Hannah Gadsby's Nanette on Netflix - A Timely Addition to the MeToo Movement.

Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette is a comedic masterpiece.

As a one-woman show, it builds to be more than a piece of comedy, smashing through those narrow parameters to make a valuable contribution to the most prominent social discussions of our day.

Given an unassuming title, after a woman Hannah felt she could create a show from, only to discover that idea was more hope than substance, the hour special spins off into something that only Hannah Gadsby’s experience as a woman, and her history as a comedian, could deliver.

The show is like few others because, for Hannah Gadsby, timing is everything.

After ten years on the comedy circuit honing her craft, she is ready to deliver one of the most insightful, moving and emotionally disturbing contributions to the #metoo debate, and she does it in a most disarming manner until you can't help feeling unprepared for how deeply into your soul she manages to transfer her pain.

It’s heart-wrenching to see and hear this extraordinary woman bravely empty her mind on stage. She admits to being damaged from her life‘s experience and shows her courage in rebuilding herself from those low-points. As Hannah builds to her finale, it’s almost hard to take the next breath.

Hannah Gadsby‘s Nanette puts to rest any sense of shared experience by those not directly affected by the relentless micro aggressions faced by those seeking nothing more than equality, respect and safe passage.

If you’re a man publishing your opinion on a woman’s response to the #Metoo movement, you need to rethink what you're doing and listen to women, like Hannah, as she explains why we are in the midst of a social revolution that has waited too long. 

I have listened in frustration to the many, loud, white male voices explain away every contentious issue in our society in recent years. I've heard these loud voices with their wide reach, declare racism non-existant; sexism a figment of the female mind, and that homophobia is so marginal it doesn't need to be addressed. The unifying belief of these men seems to be that their experience is universal. 

It's important for debate to take place, but when a single demographic monopolise the debate, there is no debate, just a shared opinion by those unaffected by whatever inequality is under discussion.

Hannah Gadsby is another of the many thousands of women desperately trying to tell us how threatened women feel on an almost daily basis. It's easy for men to feel helpless, or protest the sentiments are exaggerated, but how much effort does it take to change our behaviour to ease another person's mind? Cross the street, drop back, or take any other precaution to make sure it's not you sending a chill through someone walking or jogging on their own at night or existing in an area hidden from view. 

If this makes you think, "Why should I change my behaviour?" or even the more commonplace protest of - “Not all men,” then you're not listening to the voices shouting loud.

Not abusing women is the very least criteria of manhood. It's not something worthy of praise. Every one of us needs to do whatever we can, no matter how small, to improve the situation.

Hannah Gadsby made me empathise with what she’s been through, but it left me feeling that I can never fully understand her experience.

As a gay man who came out thirty years ago, I related to some of what Hannah had to say. I have been attacked for being gay, and I too feel shame over my sexuality. That’s something ingrained in me from years and years of relentless ridicule and abuse towards any gay person as I came of age. That small part of Hannah's story I share and understand, but it reinforces in me a belief that I can't possibly understand the full extent of another person's experience with an issue when I don't face that particular issue from within. 

That's why listening should be the first response, not protest, or denial. 

Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette is important because it comes from someone with first-hand experience into being abused for being a woman; for her sexual identity; even for her appearance. 

Hannah doesn’t assume or comment on other people's experiences, she speaks only from her own.

If you haven’t watched Hannah Gadsby's Nanette - go to Netflix and prepare to be awed. Nanette will soon be viral, as it should be, and it should also be part of the ongoing debate.

Please Like Me - Review

Josh Thomas jokes he has the head of a baby on the body of an old man, but his first TV offering, ‘Please Like Me’, proves there’s a mature story head on his shoulders.

‘Please Like Me’ also does something that is years ahead of any other mainstream show on TV – it creates a lead character who is gay, without that character focusing on being gay.

There’s a wonderful early moment where Josh tells his friend, Tom, that a mole on his lip bled into the mouth of a boy he tried to make out with. Josh describes this as the third worst sexual experience of his life – which is the sort of cumulative, gentle comedy this show has in abundance. But Tom’s response is to ask if they are simply ignoring the new information that Josh made out with another guy? Josh issues a quick, ‘Ah-huh’ and continues the conversation, asking advice about what one should do if they bleed into the mouth of someone they’re trying to crack onto?

In this brief exchange, and sold by his best friend’s acceptance to simply move on, gender becomes inconsequential, at least to Josh.

This may shock the straight world – but that’s the reality of being gay. We don't really think about it that much. Straight people seem to care far more about who gay people make out with than gay people do. Making out is making out – boy or girl, straight or gay – it can be equally exciting or stressful to meet someone new, and we don’t think it’s weird or brave or anything other than normal to share that with who we're attracted to. All of that labeling and what it means is pretty boring compared to the sex of it.

The character at the center of ‘Please Like Me’ is many things, one of those is gay. Josh Thomas, the comedian behind the show is also gay and he’s savvy enough to understand that you need to be natural as a performer. Most actors are type cast because they can’t be anything on screen but who they are. Those performers who can change onscreen are few and far between. How much of onscreen Josh is real Josh? You’d need to know Josh to know that, but the bravest choice he made was not to hide behind a character that isn’t him.

What we end up with is Josh Thomas. He’s a little weird. He talks funny and walks oddly. He confesses to having woman’s hips and his voice sort of breaks when he talks about anything important. But oddly, you can’t help liking him – he just seems nice.

And it’s that character he’s brought to this, with a strange meld of real and fiction that delivers a young man who is 100% believable and real. He is gay, intellectual, awkward, funny, lost, young, struggling with family, trying to grow up, supported and supportive of his friends, looking to be loved by someone he can love and he knows he has a long way to go to find himself. In other words, he’s a typical young person trying to muddle through life to find a future he can be happy with. That’s a universal quest and that’s why, whoever you are, this is a relatable show.

‘Please Like Me’ is likely to be a sleeper with many downloads around the world from people who will watch every episode in one sitting when they discover it. It probably won’t be a big hit on air because of its refusal to treat the gay sexual content as anything but usual. This means Josh and whoever he’s enamored with kiss like real people. There’s no fade away or cut to’s here. They just snog like any other young people – they swap spit and feel each other up and they do it like they’re enjoying it – certainly not apologising for it.

I suspect the still largely conservative TV audience isn’t ready for that. It's still a niche market. But I am thrilled to see a gay character living a real life on screen that isn’t full of squeals and flapping arms or an obsession with shopping, gossip and décor – hallelujah!

‘Just Like Me’ is a dramedy in line with Girls and Louie. It screams of an understanding of how to tell a story with humour that is believable and still delivers great entertainment. These shows understand life is often funny, not always to the person involved – but to everyone else invited to watch from their ‘fly on the wall’ vantage point and in a skilled hand, these moments become even more enjoyable.

There is a great story mind at work here and Josh Thomas has set the bar very high for himself with an awful lot of time left to deliver more. It may well be he has some very good story heads to help him structure his stories, because they are well structured. They twist and turn with ease and show an innate understanding of how stories work and how to subvert what is set up and expected. 

When Aunt Peg is being her usual annoying self and trying to get Josh to go to church, Josh stands up to her and wins the battle of wits with honest, real, logical choices that leave it clear he will not be bullied into being a churchgoer – under any circumstances.

When Peg drives away, and Josh throws his tongue down Geoff’s throat, Peg’s unexpected return brings calamity! Now nosey, opinionated, meddling Peg knows the gay secret Josh’s been keeping from his family and she delivers her line perfectly – “See you at church” – touché Peg!

99 times out of 100 storytellers would play this out – and keep Josh trapped in this conundrum of being forced to keep his secret by attending a service he has little respect for.

But this show is better than that. Desperately wanting Josh to be ‘outed’ to further their relationship, Geoff tells Josh’s father he’s the boyfriend and not simply a friend. This is more like a real life unfolding – not neatly choreographed so the drama escalates and gives the best bang for your buck. It’s equally entertaining when it surprises and delivers real moments rather than loud, ever increasing crescendos.

There is complicated, nuanced storytelling at work here. Josh plays the martyr to his parent’s unraveling lives and still trying to guard his mother from any emotional stress, and now essentially out and no need to bend to Peg’s blackmail, he still attends church – but now takes his boyfriend. And it is Peg who redeems herself and places Josh ahead of her own religion because she loves her nephew more than she blindly accepts the church’s anti-gay point of view.

‘Please Like Me’ has the feel good formula measured to a tee. As quirky and insane as these friends and family are – there’s no denying, as proven by Peg, they all love each other.

Thomas Ward as Tom, Josh’s housemate and best friend, is wonderful because he too, like Josh, is clunky, not as a performer, but as a person. It is this clunky, slightly awkward but genuinely good natured type of friend, a person like Josh would have.  

Caitlen Stacey underplays her best friend/ex to perfection and Wade Briggs makes you believe Geoff, Josh’s desperate to be loved, twink boyfriend. If I have one criticism of the show it’s that Geoff seemed just a little too forward in picking up Josh – but for the sake of moving things along it’s a very small complaint.

Deborah Lawrence and David Roberts have been getting praise all over town for their portrayal of Josh’s parents and rightly so – but for me, it is Judy Farr who is the pick of the crop. She’s annoying, meddlesome and self righteous with little reason to be – and she makes my blood boil in almost every scene she’s in. 

That’s a quality performance. When she stood up in church and took on religion and the right wing in defense of her nephew's life, a life she doesn’t personally condone, it was yet another twist in the story that plays as both believable and unexpected.

If you can watch this without being distracted by the gay content, or by seeing a gay actor allowed to be his natural, awkward self, without any hint of the usual screamingly clichéd gay that makes most onscreen incarnations more acceptable to the mainstream, then enjoy it as a quality piece of television.

If you can’t get past the gay elements, then you’re missing out on a rich, nuanced show that is far bigger than  any one issue.

Whatever the case, with ‘Please Like Me’- Josh has stuck his baby’s head above the tall grass and announced, to anyone who is paying attention, that’s he’s going to be around for a long time.

Out of ten – this is an understated eight.

Scott Norton Taylor - Inner City - Ebook for Kindle, Epub Sony, Palm or online!

Reviews: From Amazon

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome read May 27, 2013

By Anna Brouillard

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book was so intriguing I hardly put it down. Wonderfully written it does not linger on any 

one event nor does it speed through scenes making it a poor read. The characters were well 

thought out and the inner turmoils they all face are far from dull.

5.0 out of 5 stars Spectacular April 5, 2013

By Jack

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

The book was simply amazing it had action romance and just enough drama to make me happy 

one of the best books I have ever read

From Barnes and Noble - Nook Books:

Posted December 1, 2012

 Great read.

A story filled with with love, hate, violence, peace and so much more. 538 pages of wondering what will happen 

next. A FULL story from start to finish. Thanks to the author for sharing a great work with the readers.

Posted July 8, 2012

 Couldn't put it down...

For this to have been a free book, it was wonderful. The author keeps you on the edge of your seat. I couldn't 

put this down. I think this would make a great movie!

Posted April 20, 2012

 Amazing

Perfectly written with great detail it was thought provoking and asked the fundemental question of would you 

stick up for what you believed was right even if you would be killed for doing so.

Posted April 5, 2012

 This book is AWESOME! it keeps you wanting to read the entire ti

This book is AWESOME! it keeps you wanting to read the entire time. It tells of 2 worlds, and both are 

extremely unique. One of the best books I've ever read!

READ IT YOURSELF - INNER CITY

The New Normal - Review

The New Normal, created by Ryan Murphy and Ali Adler, is a new sitcom about a gay couple using a surrogate to have a child. 

The couple, consisting of the stereotypically gay Bryan, played by Andrew Rannells and the less stereotypical David, Justin Bartha, are both young professionals with hedonistic lifestyles and lots of disposable income. As much fun as life is, they quickly come to feel something is missing from their family - a child.

They meet down on her luck Goldie, Georgia King, who has been mistreated, left with a young child to raise and running from her racist, sexist and just plain rude mother Jane, Ellen Barkin. Jane hunts her daughter down and discovers her plans to cash in by being the boys surrogate. Needless to say she's not on board with the rent-a-womb idea.

This is not Will and Grace. Mainstream has come a long way since then and are almost accepting of the idea that gay men and women have lives just like them. Not all, but enough to allow Bryan and Andrew to be understood as any family next door by the straight majority. 

That's not to say the gay card isn't played for laughs, but the boys and their chosen 'mum' are the ones portrayed sympathetically, with humour and heart. They're the ones we relate to as they negotiate the usual trials of being a family as well as their own unique hassles with the bigoted, conservative few who still believe their views and standards need to be pushed on others. 

The lead in this pack is Jane who steals the show with a trend in comedy that is becoming well known. Gervaise, Tosh and many others now cross the politically incorrect line often. They either use a character to deny responsibility for it or, in Tosh's case, point out the funny racial/sexist/other-ist comment would be totally unacceptable - but in doing so they still get to make it.

This is the case with Jane and it's no less funny than when we first cringed at this humour four decades ago with All In The Family and Archie Bunker.

This show has heart and very good intentions. They've tried very hard to justify and ease the moral niggle that many will feel about a surrogate being used to 'supply' a child. The question about whether it is fair or right to ask a woman to create a child and then hand it over is a difficult one, but the fact it is a donor egg and not Goldie's removes many legal and moral issues. This doesn't mean it won't be fascinating to see if the writers tackle this mine field when the time comes.

In my circle of gay friends I know of two families with kids now under 3 who have settled for the mother, one a biological mother, one a more complicated surrogate to her girlfriend's egg and one of the male couple's sperm, who have bought houses and created their own urban village within their four walls.

So the scope for this show is endless. If the humour, heart and gentle navigation of life that is painted in the first few episodes continues this could easily work itself into most people's favourites column. 

As a sitcom it may be more of a warm hot chocolate on a cold night than a big night out - but sometimes that's just what you feel like.

Out of five sequins - this gets a sparkly three and half.  

Men in Black 3

Very rarely does a big movie block buster live up to it's over-hyped press. Sequels are hard to pull off and even more threequels, but occasionally they get it right. The first hint with Men in Black is the third instalment of the franchise didn't come immediately on the back of the second. That augers well for a story of substance rather than a money grab or a film structured by the numbers for this outing by Will and Tommy outsmarting aliens for a third time around.

Warning - Medium Plot Spoilers follow.


The master criminal Boris the Animal played perfectly by Jermaine Clement of Flight of the Concords fame has discovered a cell mate in jail who was locked away for discovering time travel. Boris escapes and heads to use the time travel device to go back in time and stop Agent K, Tommy Lee's character, before he arrests Boris all those years ago and puts him in jail. In the process Boris intends to stop Agent K shooting off Boris's arm - a 'handy' way of telling the past Boris from the future 'armless' Boris.

Future Boris expunges Agent K and rewrites the past and only future Agent J, Will Smith, has a memory of the long dead K. With a stunning performance, as always, from Emma Thompson playing the new chief of agents and playing her as a chief harbouring a long time frission between herself and K, J travels back in time and foils Boris while discovering the secret and reason he was chosen and taken under K's wing all those years later, in our present day timeline, years later means when we first saw Will and Tommy team up three films ago.

The reveal is tender, surprising and worth waiting for and gives MIB 3 the depth that so many formulaic sequels of successful films fail to capture.

But the star of MIB 3 is not Tommy, Will, Jermaine or Emma. They're all good, but to make this work an actor needed to convince us he was a 40 years younger version of Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin manages this with room to spare.

 It's a remarkable performance, or maybe it should be classed as an impersonation and I would guess it paves the way for an ongoing MIB franchise with many more outings in the offing where Will, using his new time travel technology, heads back to team up with Brolin's younger version of K and re-write many famous moments in our history over the last 40 years. There's great scope for humour and intrigue in this as we enjoy watching great historical moments that will no doubt be explained as the fault of Alien misadventure and the reason we were saved and survive to this day? Because those Alien threats were thwarted by the MIB team of the past - AKA Will Smith and Josh Brolin. If they can find a story that matches the escapades of Boris 'The animal' Celements, I'll be buying a ticket.


And you should also watch out for a host of ugly, weird and dangerous aliens in MIB 3. 

Some we see and some we just hear about, but when these unseen aliens are revealed as dangerous Alien's running amuck on earth - it's not really such a surprise.

MIB 3 - Out of 5 - Almost a four!