No Spoiler Review: Wellmania

Cathartic comedy about career, health, family, trauma, love and life.

Based on the image of a seemingly distressed woman in a story about her being forced to improve her health and the fact that I have never liked an Australian comedy before, I was expecting to hate Wellmania.

However, I gave it a chance because I was in the mood for something new and over the last several years I have gained a greater appreciation for several high-quality shows from Australia and New Zealand.

Favorites have an appealing combination of Commonwealth sweetness and pride, a little Crocodile Dundee, Maori honor and pride, subtle snarky humor and some hardcore lunacy, but since comedy transcending cultures is the toughest comedy of all, I have never come close to falling for an Ausi comedy until Wellmania.

There is certainly plenty of bad language, lunacy and a steady flow of very mature sexual themes but Australian actor and comedian Celeste Barber is a force of nature with epic “one-liners” like below (and real life ADD). She really grows on you each episode as she plows through her fun, wonderful, excessive and troubled life with reckless abandon, and picks up steam as she is progressively forced to confront her unhealthy lifestyle and issues behind some of her bad habits.

Many call this a spoof on the wellness industry which it is, but there is a surprising depth to why she is the way she is and there is a certain Lucille Ball, Molly Shannon and Melissa McCarthy quality to the comedic and acting talents of Barber that are well harnessed and cathartic in this great book adaptation about career, health, family, trauma, love and life.

If you would like to see a psychological review of a TV show or movie, please feel free to make suggestions. CNI is always on the look-out for entertaining ways we can educate ourselves and the world about humanity’s darker sides, and all other aspects of life and psychology that could benefit from a greater understanding of Intelligence.