A TV Related post
A TV related post. 

After reading basbleu's latest post concerning television (flocked here)and watching the German film "Reclaim Your Brain" where the ethics of activism were as questionable as the ethics of the TV shows they were protesting, I thought I'd take the opportunity to pimp some of the good stuff.

1. At The Movies
I've recommended this one before but it's recently gone Vodcast, so I'll give it another plug. Intelligent movie reviews from Margaret & David. 1/2 hour each week - a must for my ipod while at the gym. Also, David's recently released biography is called "I Peed on Felini". What more recommendation do you need? 

2. Summer Heights High
I heard that Chris Lilley's latest project has been picked up by both the BBC and HBO.  It's a mockumentary satire set in an Australian high school with Lilley playing all three main characters:

Ja'mie, a bitchy, snobby year 11 student on exchange from a private school. "Without makeup girls would be really fugly."

Jonah, a vulgar Tongan year 8 bully. "I said 'Puck you'. With a P."

Mr G, a totally self-involved drama teacher. "We're encouraging some of the sluttier girls to audition..."

It's very well done. The only other person I know of who can so completely inhabit completely different characters is Sasha Baron Cohen's trifecta of Ali G/Borat/Bruno. I recently found my old high school principal on facebook. He was in the group "The Summer Heights High appreciation society". Keep an eye out.

3. Underbelly
A based-on-a-true-story crime drama about gangland killings in Melbourne in the last 15 years. Slickly produced and the most engaging thing on Australian TV at the moment. Not being broadcast in Victoria due to a court injunction concerning ongoing criminal trials. Court injunction = utterly useless

4. East of Everything
Sunday night ABC drama (also vodcast) miniseries set in "Broken Bay", based rather closely on the real life "Byron Bay", a haven for millionaires and hippies. It hooked me with the line "I'm buggered if I know how to bribe a Buddhist." Very much going for the SeaChange market, but I'm happy enough to go along with that. Stars Richard Roxburgh, whom you would most likely know as The Duke in Moulin Rouge. Don't worry, he's utterly unrecognisable ;-) Six part miniseries.

5. Media Watch
Since this is a post about TV, let's get a bit meta. Every media market needs a show like Media Watch. As is always said, everyone loves it 'till they're on it. Vodcast. 15 minutes once a week.

And under the cut, a TV meme from a while back that I nicked from dm_lunsford, hollywdliz and rosiewook:



Name your top six shows right now before reading the questions.
1. Top Gear*
2. Boston Legal
3. At The Movies*
4. Doctor Who
5. Torchwood
6. Spooks

** NB: Top Gear and At The Movies aren't fiction.

My own personal criterion: I only picked shows that are current, so I don't have any of the old favs like Buffy, X-Files or West Wing.


1. Who is your favorite character from #2? (Boston Legal)

While I love Shirley and Katie, I can't go past Alan.  Would that we were all so incisively obnoxious. 



2. Who is your least favorite character from #4? (Doctor Who)

Jackie.  Just SHUT UP, woman!  There is no cause for anyone to talk that much nonsense. 


3. What would a crossover between #1 and #5 include? (Top Gear, Torchwood)

Ha!  Top Gear/Torchwood would be brilliant.  James would have a cup of tea with Ianto. Jack would hit on Richard incessantly (after clearing up some confusion as to whether he was actually The Doctor returned from an adventure with some weird shrinking gizmo - you know this to be true), and Jeremy would inevitably stand on the rift yelling "POWEEER".  Tosh and Owen go into a spin because they can't get any readings - biological, technical, anything - from The Stig, who Jack later puts in the vault.  By the end of episode two they'd be calling the rift "The Axis of Weevil". 


4. Who is your favorite ship from #6? (Spooks)

I'm a Harry/Ruth girl all the way.  If the series ends without some kind of resolution there I will be most put out. 


5. If you were to set one person from #3 and one person from #6 on a blind date, who would they be? (At The Movies, Spooks)

I'm tossing up between David & Juliet or Margaret & Zaf.  I think either pair would have enormous fun. 


6. If you could meet one person from #4 and spend the day with them, who would it be, and what would you do? (Doctor Who)

Oh, Martha.  In all the worlds Martha.  She's fabulous.  If it was ten, I'm afraid I'd spend ll day examining his pinstripes. 

Take that as you will. 


7. If you could change one thing about #2's plot line, what would you change? (Boston Legal)

I'm rather annoyed with the Shirley and Karl break up.  Not the way it was handled, just that it happened at all.  In my personal BL universe, they're still together. 


8. Explain a relationship between two people (not necessarily romantic) from show #5, and why you like the relationship between them? (Torchwood)

In the relationally dysfunctional mess that is the Torchwood team, I have to go for the island of relative stability that is Gwen/Rhys.  When they both deliberately choose each other, forsaking all others to do so, it was lovely. 


9. If the lead title characters (first name in the credit sequence) from #1 and #3 were both drowning, and you could only save one, who would it be?  (Top Gear/At The Movies)

I can't remember whether At The Movies is Margaret or David first, but I'll be saving one of them.  Jeremy can wait to be rescued by Richard & James in a cobbled together Toyota Hydrofoil or something. 


10. If you could change the title characters' order in the credits for #4? (Doctor Who). 

Nope.  It's as it should be. 


11. If you were able to add a new character, any kind of character you wanted, to the storyline for #6, what would the character be? (Spooks)

Ooh, tricky one.  We need another arse-kicking woman, but I don't think she'll be a long way off.  Preferably one who has starred in a Jane Austen adaptation, since all those casts seem to congregate on Spooks.  (Henry Tilney, Captain Wentworth, Mr Darcy, Miss Bingley etc)


12. What happens in your favorite episode of show #2? (Boston Legal)

Alan and Denny apply to join the Coast Guard (the only branch of the military that will accept them).  The try-outs are held at an indoor pool and Alan shows up in a stars and stripes wetsuit.  "Too patriotic?"  Comedy gold. 


13. If you could kill off one of the characters in #1, who would it be and how would you do it? (Top Gear)

Nope.  Not answering this one.  Hits a little too close to home.  I'm so very glad Hammond made a full recovery. 


14. If you got the chance to visit the set for either show #3 or show #5, which would you choose? (At The Movies, Torchwood)

While Torchwood would be fun, I don't think I could pass up the opportunity to meet Margaret & David.