If New Zealand can find a way to export dairy in all its forms, it will. And as breakthrough comedy Creamerie returns for season two in all its dairy-adjacent dystopian glory, it, too, is being sold to a wider world.
The series’ first season was much loved at home. But after streamer, Hulu introduced it to US audiences, with Australia’s SBS also picking it up, producer Bronwyn Bakker says the Disney-owned US platform instantly asked when it would be getting the next one.
The season-one cliffhanger-finish will no doubt have contributed. The first series ended in a room full of the last remaining men after a global virus supposedly eliminated everyone else. Graphically, they’re being forced to provide the only thing that will continue humankind, all masterminded by Lane, the evil governess of “Wellness”, played by Tandi Wright.
The ending shifted the series’ dark humour further into the black.
“There are some things that happen that are quite confronting, but then equally, someone will say a line that puts you back into that comedy world,” says Bakker. “That tonal balance – it’s a bit of an art form.”
It’s a balance well executed by lead trio Alex (Ally Xue), Jaime (JJ Fong) and Pip (Perlina Lau), who tried to harbour fugitive Bobby (Jay Ryan) throughout season one. He’s a bloke who experiences mistreatment that viewers aren’t used to seeing men endure on the small screen.
Says Bakker, “We wanted to honour [Bobby’s mistreatment], but it’s not Bobby’s story, so we didn’t want to delve too much into it. Ultimately, it’s about the mistreatment of human beings, how women deal with it versus how men deal with it. And that’s the underlying narrative that we’re dancing with while making a funny show.”
It’s a universal experience – one that those at the top were willing to bank on when selling the show overseas.
Bakker says the show’s executive producer, Tony Ayres, and fellow Aussie producer Matt Vitins had avidly followed director and Creamerie co-creator Roseanne Liang’s work (Shadow in the Cloud, My Wedding and Other Secrets), and the pair had helped open doors for the series abroad.
Creamerie has followed in the footsteps of Wellington Paranormal into overseas markets by being an original comedy and a show that could have been from nowhere else than here.
Wright agrees. “I think [overseas audiences enjoy it] because it’s a genuinely fresh voice that Roseanne and those three women have. It’s their show and the network [TVNZ] was brave enough to let them make the show they wanted to make.”
Wright, who has also been vice-president of performers’ union Equity NZ for a decade, also praises the fact the show is, well, udderly New Zealand. Offshore productions shooting in this country don’t have to meet a Kiwi casting quota, unlike in Australia.
“If a production accesses the government subsidy in Australia, it has the foreign artist scheme, which means of the lead roles, 50% must be cast Australian, and 75% of major support roles must be cast Australian, too.
“I feel very firmly that it’s too hard to make a living as an actor in this country for numerous reasons,” says Wright.
“The screen industry here is not self-sustaining, as actors are not properly valued in the process.”
However, Creamerie offered up residuals straight off the bat – something rare for which New Zealand actors normally have to fight.
The set, despite being the scene of some confronting moments, was “very actor-friendly”, Wright says.
She’s enjoying playing Lane, the leader of Wellness, the all-female cult that runs things. “I like to describe Lane as if Vladimir Putin wore silk, with Gwyneth Paltrow’s hairdo. Objectively, she’s not well. She’s a classic case of someone who’s just got too much power … we have regular examples in the world of how this actually plays out.”
Bakker says the team’s Kiwi spin on the American-dominated dystopian genre may resonate because it’s being “so niche that it’s broad”. She says Hulu had only one major note for the Kiwi production: speak clearly. “The clarity of our accent needed to be really on point,” she says with a laugh. “New Zealanders mumble.”
Creamerie is streaming on TVNZ+ from July 14 and screening on TVNZ 2 on Friday at 10.00pm.
