Suzy Boon is that sort of person you’ve met whose vacuous, self-centred drivel you wish you could record and play back to them, in the hope they have a kind of personality-changing epiphany.  It takes a charisma as enormous as lead actor Kura Forrester’s to make such a no-hoper sympathetic. 

Written by Thomas Sainsbury and Louis Mendiola, The Adventures of Suzy Boon is filmed and performed in an idiosyncratic, warped-reality style under the accomplished screen-directing eye of Cristobal Araus Lobos; a style that belongs in the same universe as television’s Supercity, co-created by Sainsbury. 

Originally created by Forrester in a short solo piece by Roberto Nascimento (also co-producer) for the Sainsbury-directed Monster Monologues in 2010. Back then I described Suzie [sic] as a “priceless classic character who deserves her own show … echoes equal parts Beth Heke and Lynn of Tawa with a smattering of the street smarts of Napoleon Dynamite.” 

I stand firmly by that character description and the claim she is worthy of the cultural fame that I’m pleased to report has been ratified only four years later. 

The first series’ six short, tight online episodes follow Suzy through the final week of her three-month trial period working for NZ Immigration after which one of three new employees will be let go.  I won’t spoil how that turns out, although it probably won’t come as a great surprise in itself.  The left-field twist ending may though, and it’s anybody’s guess where it might go should a second series occur. 

One of Suzy’s pathetically propounded points of pride is being “half Maori half Chinese, like Bic and Bo.” Indeed, her relationship with her long-suffering, loving but cheeky elderly Chinese father, played pitch-perfect by Charles Chan, is another cogent factor in the mystery of why we would even care for her to any degree beyond abject pity.

Maybe it’s also because the titular classic anti-heroine reminds us – alright, me – of the less favourable parts of our/my own self/ves, only exaggerated (I hope).  She carries the weight of her own despondent ineptitude on her shoulders as she valiantly expresses her self with all the positivity she can muster, trying desperately to crack the code with her lamentably pseudo-articulate small talk. 

Having discovered some of my friends aren’t keen on Supercity (of which I’m a fan) it’s evident The Adventures of Suzy Boon won’t be to everyone’s taste.  It’s definitely more laced with cringeworthy, awkward humour than laugh-out-loud one-liners.  Exposing – embracing, even – the more nihilistic aspects of social interaction, it may be painful but at it’s core is a truth that ought not be ignored, albeit exaggerated (I hope). 

The Adventures of Suzy Boon brings us a new anti-heroine in the Supercityverse. [Available now on http://suzyboonwebseries.com/ ]

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