Angry Boys
Angry Boys is an Australian television mockumentary sitcom miniseries written by and starring Chris Lilley, continuing the mockumentary style of his previous series. In Angry Boys, Lilley plays multiple characters: S.mouse, an American rapper; Jen, a manipulative Japanese mother; Blake Oakfield, a champion surfer; Ruth "Gran" Sims, a guard at a juvenile detention facility; and her teenage grandsons, South Australian twins Daniel and Nathan Sims.
Filmed in Melbourne, Los Angeles, and Tokyo, the series is a co-production between the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and American cable channel HBO, with a pre-sale to BBC Three in the United Kingdom. Angry Boys premièred on 11 May 2011 at 9:00 pm on ABC1.
Production
Development
Executive producers Chris Lilley and Laura Waters brought together the same team of collaborators from Summer Heights High and We Can Be Heroes to create six characters for the series. This included the casting director, director of photography, camera operators, art department, costume designer, make-up artist, location scout, 1st assistant director, composer and editor. On 25 August 2009, The Daily Telegraph reported that Lilley had planned to release a follow-up series to Summer Heights High, after years of working on the format. A casting call was held on 30 September 2009 for roles of an African-American female to play a model called LaFonda, an African-American male, to play a character called Carter, and a male Japanese-American professional skateboarder, to play Corey. On 2 October 2009, it was revealed that Lilley was searching for several American actors to appear in the series. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation also released details about the series, confirming that it would be called Angry Boys, and that it would be co-produced by the ABC and American network HBO.More than 3,500 people auditioned for roles, both actors and non-actors from Australia and overseas to find a wide range of looks, attitudes, races and ages for 89 main roles and 1,228 extras. Angry Boys was filmed over seven months in more than 70 locations across Australia, Los Angeles and Tokyo. The series was edited over a period of 12 months. A preview of the series premiered on 16 March 2011, introducing some of the new characters, and the return of identical twins Daniel and Nathan Sims from We Can Be Heroes. A preview was also shown during the Comic Relief benefit in the United Kingdom on 18 March 2011. During an interview with The Age in May 2011, Waters said that they wanted the series to be a "challenge" to make it more "fun" and believes that they have "taken everything to the next level". Angry Boys premiered on 11 May 2011 at 9:00 pm on ABC1.
Music
The theme music to Angry Boys was written and produced by Lilley. Bryony Marks, who had been involved in some of the music from Summer Heights High, had helped Lilley arrange the theme music and produced all the incidental music in it. It was recorded over a number of sessions with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, with Lilley on grand piano for some pieces.Lilley also wrote and produced all the songs for the series, including S.mouse's rap songs, and recorded them in his home studio.
Characters
There are six main characters featured in Angry Boys, all portrayed by Chris Lilley.Daniel and Nathan Sims
Recurring characters from an earlier Chris Lilley series, We Can Be Heroes, Nathan and Daniel are identical 17-year-old twins living on a small farm with their family in the fictional rural town of Dunt, South Australia; Daniel has been the man of the house since their dad died when they were 11. His dream is to rebuild the farm as a working sheep farm and run it with Nathan. Daniel and his mates enjoy doing mainies up and down Dunt's main street using his mum's Nissan Pulsar car. Nathan has only 10% of his hearing and is quiet, lonely and constantly harassed by Daniel; his response to everything is giving the finger. In the twins' bedroom is the "Wall of Legends," pictures of the people they consider their heroes: surfer Blake Oakfield; Japanese skater Tim Okazaki; US rapper S.mouse; bikini model Emily Chase; their late dad; and their Gran.During the show, Nathan makes a tribute video to S.mouse's song, "Poo on You" and gets himself in trouble with the local Dunt police. His hearing condition worsens and the authorities suggest that he should be sent to a deaf school in Adelaide for a two-year course. Daniel organizes a "legendary" farewell party for Nathan and, enlisting Gran's help, invites all their "Wall of Legends" heroes. Later it's revealed, as she tells Daniel via Skype, that her worsening dementia causes her to forget to invite them. But much to everyone's surprise, Oakfield, Okazaki, and S.mouse actually do show up at the party.
S.mouse
is a 24-year-old African American rap artist from Los Angeles. He is known for releasing the biggest-selling hip hop single of all time, "Slap My Elbow." Claiming to have been an "underprivileged black kid from the slums," it is revealed by his father, Shwayne Snr., he comes from a wealthy suburban background in Calabasas, California and that he went to a predominantly white private school, sang gospel music at church, and begged him for the Wicked soundtrack. S.mouse spends most of his time hanging out with his best friend Danthony.During the show, S.mouse finds himself under pressure from his record company over his self-penned YouTube-released song, "Poo on You," the music video for which features him defecating on a police car. He later makes an online apology to his fans and is put under house arrest at his parents' house for two months, during which he receives a demo of the record company's song "Gingerbread S.mouse" and expresses great dislike of the track. He then decides to release a new single called "Grandmother Fucker." The song's music video features an appearance by S.mouse's grandmother, which angers his father. Later his manager phones to inform him that he has been dropped from the record company due to the video receiving a large number of complaints.
S.mouse then sets up a home studio to work on his own music for his new album, The Real Me, to be produced by Danthony and released independently. Following the album's launch to a largely nonplussed crowd, S.mouse realizes that he isn't really expressing the real him and decides to read Daniel's letter about an Aboriginal child named Wally who was crushed by a truck. He writes a song about the incident called "Squashed Nigga" and decides to sing the song instead of rapping it. Following the song's release, S.mouse re-invents himself under the name Shwayne Jnr.
Jen Okazaki
Jen Okazaki is a soft-spoken Japanese wife and mother of three who moved with her family from Japan to Santa Barbara, California in the United States for a better life. She focuses mainly on turning her first son Tim Okazaki into a skateboarding champion. Deciding that she can promote his career better from Tokyo, she moves the family back to Japan. She markets him not only as a cute Japanese boy but also a homosexual. She builds a successful empire around Tim's skateboarding success, "GayStyle Enterprises," in which she sells phallic whistles, perfume dispensers, water bottles and scrubbing brushes.During the show, Jen takes Tim to doctors and finds out that he is overworked and depressed. She tries to get him more relaxed and decides to take on some of his responsibilities. She also gets him a dog she names "Gay Dog" which she claims is "the first ever gay dog." Jen wants him to become best friends with the Gay Dog and to teach him how to skate. Later on, Tim reveals to his fans on his website that he is straight and has a girlfriend with whom he has been having a secret relationship for several months. In a fit of anger Jen runs away from home leaving a note behind which threatens that she will kill herself and Gay Dog if Tim doesn't reclaim he is gay. Jen is later dumped as Tim's manager and is replaced by Bruce. They all move back to Santa Barbara and live in separate houses. Tim gets his own home near the beach and buys a single-family residence for Jen, his father, and his two younger siblings. Jen does not enjoy the suburban lifestyle and hates being a stay-at-home mom. Not accepting defeat, Jen begins training her second son, Luke, to become the next golfing superstar.
Gran
Ruth Sims, commonly referred to as "Gran," is Daniel and Nathan's 65-year-old grandmother who works as a prison officer at the Sydney Garingal Juvenile Justice Centre for teenage boys, where she has been employed for 25 years. She lives in a house on the premises with her co-worker Penny. Gran describes herself as being "tough" and likes to think she is a mother figure for the inmates. She demonstrates her feelings of love and care in myriad ways, for example through insults and swearing in a manner similar to that of a drill sergeant. She does, however, care deeply for the boys and serves as a confidant. Gran also looks after 23 guinea pigs; Pauline, Patch, Lucy, Henry, Fudge, Narelle, Jaffles, Kerry Anne, Ken, Ruffles, Princess Mary, Courtney, Keith, Pia and the Babies, Trizzy, Joyce, Darrel, Sonia, Ratty, Bok Choy and Parsley. Her favorite is named after the television presenter Kerri-Anne.During the show she displays a lack of political correctness. During the first episode she divides the inmates into two teams of "light skins" and "dark skins" for a football game. She makes statements like, "I thought wogs were good at soccer." and "Get your lazy aboriginal ass up off the couch." Gran also plays her favorite game with the boys called "gotcha," in which she tricks one of the inmates into believing that he's about to be released, and practical jokes that an inmate has gotten the news he'll be executed via the Electric Chair, then says "Gotcha." She also keeps them entertained with "Friday Night Song Night," where she performs various songs. Gran forms a close bond with new inmate Talib, who was sent to the Garingal Juvenile Justice Centre for "wanking a dog." She tries to help make his life easier as the others bully and harass him for being too quiet and reserved. Gran reveals to Talib that she has Alzheimer's disease after he claims his mother doesn't visit him because she hates him and in a bid to get him to open up to her.
Later on, her guinea pig Kerri-Anne is found dead near the guinea pig hutches. Believing that Talib caused her death, the other inmates bully him more than ever. Finally pushed to his limit, he beats up another named inmate Marlon and Gran is forced to give him two days in solitary confinement. Gran mistakenly gives Talib and Justin, another solitary confinement inmate, extra bed sheets, which Justin uses for a suicide attempt. Now worried that Talib will do the same, Gran removes him from solitary confinement early. Garingal's head officer informs her that she must retire due to her worsening Alzheimer's symptoms as evidenced by her unwitting enabling of Justin's botched suicide attempt. She moves to Dunt to live with her family.