Dog Park: a delightful sitcom that will fill the Colin from Accounts shaped hole in your life

This snort-aloud Australian comedy is sweet, hilarious – and a surprising examination of male loneliness and mid-life crisis.

Who’s a good show then?! Whenever I’m watching a programme that features an animal and I realise I’m expected to have a specific reaction to that animal, I run into a problem.

I call it the Cuteness Assumptive Theory: Subjectivity in Television issue (CATSIT for short).

It boils down to this: if the success of your show relies on my finding your lead actor scrumptious-wumptious, you’ve already failed.

We all like different things.

The theory applies equally to humans.

We all know that moment when some interchangeable heartthrob walks into the scene on a US sitcom.

All the characters lose their minds, this being apparently the hottest person on Earth, while you’re sitting thinking, ‘Huh?’ It happens with child stars too.

Casting directors have a narrow spectrum of children they think will elicit an “awww” response from audiences.

The response usually elicited in me is “Couldn’t they find a better actor?” I’m not trying to be liked here! Anyway, it’s the animal version that came to mind this week, watching Dog Park.

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