Warriors of the Monkey God & The O.C.

This column first appeared in the Age on December 20, 2003

Tis the season for predictability: the 66th Carols by Candlelight (Wednesday, 9.00pm, channel 9); National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (Channel 9, Thursday, 7.30pm); Parkinson's Christmas Special (ABC, Wednesday, 8.30pm) and the Queen's Christmas Message (7.20pm, Thursday, ABC). But let's be unpredictable. Let's talk monkeys instead. Warriors of the Monkey God is on the ABC, tomorrow at 7.30pm, though it's not a great show to watch with the kids unless you'd like to discuss gang rape and infanticide over Sunday dinner. It's a pretty extraordinary documentary.

Set in Jodhpur, India, Warriors of the Monkey God follows a gang of monkeys that live in and around the city. The city langurs have it made. They leap from one blue Brahmin house to the next, gorging themselves on drying rose petals and chillies, and they are worshiped as ancestors of the Monkey God, Hanuman which means there's not much a fruit seller can do when they make off with most of the fruit. The group is made up of one male 'warlord' and his harem of 16 females and their babies. Most of the boy monkeys are left skulking around until they build up the courage every few years to overthrow the chief, rape the females and kill the children. It all becomes a bit distressing to watch, in truth, but it's good to see a doco about animals that have adapted to the urban environment rather than been destroyed by it.

There's another aspirational guy in town, and he wants into Orange County. The series is called The O.C. and it's been screening at 8.30pm, Thursdays, Channel 9 (starting up again after Christmas week). Ryan Atwood (Benjamin McKenzie), is 16 and from the wrong side of the tracks. After he steals a car, his intelligence brings him to the attention of public defender Sandy Cohen (Peter Gallagher of American Beauty fame) who ends up taking him into the wealthy, privileged community of Newport Beach. In his first minutes in O.C. he locks eyes with the already spoken for girl next door, Marissa (played by Mischa Barton, the new face of Neutrogena.) and he chums up with Cohen's nerdy son, Seth (Adam Brody).

There's crime here, though it's blue collar, and involves stocks and shares. Violence is also the order of the day as Ryan discovers, though the thugs can afford cocaine. It's kind of predictable, full of beach parties, and debutante balls, girls in bikinis and dialogue about 'real life' versus the 'superficial' life of the O.C. And yet . . . it's a notch above what you'd expect from such a show, perhaps because it's produced by McG (Charlie's Angels) and Doug Liman (Swingers, The Bourne Identity). After asking the station for yet more preview tapes because I couldn't wait till next week, I had to confess I was hooked. Think 90210 with pretence of class analysis, think Thursday night O.C. parties with friends, think guilty pleasure. It's that kind of show.

Posted by Sophie at 04:12 PM