Guest curator Benjamin Law selects his SBS On Demand favourites

Trust Benjamin Law to guide you through an excellent selection of series and movies, across a wide range of genres. All now streaming at SBS On Demand.

Source: SBS On Demand

When we first said we'd like you to curate a collection, what goes through your mind? What do you want your selections to say about you?

Well, you know, first of all, I was just excited because, like, what a treasure trove to dive into. It's funny, you know, like, we were a Chinese-Australian family growing up in a very white part of Australia, and SBS was just something we had on so much. And it was it's funny, because I think SBS was like a gateway for our family, and not caring about definitions of 'highbrow' or 'lowbrow'. In fact, I don't think my family even knew what highbrow or lowbrow was, and it meant that we would watch like commercial trash TV, but I grew up [also] watching Almodovar films and, you know, Zhang Yimou films. I look back and I realise, 'Oh my God, that's actually something really, really special'. And that only was there because of SBS. And then to have the opportunity to make a show for SBS in The Family Law. When you tapped and said, Hey, would you like to curate something like, I can't think of anything I'd like more. So yeah, totally, please. It's an embarrassment of riches.

 

Well, speaking of your family...

The Family Law

I'm immensely proud of The Family Law, but I think it's just now that there's the distance of time from the show, I'm like, 'What a weird thing that I did: write a memoir about my family, then cast actors who weren't my family to play versions of them that were slightly sociopathic!' But what I do love is what we achieved. You know, we somehow made a popular show that was about the first Asian Australian family on a TV comedy. But the show wasn't about exploring your ethnic identity as such. It was kind of like a black comedy about divorce, for the first two seasons, especially. And I'm really proud that for the third season it was, the first teen coming out story in a TV sitcom, where the whole arc was dedicated to that story. And so I know we broke ground, but I also look back on that show and think that's a freaking funny and heartbreaking show as well, which is what we set out to do.

I haven't looked back a lot recently, but I think that's also because I want some time to pass where I look at it and I'm like, 'Wow, that is nuts'. And I think the thing that will really make me enthusiastic about it is seeing the performances of people like Trystan Go and Fiona Choi and Anthony Brandon Wong and everyone else who is so magnificent and have moved on to great, great things. 

And being up on a streaming service, you know, people can come and come to it any time. So I wonder, do you get people contacting you on Twitter when they discover it?

Yes!  SBS marketed it really well, so a lot of eyeballs are on it generally. But since then, it has really been through word of mouth. So I still get messages, saying either 'I watched it recently' or 'I watched it when it first came out. But it's taken me this long to tell you what it, what it means to me', and that those aren't just messages from Asian-Australian or specifically Chinese-Australian people. A lot of them are, but a lot of them are like, 'Yeah, I come from a migrant family. It's very similar'. Or 'My mum was very similar to your mum, like deeply inappropriate' or they came from a family of divorce. That is the story we're telling in those first few seasons, especially, and people talk about that hitting hard. Yeah, so it's it's special in a lot of levels. And what I'm really proud about is that we got to make a teen comedy about coming out that they can show at school because that's a resource that young people need and and it's actually very difficult, according to the teachers I've spoken to, to find resources for Wear It Purple Day or, you know, IDAHOBIT Day, that is actually age appropriate, and The Family Law is. It's a little bit rude, but largely in an age appropriate way. 

All episodes of The Family Law are now streaming as a 3-season box set (also available with Simplified Chinese subtitles). Start here:

Stream free On Demand

The Family Law

series • 

Comedy drama

M

series • 

Comedy drama

M

New Gold Mountain

I was so proud to be part of the team that made this landmark show come to life. You know, the gold rush in Australia is always a chapter of history that I've always been fascinated in because of course, it's the arrival of the first Chinese in Australia. Asian Australian history does predate white colonisation in terms of trade through Arnhem Land and Yolngu Country, but when it comes to people who stayed in Australia, Asian people who stayed in Australia, the gold rush was really it. And when you look at that history, it's one of like deep racial tension, and I think as much as New Gold Mountain is kind of like a revisionist history and very much about a period in time, what the team wanted to do with that show was to make it feel so relevant to now. The gold rush is kind of the story of Australia now, and as it has always been since colonisation. What I mean by that is, we've always been a multicultural, always been a multilingual continent: even with Aboriginal nations, you know, there are more Aboriginal nations than there are European nations. Then with migration, colonisation and invasion, you have these kind of like flashpoints of racial tension and complete missed opportunities for this country to become something else. And I think a lot of that is what we're trying to say with New Gold Mountain, like how interesting that Aboriginal, white, and Chinese people are kind of all working together in some ways, but racism was always going to tear them apart, too. So I think like that's the story we're trying to tell, and we brought the screens. And I'm also just I also just think it's a beautiful show to look at. Like Corrie Chen's direction of that of that mini-series is lush. So that's why I wanted to include that. 

All episodes of New Gold Mountain are available to stream (including versions with Arabic, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean subtitles), Start here:

Stream free On Demand

New Gold Mountain

series • 

drama

MA15+

series • 

drama

MA15+

Filthy Rich & Homeless - Season 2

It's funny, I still get stopped in the street about that show because for so many audiences, it reframed their understanding of poverty and homelessness. And I actually have to say I'm I'm one of those people because I was in the experience. Now, I came into that show as the complete bleeding heart. Like, I know that people who are homeless, don't want to be homeless. I know that government support should be there. But having those stories so intimately told to you from people who have lived it is shattering.  It also made me reframe my understanding of poverty on a policy level, too. Sometimes, I think, we give in to the very tempting idea that poverty is just an inevitability, that homelessness is just an inevitability and that's simply not true. You know, Finland, and some American municipalities, they have invested so much into social housing and emergency accommodation and there is no primary homelessness. I didn't know that. The solution is there, the willpower is not, and I think that's absolutely scandalous. And also, you know, who doesn't want to see privileged Australians debased on national TV? That's that's the Trojan horse, right? To get you to witness so many actual real stories of homelessness that I think Australians wouldn't have come to otherwise. And in fact, I know they wouldn't have come to otherwise, because that's what they've told me after watching the show.  

All episodes of Filthy Rich and Homeless are available to stream at SBS On Demand. For Ben's season, season 2, start here:

Homecoming Queens

Yeah. Yeah, yeah! Homecoming Queens, co-starring and co-created by my sister Michelle Law, the great playwright, screenwriter and actor. I just think this is such a beautifully told, sensitively-but-brashly designed story of two young people at a crossroads with their friendship, who both live with chronic illness, but it's a laugh out loud comedy. Oh my gosh. Like, the fact that they pulled that off, is incredible. And I think it's such a cool thing to see on Australian screens that we've got representations of non-binary, Asian Australian people with alopecia. People who have lived with cancer far younger than they should, and for it to be funny is such a bold move and very proud of my sister for the being a big part of the process of making that. 

All episodes of The SBS Digital Original Homecoming Queens are available to stream as a box set at SBS On Demand. Start here:

Creamerie

Creamerie, I feel like it's the most underrated, most excellent show that too few people have seen. A dark comedy about the apocalypse. Women are the 99 per cent of the population, but it starts with male nudity. What's not to love!? It's deranged, dark and delicious, and I continue to be haunted by the opening sequence and the final sequence. The scripts are deranged in the best possible way. It's a batshit delight. 

All episodes to date of Creamerie are streaming as a season one box set at SBS On Demand. Start here:

Stream free On Demand

Creamerie

series • 

comedy

MA15+

series • 

comedy

MA15+

Years And Years

So, I'm a big fan of Russell T. Davies and have been ever since Queer As Folk, which was very much a formative TV experience for me. And I think Years and Years is such a compelling, dramatic and melancholy show. I think we all feel like we're living in the future right now. Who could have anticipated that we'd be living through a pandemic, where our lives and way of living would be irrevocably changed? I don't know if you feel the same way, but every New Year's, for instance, I'm filled with wonder and with deep dread. You know, 'What does the future hold for us in this time of climate catastrophe, economic collapse? pandemic? political horror?'  I think the future used to be framed in television and film as something that was majestic, wonderful, and optimistic. And I think Years And Years captures the dread of the moment, uses an amazing device, which is to flash forward in the very near and recognisable future to make us confront the road that we're on. I also love that it's an incredibly moving love letter to his late partner as well. It's it's a remarkable piece of work. 

Years And Years is no longer streaming.

The Cook Up with Adam Liaw

Adam And Poh's Malaysia In Australia

Look, I love Adam, and he actually is one of the only cooks who has written so many cookbooks, and I happen to own every single one of them! I'm not just a mate of his, though; The Cook Up's amazing. Now that I've been part of four episodes I'm like, 'Oh my god, Adam and that crew Work. Very. Hard. The incredible production schedule to make that show look so effortless is so staggeringly impressive. It showcases the diversity and boldness of Australian cooking so well. I think sometimes Australians wrestle with national identity, and I always think the answer is in our food culture.

All 200 (!) episodes of The Cook Up are now available to stream at SBS On Demand. Start here: 

Stream free On Demand

Family Dinner

episode • The Cook Up with Adam Liaw • 

cooking • 

26m

G

episode • The Cook Up with Adam Liaw • 

cooking • 

26m

G

All episodes of Adam and Poh's Malaysia in Australia 

Stream free On Demand

Adam & Poh's Malaysia in Australia

series • 

cooking

PG

series • 

cooking

PG