TV Review: Fair Go series of mediocre incidents

How many years has Fair Go been standing up for the little guy? TV One's consumer affairs institution has a long, well-deserved reputation for chasing after rip-off rorters. Serious journalists like Brian Edwards, Kevin Milne and Gordon Harcourt have added gravitas, chancing a biff on the nose as they've gone after bad builders, pervy plumbers and roofing rascals.

The new season, which started last night, had promised to deliver the juice in promos which featured new host Alison Mau squeezing lemons.

What did the debut deliver? A disjointed series of mediocre "incidents" including a woman horrified to discover she had to sit next to a big guy on a plane, a missing dog, misleading labels on chocolate bars and a challenge to reduce a household budget by $2000 a year - about $38 a week.

Mau's role was mainly restricted to sitting at a long white desk in the new-look studio, with yellow bubbles rising pointlessly behind her.

When Ben the builder offered tips of the trade in a very short segment called The Insider, he told us how to control your builder while she popped up to precis his words, with pearls of wisdom like, "Do yourself some research". My research based on years of home improvement tells me you can't control your builder. They control you.

Libby Middlebrook's yarn about the woman from Nelson aka 'Squashed' trapped in a seat on a flight to Melbourne was hilarious as they reconstructed the "enormous man's arm" reaching across her to call for Mum. Look, it was only a flight to Melbourne, for God's sake. Try the same scenario on a plane from London to Hong Kong, as I have done, if you want a real reason to whinge.

Libby's husband, Scott Kara, one of my colleagues at the Herald, has kept it quiet around the office that he was participating in her quest to shave the household budget. She claimed last night that they had saved on nappies, but I believe the mystery of Scott's shrinking waistline has finally been solved - but not by Fair Go.

The saddest thing was seeing a journalist of the calibre of Gordon Harcourt reduced to tracking down a missing dog, Indie, who'd been adopted by a family down the road and renamed Sophie.

It turned out Indie's mum was to blame - she hadn't registered the dog every year or changed the chip address when they moved. Harcourt was last seen returning Indie to the family while the adoptive family's hearts broke.

So, not a particularly punchy beginning to the new series. As for Mau's much touted new role - pfft. Mau is less. I point the finger directly at the marketing department.