. On her first day she gets barred from the coffee shop under the office and thereafter has to use the cheap machine in the convenience store on the corner. It’s a lovely little joke that punctuates throughout the three seasons made so far, long after the coffee shop is replaced by a smoothie bar.
She clashes with Roz on pretty much everything; from her vicelike grip on office protocols and the key to the communal toilet, to her cake choices and her views on how the firm’s ‘prestige’ clients should be mollycoddled.
Making up the office family is receptionist, probate clerk and self-appointed ‘webmaster’ George (Aaron Chen), an ally for Helen and an oasis of sanity in her early days with the Grubers.
FISK is a delight. Helen and the Grubers form a three-way odd couple that just gets better as the seasons pass. Each episode brings a new will and a new warring family for the newest recruit to roll her eyes at - perpetually perplexed by the weirdos the world deposits in her office.
The humour is gentle and warm but also consistently brilliant, and I regularly found myself laughing out loud as Helen awkwardly fumbles her way into or out of another fine mess.
Lead star Kitty Flanagan is a well know stand up comedian and satirist in Australia and she created the show and wrote it with her sister Penny. Across the 18 episodes there are countless guest stars, including comedian Sam Campbell, Debra Lawrance from Home and Away, and many other talented antipodeans that I didn’t recognise.
I must confess I haven’t watched many Australian sitcoms (Harold and Lou’s part time double act in Neighbours aside) but after seeing how much wry humour Ray can imbue into a run of the mill “Good one mate”, I’m starting to think theirs may be an inherently hilarious accent.
Perhaps I’ll try some more while I wait and hope for the fourth season of FISK, for which there is steadily increasing demand as the series gathers new fans in the US and UK on Netflix. I’d be forever in your debt if you could vote with your remote and give it a go.