![\"Paul](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/47bd4366e835e2c914663d6995e7bc31b070251d.png\")
Save<\/p>\nSave<\/p>\n
You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n
Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Ground Up \u200f\u2605\u2605<\/p>\n Screenwriters usually have to wait for real-world events to play out before they can apply their blowtorches, so kudos to Gary McCaffrie, the creator and writer of Ground Up, for being first to the punch. This scripted six-part ABC comedy is based on the impending arrival of the AFL\u2019s 19th team<\/a>, the Tasmania Devils, and the construction of a new stadium in Hobart<\/a>. Given not a single player has been signed<\/a> up nor a piece of sod turned, he\u2019s at least a few years ahead of the events he\u2019s satirising. Call it the parody-first approach to history.<\/p>\n How the richest sporting code in Australia elicited \u2014 or coerced, depending upon your viewpoint \u2014 the under-populated Apple Isle to field a team in the national competition on the condition that it build a stadium<\/a> despite public opposition is a topic crying out for treatment.<\/p>\n In one corner, the AFL with its boardroom of industry captains, on the other the grassroots supporters who don\u2019t give a rat\u2019s about premium dining experiences when their team plays at home and would prefer public money be spent on housing and health.<\/p>\n In Ground Up, the former is represented by Hugh Shen (Sam Pang), a plodding AFL official handed a \u201cpoisoned chalice\u201d of launching the Great Southern Football Club, and his toxic boss Alistair Penfold (Josh McConville), who sees Hugh as a threat to his leadership.<\/p>\n Related Article Simultaneously thwarting and aiding Hugh\u2019s ambition is his second-in-command Destiny Pitt (Emma Harvie), a local public servant appointed by the government to keep the project on track. Sharp and attentive to the details that the unethical Hugh happily overlooks, both are keen to climb the greasy corporate pole.<\/p>\n With dimwit Jameson (Dylan Murphy) as a bumbling office gofer and his meddling, snotty mother and club president Catherine (Marg Downey<\/a>) never far away, Ground Up leans into the conventions of the workplace comedy. There are misunderstandings and petty grievances as mismatched personalities are thrust together. There are awkward encounters in the tearoom and \u201chot mic\u201d phone conversations. Freshly drafted footballers with bad hairdos and ridiculous names (McCaffrie was a writer on Shaun Micallef\u2019s Mad As Hell) and unwitting sponsors bring easy, signposted gags.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, as a workplace comedy<\/a>, Ground Up is flatfooted. It\u2019s shot like a fly-on-the-wall mockumentary, and most of the withering dialogue is delivered with indifference.<\/p>\n As satire, Ground Up relies on low-hanging fruit: Big Sport that is run like a cut-throat corporation and cares not a jot for the public; self-serving public servants and elected officials who can be bought; footballers who are only a thin line of white powder or a shag away from scandal.<\/p>\n There\u2019s at least two other Australian shows that have traversed similar territory and to which Ground Up will inevitably be compared. Across five seasons, Utopia<\/a> revealed the clash between bureaucracy and the idealism of \u201cnation building\u201d. Further back, The Games, which like Ground Up took place within the confines of a bland office and a handful of characters, used cracking dialogue and only slightly exaggerated absurdity \u2013 a sprinting track that was two metres short \u2013 to ridicule Olympic Games officials and their sycophantic hanger-ons.<\/p>\n Compared to the protagonists of Utopia and The Games, Hugh and Destiny aren\u2019t given much to work with here. Destiny fares better, but as Hugh says in an early scene in Ground Up, he was set up to fail. And that\u2019s the role he largely plays here.<\/p>\n Ground Up is eager to please. It will probably find a following. But it doesn\u2019t steer far from the headlines on which it is based. Its punchlines land exactly where you expect.<\/p>\n Ground Up premieres at 8.30pm on Sunday, June 7, on ABC and ABC iview.<\/p>\n Want more TV? We\u2019ve got you.Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n![\"Emma](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/66f23376d79fa05b4d1eec1997114d7e031c91a2.jpeg\")
Emma Harvie as Destiny Pitt and Sam Pang as Hugh Shen in Ground Up.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/b63ddf461dca42e094aebe3884ad094e17f7163d.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Emma](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5dda26b1fe18c7727fda8f5bb42a79059be25da6.jpeg\")
Emma Harvie as Destiny Pitt and Marg Downey as Catherine La Fontaine in Ground Up.<\/p>\n