UTOPIA

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Jatz said:
I'll tune in although I'm not sure this needed to go as long as it has.
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I don't think it mattered either way considering there's no over-arching plot.

First ep was great.
 

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Vader said:
This show is not a comedy. It's a documentary, as anyone who has ever worked in the public sector will tell you. Incredible how close to the truth they manage to get.
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It's very clever but it's also a bit depressing to be reminded of the amount of waste in the public service. I could give real examples of what they depict in the show.
 
Vader said:
This show is not a comedy. It's a documentary, as anyone who has ever worked in the public sector will tell you. Incredible how close to the truth they manage to get.
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This show is incredibly accurate and anyone outside the public sector wont truly appreciate the show as they assume its exaggerated too much. It isnt. Its sadly so unbelievably true
 
burge13 said:
This show is incredibly accurate and anyone outside the public sector wont truly appreciate the show as they assume its exaggerated too much. It isnt. Its sadly so unbelievably true
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Oh it is not. I worked in the public service for nearly 10 years. The service is not full of such one dimensional characters who are either completely dumb or completely serving at the interest of the government with complete disregard for the public. Its full of complex characters who struggle to balance the public and the governments interests as well as characters who are serving in their own interest rather then just the governments.
 
Seeds said:
Oh it is not. I worked in the public service for nearly 10 years. The service is not full of such one dimensional characters who are either completely dumb or completely serving at the interest of the government with complete disregard for the public. Its full of complex characters who struggle to balance the public and the governments interests as well as characters who are serving in their own interest rather then just the governments.
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I meant the inefficiencies, incompetence, and simple waste of time/money/resources etc. Its very accurate from my 15 years
 
Seeds said:
Oh it is not. I worked in the public service for nearly 10 years. The service is not full of such one dimensional characters who are either completely dumb or completely serving at the interest of the government with complete disregard for the public. Its full of complex characters who struggle to balance the public and the governments interests as well as characters who are serving in their own interest rather then just the governments.
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Yeah I think this is a good point. I just bumped the Hollowmen thread to mention something along those lines: I like how in Hollowmen no-one's a complete idiot, no-one's lazy, but they still show the problems with how the system works.

The ratio's a bit out of whack in Utopia, because that's where the comedy is, but these offices aren't full of dills in reality. There wouldn't be that many complete idiots in a real-life NBA and they'd probably be the type of people who are saying "Oh I'm such a Nat!" at the moment.
 
MC Extra Dollop said:
On the first couple of episodes, I'm going to say they didn't need a fifth season, seems like they're running low on ideas. Still reasonably funny and watchable, but looks like it might be limping a bit towards the end.
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I watched the first two of the new series. They are repeating the same ideas from previous series. They are also squibbing on taking the piss out of recent trends in government departments such as rainbow lanyards, acknowledgment of country before meetings and personal pronoun declarations.
 
Frank Bunn said:
I watched the first two of the new series. They are repeating the same ideas from previous series. They are also squibbing on taking the piss out of recent trends in government departments such as rainbow lanyards, acknowledgment of country before meetings and personal pronoun declarations.
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Just watched the third episode and it's actually a drop in quality from the first two of this series in my opinion: Beverley from HR running another sensitivity/respect training session (is she a main character now?), Tony intending to seize the momentum on major changes to how the authority works or a Government promise, while Jim does everything possible to stall him, PowerPoint stuff ups, even Katie getting Tony lunches he doesn't want.

The only original idea was the polite flirting between Nat and the new consultant getting blocked at every turn by the respectful boundaries training that the staff had taken and to be honest, it had as much edge as a bowling ball.

Some of your ideas could be used, but I'd suggest the following:

Lanyards (they've always been optional everywhere I've worked that offered them and LGBTI+ staff consistently report that it makes them feel more welcome): Plan to get a bunch of merchandise as an initiative for IDAHOBIT, find out how much the official Minus18 social enterprise stuff costs (like $10 per lanyard) - get them from eBay/China for 50 cents a pop instead.

Welcome to Country/Acknowledgement of Country: They've had a few little mentions of the former ("We're drilling a massive hole in their country!" "Why don't we do an Exit from Country?"). On the later, I really don't have a problem with it, especially when it's personalised. I think the way you could take that idea (and I've seen this) is when it's been a standard part of a weekly meeting and people still can't do the basic script off by heart, asking someone to put the words on the screen so they can read them. That has Rhonda all over it.

Pronouns: Not sure where they can take it, or why they'd want to. I think it's getting to the point where it will be almost the default on email signatures in a few years, not a big impost to do.

In fairness the Working Dog team probably look back on some of the sketches from the Late Show days and cringe at how bad some of it has aged. They're probably pretty keen to avoid anything that will put them 'on the wrong side of history' in 10 years time.
 

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Anybody here live in the Western suburbs?
Even Utopia couldn't make up the current balls up.

"Could we do an episode were we cut off half a city by closing rail lines, then bring in buses to cover it but then forget to hire enough drivers, & then after that sh*t show get the government to give up & plead for people to work from home?"
"No, nobody would believe it".
 
Frank Bunn said:
I watched the first two of the new series. They are repeating the same ideas from previous series. They are also squibbing on taking the piss out of recent trends in government departments such as rainbow lanyards, acknowledgment of country before meetings and personal pronoun declarations.
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Did they ever really take the piss out societal trends though? Making fun of general gov incompetence, HR departments, 'artists' like Carston yes but it's not like they were critiquing workplace diversity or green initiatives back in 2015.

I'd actually be surprised if Working Dog themselves don't do a lot of what you're describing anyway.
 
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It’s quite conservative tame compared to the bleeding going on at vic.gov right now

Departments paying consulting firms by the hour to discover their systemic issues, then paying them by the hour to read it back


Robodebt
 
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