Sunny Nights — Will Forte’s latest quirky comedy goes Down Under

Review by C.J. Bunce

In the tradition of quirky comedy mash-up series like Population 11, Deadloch, and Bodkin and hapless criminal stories like the Canadian series The Sticky comes Sunny Nights, a new comedy-crime series on Hulu from Australian production company Stan starring Will Forte and D’Arcy Carden. You know you’re in for something different when the most level-headed guy in the room is played by Forte. He stars as Martin Marvin and Carden co-stars as Vicki, siblings who take their idea for a new spray tan product called Tansform down under. Each reaching for one last break after lives of turmoil and chaos, they must rely on their own strengths and fight off each other’s (really bad) quirks if they have any hope of bringing their product to the national marketplace. But this is a classic Tweedledee and Tweedledum story–not quite the stuff of Dumb and Dumber–but the spirit of Murphy’s Law seems to haunt these fish out of water at every step, dragging them down into the dark world of local organized crime, including a murder or two.

Forte’s character Martin by all accounts seems to be a good man. He is devoted to his wife although they have separated. Joyce, played by Ra Chapman, is the reason Martin brings Vicki to Sydney, where Joyce is now working as a reporter for a newspaper. She wants to be an investigative reporter. A young and rather vacant boss for the most part lets her do her own thing, and along the way she takes the assistance she gets. That comes in the form of Mystery Road: Origin’s Megan Wilding as Nova, an ambitious animal control officer who has watched enough police shows to know how everything should work in an investigation.

Martin makes one last attempt to win back Joyce, but his efforts fail. He lands in a bar where he encounters Susi, a flirtacious woman played by Jessica De Gouw who may not be Miss Right but certainly qualifies as Miss Right Now. After a night in bed at the hotel Martin wakes up to find Susi filmed their encounter, and her crime partner Kash (played by Miritana Hughes) is soon standing in the hotel with a gun and a threat–cough up tens of thousands of dollars or they’re sending the recording to his wife. When sister Vicki hears of this she tries to convince him to ignore the threat and let his estranged wife find out–she already brushed him off. But Martin is committed. Susi seems sympathetic toward Martin. Did she really fall for this nice guy? Possibly.

Soon Martin and Vicki find themselves in a hotel room confronting Kash and Susi. Kash has a gun–but surprise, so does Vicki. It doesn’t matter, because Susi lands a fatal blow on Kash. Suddenly Susi has killed not just a thug, but the brother of Mony, the ultimate classic “gun moll” underground crime leader, who happens to be getting out of jail. She’s quite angry when her brother isn’t there to welcome her the day she is sprung.

Martin and Vicki get into bed with the same local crime family over and over, tripping over each other along the way. It begins when Vicki enlists famous ex-rugby player Terry Torres for help, a guy she learned of when she tries to get a legitimate bank loan to take Tansform national. Played by Willie Mason, Terry is a big guy, who unknown to her, is a key henchman for Kash. Terry helps dispose of Kash’s body by dumping it into a river where it is promptly eaten by a crocodile who also ingests a can of Tansform. The crocodile wanders into a golf course and explodes, revealing the identifiable tattooed arm of Kash. When sister Mony finds out, she’s hell bent on vengeance, not knowing two of her own henchmen (inherited from Kash) were involved. When Joyce begins investigating the dead man in the crocodile, everything is poised to come full circle for these players.

As for the leads, Martin is the smarter of the two and despite poor decisions he seems on an upward trajectory. For whatever reason Vicki was written to be more impulsive, constantly making bad and worse decisions on an unending downward spiral. As for the thugs both Susi and Terry are working hard at getting out of the crime world, taking specific steps to make their lives better. Susi wants to buy a real estate property and run her own business. It’s just within her reach if only Mony would let her out of her obligations. Terry is trying to detox so he can qualify to take a new anger management drug, which would improve his relationship with his son and his mom.

Mony, played by New Zealand actor Rachel House (Cowboy Bebop, The Portable Door), is intense–a standout who slithers with an interesting accent, creating a unique mob boss. The entire slate of actors is great, with De Gouw and Mason delivering the kind of performance that will leave viewers wanting more. Keep your eyes open for an over-talkative thug named Benno played by Harry Greenwood, who is hysterically funny. And there’s even a cameo by Deadloch’s Nina Oyama. If you’re a fan of amusement parks as a setting, don’t miss this one–Mony and Kash use the local funhouse as a front for their underhanded deeds. You’ll have to ignore the fact that the writers (or at least the Martin siblings) don’t understand anything about how businesses actually work–you can’t take a product to a single store and expect it to go national–and a spray tan product would need to go through extensive regulatory scrutiny for safety reasons. But all of that is ignored here. The series also boasts possibly the worst soundtrack of depressing and ugly pop music (and that dirge-like theme song? Yikes).

Mostly fun with enough quirky business and interesting actors to keep you coming back for more, the first season of Sunny Nights is now streaming on Hulu. The series has not been renewed for a second season.

Catch up with our reviews of other quality British TV series (including Australian and New Zealand shows you’d find on PBS, BritBox, Acorn TV, and Hulu) beginning with our Top 10: Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes, Zen, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?, Mr. Selfridge, Guilt, The IPCRESS File, The Hour, The Gentlemen, Black Doves, and Shetland. You could stay pretty busy with our full list of top British TV recommendations, including Deadloch, The Artful Dodger, Van Der Valk, the first season of Sherlock, Troppo, Case Histories, This is Going to Hurt, Black Snow, Mystery Road: Origin, Death Valley, Dept. Q, Bodkin, The Bletchley Circle, Good Cop/Bad Cop, Grace, Steeltown Murders, Hinterland, Glitch, Mystery Road, Culprits, Harrow, Annika, Young Sherlock, The Day of the Jackal, Code of Silence, Luther, Professor T, and Supacell.

After you’ve seen all of those, try Viva Blackpool, Marchlands, Lightfields, State of Play, I, Jack Wright, Population 11, Sunny Nights, Protection, After the Flood, Traces, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Scrublands, Ordeal by Innocence, Unforgotten, The Bay, Wild Bill, Quirke, Requiem, The Gloaming, The Clearing, The One, The Tourist, The Tower, Collateral, Roadkill, Stay Close, The Salisbury Poisonings, and A Confession.

Other British series across genres that are worth checking out (a few still to be reviewed here) include fun romps like Monarch of the Glen, Para Handy, Cranford, Viva Blackpool, and As Time Goes By, and cozy mysteries Rosemary and Thyme, Father Brown, Hetty Wainthropp, and Death in Paradise. One of the best of all British productions is the reboot of All Creatures Great and Small, which is in our British Top 10 (and the original is good, too). Of course there’s always Doctor Who for your sci-fi fix (and spin-offs Torchwood and Class), The Watch for your fantasy fix, Truth Seekers and Sea of Souls for your supernatural fix, and Spaced for more sci-fi fun, and we really should add House, MD, for Brit lead Hugh Laurie’s one-of-a-kind performance. (We’ve also reviewed but don’t heartily recommend so much Dublin Murders, The ABC Murders, The Pale Horse, Reef Break, The One That Got Away, The Silence, The Five, The Missing, Thirteen, or Broadchurch, as well as No Offence, which could have merited a review for its first season but, like Sherlock, its later episodes were a disappointment).