Netflix’s Lunatics: Chris Lilley’s Other Comedy Series, Ranked According To IMDb

Australian comedian Chris Lilley is controversial to say the least. Lilley is responsible for a series of mockumentary-style television series wherein he plays multiple offbeat characters. While some of the characters he portrays are developed in compelling and humorous ways, others have infuriated audiences due to their problematic representations and reliance on insensitive stereotypes.

Lilley, a white man, depicts non-white people in his series, and critics have accused him of blackface on more than one occasion. Still, Lilley continues to release his contentious character studies, including 2019’s comedy Lunatics on Netflix. In Lunatics, Lilley portrays a series of eccentric people whose stories are interconnected throughout the show’s run. This is the same framework he applies to his other projects. This list focuses only on the series Lilley is credited with creating, ranked according to IMDb.

5 Jonah from Tonga (2014) – 7.1

Co-produced by the Australian Broadcasting Company, Jonah from Tonga is a six-part series that digs into the life of a character first introduced in Lilley’s show Summer Heights High: Jonah Takalua. Jonah is a 14-year-old of Polynesian, specifically Tongan, descent, and after being expelled from school, his father sends him back to Tonga to reunite with his relatives and get his life together. While Lilley is known for portraying multiple characters per series, Jonah is the only one he depicts here.

HBO aired the series in the United States, and the show received criticism all over the world, especially from people of Polynesian descent, who claim Lilley misrepresents their complex culture by depicting it with wide strokes. While other critics interpret Lilley’s series as an attempt to emphasize the negative consequences of systemic racial and ethnic injustice, Jonah from Tonga ultimately does more bad than good.

4 Ja’mie: Private School Girl (2013) – 7.3

Inspired by another character from Lilley’s series Summer Heights High, who also appears in his series We Can Be Heroes, Ja’mie: Private School Girl follows snotty, privileged Ja’mie while she completes her final year of high school at Hilford Girls Grammar School. Lilley plays Ja’mie, who is 17-years-old and believes the world revolves around her. With her entourage, Ja’mie passes judgments on her peers and engages in juvenile power struggles. Her superficial monologues and detestations make up the brunt of the show’s humor.

While Ja’mie is one of Lilley’s most popular characters, she is balanced out in the other series by the interwoven stories of contrasting characters. On her own, Ja’mie’s ability to generate laughs isn’t strong enough to sustain an entire six-part series. She may be an entertaining parody of wealthy youth, but Ja’mie is no main attraction. Despite this, HBO picked up the series for American audiences, where it was well-received by Lilley’s diehard fans.

3 Angry Boys (2011) – 7.7

In the United States, Angry Boys appeared on HBO. This is one of Lilley’s ensemble comedies, and he plays six characters: surfer Blake Oakfield, juvenile detention center guard Ruth “Gran” Sims, Gran’s twin grandsons Daniel and Nathan, Japanese businesswoman and mother Jen Okazaki, and Los Angeles rapper S.mouse! These diverging characters all come together under the guise of a common theme: exploring the nature of masculinity.

As opposed to his other shows, Angry Boys received a 12-episode run. The satire runs deep here, and while the show provides humorous insights into the way male-identifying people are expected to assimilate into mainstream culture, it is full of flaws. For one, Lilley employs blackface for the rapper S.mouse!, a man famous for the single “Slap My Elbow.” Lilley’s portrayal of Okazaki as an overbearing Asian parent is also problematic. The show is at its best when Lilley’s characters break insightful ground without relying on stereotypes.

2 We Can Be Heroes (2005) – 8.1

We Can Be Heroes is Lilley’s earliest venture on this list. Before branching out on his own, Lilley performed on the Australian series Big Bite, playing Extreme Darren and the drama teacher Mr. G. After Big Bite was canceled, Lilley wrote We Can Be Heroes, framed as a documentary series based around a competition to name the best Australian of the year. Lilley brings six people to life here: Daniel and Nathan Sims (later seen in Angry Boys), prep school teen Ja’mie, police officer Phil Olivetti, Chinese-Australian university student Ricky Wong, and middle-aged housewife Pat Mullins.

Some of these characters’ stories are convincing and meaningful, relying on equal parts comedy and drama to create compelling narrative arcs. For instance, Pat Mullins wants to make a name for herself as a competitive roller, which means she literally rolls around on the ground with the same passion as a marathon runner. Lilley manages to make this absurd quirk a relatable and genuine part of his character’s composition. That being said, Lilley’s characterization of Wong doesn’t stand the test of time. While Lilley tries to undermine the myth of the “model migrant,” as a white comedian, he should steer clear from taking ownership of minority experiences.

1 Summer Heights High (2007) – 8.4

Summer Heights High is Lilley’s second ensemble mockumentary series, and it’s his most well-known and critically acclaimed. It was released at a time when television was rarely examined with the more inclusive lens of the present, meaning audiences overlooked Lilley’s troubling depiction of native Tongan Jonah because of his ability to establish layered, and funny characters. In addition to Jonah, Lilley also plays student Ja’mie and Mr. G, the drama teacher at the eponymous high school.

In the show, Ja’mie takes a year off from private school to attend the public Summer Heights High. The draw of the series, by far, is Mr. G, the eccentric and theatrical instructor with an unorthodox approach to teaching. Mr. G uses his platform as a teacher to live out his acting and singing fantasies, often disregarding the needs and desires of his students. He orchestrates an expensive and unfeasible musical performance for the school over the course of the series, which involves illicit drug use and suspension wires. Lilley received multiple awards and accolades for the series.

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