The Jaquie Brown Diaries is a satirical New Zealand sitcom in which real-life television personality Jaquie Brown plays a fictionalised, over-ambitious, status-obsessed version of herself. The series was created by Gerard Johnstone, Jaquie Brown and Hayley Cunningham and premiered 25 July 2008 on TV3. The US cable television channel Logo began broadcasting the series' episodes to date 12 June 2010.
Themes
The show highlights the unglamorous reality of being a celebrity in New Zealand. It depicts fame as a game that can never be won. Jaquie's character is far from perfect. She's insecure, petulant and selfish, which makes her ultimately more human and relatable as a result.
Development
Jaquie Brown and writer/director Gerard Johnstone first worked together on New Zealand music channel C4. In 2005 Brown left the station to become the quirky news reporter on Campbell Live. After hearing Jaquie's anxieties about her career, the pitfalls of being a minor celebrity, and being recognised by her gynaecologist, Johnstone came up with the idea of Brown playing herself in a sitcom which would parody voice-over narrated female skewed television shows such as 'Sex and the City' and 'Desperate Housewives'.
Production
The Jaquie Brown Diaries was produced independently through Brown & Johnstone's own company, Young, Gifted & Brown. Jaquie Brown had never acted professionally or received any acting training. It was also the professional debut of writer/director/editor Gerard Johnstone. Many episodes of the series were co-written with Jodie Molloy, an ex-TV3 publicist. Hayley Cunningham produced the first series. The second series was produced by Matt McPhail.
Acclaim
The show debuted to unanimously positive reviews. It was dubbed 'A miracle' by The Listener for the fact that it was a NZ sitcom 'that doesn't suck', an observation which drew on NZ's troubled past when it comes to narrative comedy. The first series won best comedy at the Qantas Film and Television Awards , was the top NZ show in The Herald's 'Best on the Box' for 2008, and was declared best local comedy or TV show in several publications such as The Listener, Metro magazine and Jaquie Brown was voted one of the New Zealanders of the year in both the NZ Herald and North and South magazine.
The second series was declared 'Best TV show on TV' by Steve Braunias in Sunday magazine.
In June 2010 it debuted in the US on MTV Logo. The Boston Globe's Matthew Gilbert called it 'delightfully cringeworthy' and said that it put other major network sitcoms to shame.
Both seasons won New Zealand's Qantas TV and Film Award for best comedy programme in 2009 and 2010.
Series Summary
Series 1
The first series was loosely based around many aspects of Brown's life, having just left music station C4, now working as the light-relief on a hard-hitting current affairs show, feeling a little in over her head in the world of journalism and having to deal with the pitfalls of being a C-grade celebrity. With the help of a young network publicist, Kim Sharee, Jaquie attempts to claw her way up the media ladder, but her efforts are thwarted by the arrival of a new reporter, Serita Singh, whose journalistic style is strikingly similar to Jaquie's and seems to be stealing her thunder at an alarming rate.
Over the course of the series, Jaquie's humanity takes a back seat to her ambition. In the episode finale, she frames Serita by attaining her computer log-in and sending a pornographic e-mail entitled 'A guy, a girl and a mug (Based on the infamous '2 girls 1 cup')' to Ian. Serita is fired, and Jaquie becomes Ian's new temporary replacement while Ian and Elena do a feature in Iraq. Jaquie is in over her head to begin with, as she bumbles her way through an interview with the Prime Minister, but she manages to regain her footing in the last segment by making a high school principal partake in a pop quiz with a dyslexic student. Although Jaquie finds herself on the receiving end of the fame and adoration she has always wanted, her conscience, and her useless yet perceptive flatmate Tom get the better of her, and she confesses to her sins. The closing scene sees her leaving TV3 but hopeful for a brighter future.
