Over the previous two Sunday evenings the Nine television network broadcast a mini-series titled Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War. It was a dramatisation of a revolutionary time in Australian cricket when media…
Big Brother is back … but will we watch?
AAP/Big Brother
It’s tempting to wonder whether Channel Nine’s “Be Surprised” slogan, heralding the return of Big Brother, is intentionally ironic. After all, its producers are proudly offering nothing new. Speaking to…
Most of us cringe, but the type of Australia portrayed in the new show, The Shire is very telling.
AAP Image/Supplied by Network Ten, Nigel Wright
The first episode of The Shire ran last night on Channel 10. Described as “dramality” – a combination of drama and reality television – the show purports to show the lives of young people living in Sutherland…
Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella has been criticised for her failure to respond when GetUp director Simon Sheikh collapsed on Q+A.
ABC Television
By 9AM yesterday I’d been called a Sophie Mirabella apologist. Of all the very many slurs I’ve ever been subjected to, that one came as one hell of a surprise. And I just thought I was defending every…
Downton Abbey is a period indulgence for some, but at its heart it is a story of property law.
AAP/Seven Network
Dim the lights, don the snuggie and pass the chocolate; Downton Abbey is back. Amid all the mooning over Matthew and Mary, viewers may not have noticed that Downton Abbey is actually about property law…
Optus may be offering a great service to customers, but is it right?
AAP Image/Dave Hunt
Telecommunications company Optus lost its bid to gag AFL boss, Andrew Demetriou from speaking out against its “TV Now” service, which allows customers to watch AFL or NRL broadcasts near live. Demetriou…
No one goes to Paula Deen for health advice.
Bristol Motor Speedway Dragway
I’ll be completely up front. I love celebrity cook Paula Deen. I love the drawl, I love the finger licking, I love her ever-so-slightly inappropriate relationship with her sons. That time she described…
Welcome to our “In Conversation” with AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou and Stuart Macintyre, Professor of History at Melbourne University (and a lifelong Hawthorn supporter). The Australian Football…
Chris Lilley’s Gran character is written too large to be ignored.
ABC Television publicity
Last night’s premiere of Chris Lilley’s third mockumentary series, Angry Boys, was a reminder that television comedy in Australia as we once knew it has changed forever. In the wake of the popular successes…