Ep 119: Underbelly, Other stuff

Hugely exciting show this week.

We chat to David Knox the man behind the always informative TV Tonight website about television and television blogging.

We risk life and limb and possible defamation with a review of Underbelly.

There?s a couple of Crap TVs.

And an extra helping of Pork.

Listen:

say

28 Comments

  1. Rob Boxcutter says:

    Crunchy Granola! Sweet!

  2. Underbelly won’t be shown in Victoria. So its time to fire up the BT powered Jet and fly to NSW to watch it.

  3. Thanks Judge Betty.

    Contrary to what you guys said in the episode, the Victorian Supreme Court has no jurisdiction in the rest of Australia. They could never order it not to be shown in other states.

    But Victoria’s bad enough.

    QF 9’s in the offing.

  4. @Rob, I didn’t realise there was a competition to post first when you haven’t even heard the ep!

  5. If you were ever in doubt about the fact the Sydney Daily Telegraph is waging a war against Channel 9, check out the latest internet fare about Underbelly. In the desperate search for an angle with which to beat Nine they’ve gone with the old chestnut of “It’s too violent for television – agree, or disagree” which has brought about the standard knee-jerk response from Christians who haven’t seen it saying kill it dead now, versus the standard more sensible use-you-remote brigade. And never a mention of the fact it might be landmark television. It’s about an underworld war! Like you didn’t know that by now! People are going to get shot! You fucking cunts!

    Probably because it’s based on events which happened in Melbourne. Terrible city where people sit in holes in walls while sipping chardonnay and reading books. Terrrible arty, commo, God-less stuck-up Mexican city with no morals and even worse liquor laws.

    No wonder I drink. For fuck’s sake.

  6. [Part 1 of 2 or 3, depending on how many sittings it takes me to get through the ‘cast – mp3 player-less at the moment 🙁 ]

    Re Blue Murder – they still had problems restricting NSW (and ACT) viewers at the time, namely northern NSW viewers picking up broadcast from Qld and southern NSW picking it up from Victoria. Plus, there was comment at the time about the numbers of people sending VHS tapes interstate. People will always find a way around it but, as you said, it’s a damn sight easier now. And yay to that, I say.

    @jimbo: Doesn’t that poll reflect the people from Australian Families Assn (or whatever AFA stands for) who came out today “outraged” about the content of the show, based on some leaked footage that may or may not be in the final cut? Underbelly is pretty much the topic of the moment, and those polls are always ludicrously B&W. pffft. Their comments aren’t going to kill the show, just create more publicity. Have another drink. *grin*

    What about Val Kilmer as Gay Perry in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang?

  7. Plenty of campaigns under way to try to save Friday Night Lights:

    Pop Candy: How can we save ‘Friday Night Lights’?

  8. Stupid Judy Betty.

    Shocking decision – of course I am only speaking as a television fan. But it’s a huge blow to Nine and to anyone in Melbourne who enjoys quality drama.

    Disappointing.

  9. …they?ve gone with the old chestnut of ?It?s too violent for television – agree, or disagree?

    Gold. Gotta love a bunch of ill-informed idiots take a stand about something which they know nothing about.

    WON?T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN!?!?!?

  10. hey, i lived in sydney when blue murder was first aired, and although it took about 2 months later, i eventually had a vhs tape showed up..

    btw, the other day i was watching that bizarre “free to air” for the first time in ages when i heard, “From Camden, James Talia…”

    I was shocked, James, you’re so young! You sound so world weary on the podcast.. I assumed you were friends with Rob’s father, and that how he knew you… wow.

  11. also, grammar, sometimes, not my friend 🙂

  12. catbrain says:

    oh yeah, jimbo – how’s it looking down at Camden now? We haven’t really heard anything since Monday morning…

  13. OMG, I just checked the YourTV site to see what’s in the programme guide for channel 9 tonight in Victoria, given Underbelly‘s prohibition.

    At 7pm, they’ve got the hilarious Two and a Half Men, running for 30 minutes. Then, The Chopping Block commences at 7:30 and runs through until 11:30 when we see a repeat of the first episode of Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles.

    We thought last week was bad but obviously we hadn’t seen anything until the FOUR HOUR episode!

    Check it out at http://www.yourtv.com.au/guide – you might need to specify the Victorian guide.

    By the way, That Mitchell and Webb Look, which we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, is screening on ABC1 tonight at 9:35.

  14. heh… amusing that their own affiliate website can’t get it right… they’re showing Shawshank Redemption AGAIN *groan*, according to Yahoo!7.

    So… 4 hours of The Chopping Block or 3 hours of Shawshank Redemption – which is worse??

  15. catbrain says:

    I wonder if the Rising Sun Hotel in South Melbourne will be charged with contempt for screening Underbelly last night via satellite from WA?

  16. I reckon they are in trouble. How stupid can you be? If the authorities want to make an example of someone, who do you think they’ll choose? And for what? A handful of extra people at your pub on one night, maybe. Ridiculous.

    Interesting both Aussie Torrents and Diwana appear to be down at the moment…

  17. diwana mods said they werent gonna touch underbelly. interestingly, youtorrents, mininova and pirate bay all have around 1000 seeds and 5000 leechers.

    when was the last time an australian tv show or movie got that?

  18. The articla I read about the Rising Sun said that there were only 10 people in there watching it, after having a false start when they didn’t get it off the Alice Springs signal.

    There was open discussion on the Aussie Torrents forum – connected to Diwana – about not creating a torrent on Diwana because it’d be way too hot and that the usual torrent creators would post on mininova and bitmetv. All just playing it safe.

  19. Once it hits the major release groups it will be all over the net and pretty much open slather for everyone to grab. Since I just happened to be in NSW the other day, I must say Underbelly is good. Its the first time in a very very long time I am going to say any series out of the commercial networks has been that good. Funnily enough “Halifax FP” might have been the last time I thought an Australian commercial production was that good.

    Slightly off topic. The one thing that bothers me (and this goes back to the police comment when caught) is the referring of Carl Williams as a “Serial Killer”. clearly there should be a difference between a Ted Bundy and a gangster. Or are we to label War Veterans as Serial Killers as well.

  20. i’ve now seen up to episode *cough* [mr. black] and i’ve got to say, its very strange that they chose Carl Williams to be the main character..

    they give him alot more credit than he deserves, atleast, according to the books…

  21. Geez I wish there was an EDIT function on word press. This little window doesn’t really allow you to review what you have written very well. I repeated myself a bit in the last post 🙁

  22. @fourthof5 – the preview function works well for me.

  23. guywithoutaname says:

    BREAKING NEWS:
    Jane Fonda Mentions The Unmentionable Word On Today
    Youtube

  24. catbrain says:

    If more people used it, and used it in the way Jane Fonda did, it wouldn’t be considered taboo.

    Nice work, Ms Fonda

  25. i thought you meant naomi..

    can saying the word cunt now be referred to as “dropping the fonda-bomb”?

  26. Underbelly underwhelmed me. It’s more of a docudrama than a drama with too many characters and not enough time to get to know any of them. And the voice overs worsened the docudrama problem. The music was mostly bad. I thought they got as many of casting choices wrong as right. And many of the “effects” were weird. The opening credits were nice though.

  27. ActualChad says:

    Hey, while this comments section has an over-arcing language warning (nice heads up BTW Jimbo, and here was me dictating the page to my child. My Child, James! Don’t you care about children?? I had to wash the thing’s ears out with soap!) can I just say…

    What the fuck does “Medium FastTrack” mean?

    What, they used the faster boat?

    Absolutely ridiculous (unless they are actually FastTracking episodes of “Medium”, which makes more sense…).

    To quotes Jimbo: you fucking cunts!

    See, you’ve started something now…

  28. Oh yeah. I meant to do this days ago but, regarding my previous post…

    LANGUAGE WARNING.

    Most of Camden still stands, though the Hawley will never be the same again. For those of you who don’t know the area, apart from being the centre of all things alternative in London, is a significant TV production centre. Not far from the fire stands the headquarters of MTV Europe. And the priod building at the back of the lock is APTN’s global headquarters. And apart from originating much of the great news agency content from around the world, it also houses – through leasing space – the foreign bureaux of many international networks. In fact, both Channel Nine and Seven (requiescat in pace) had their European bureaux housed in that building in days gone by.

    Never seen Amy Winehouse but I’ve downed MANY a pint in the Hawley. Nuff said.

    FulltimeCasual – perhaps not quite as young as I look. (I moisturise.) But sufficiently world weary to take World Weary as a compliment! For the record – Ross and I went to high school together (I’ve outed you dude). I’ve known Josh since he and Ross were at uni together. (Can’t tell you how much I wish I was going to be home for Oscar night!). And I’ve known Brett for as long as he’s been lobbing grenades at me.

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