The one hundred percent excellent John Richards joins us as guest co-host this week. We talk about what it’s like to try to get a pilot made and accepted in Australia. There is also heaps of nerdalicious sci-fi and fantasy talk and almost no reality TV coverage. Really!
Ooh look, it’s right here.:
Send us your defence of Alan Ball.
In this episode we discuss:
- Hollowmen
- True Blood
- Being Human
- The BBC and The ABC
- The Department
- Battlestar Galactica
- Dr Who
- Scrubs
Read John Richards’s blog, The Outland Institute
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11 Comments
Brett says:
Ahead of any special unveiling of someone’s blog design, this week I’ve added the Boxcutters logo to the podcast.
Does anyone see it? At one point I started adding track numbers to each episode and didn’t hear anything about it until I forgot to do it one week and suddenly heard about it…
fourthof5 says:
Yep I see it. LOoks good.
fourthof5 says:
Problem with most Australian content is that its shit. Writing is usually unsophisticated (navy seaboat) and usually the story is only there to forward the narrative in very specific ways. Need to have some conflict here so write in a conflict between characters, it doesn’t matter if that conflict is utterly ridicules and without depth. The moment I see that sort of writing I turn of. I have no interest in programmes which belittles audience intelligence. I watched City Homicide last night and it was terrible. Story was utter crap. You could see everything, nothing was left for the audience to figure out. The writing was so crap that the acting was ruined. There is little point in watching something which is supposed to be Drama and ends up Drama Queen.
[rant]
Now Doctor Who. That has some good writing in it, stories work to establish a grand narrative yet subtle enough that you can only usually see it on reflection. But of course you don’t know that because you never talk about Doctor Who even when your meant to.
[/rant]
fourthof5 says:
Ok, retract that rant as you got to the Doctor Who bit at the end. Much of which I agree with. Its still a better show than any Australian drama on TV at the moment.
lyndal says:
Hi Guys – great episode.
What a wonderful nerd-fest – John really stepped the geek quota up and I was glad to hear that Josh and Brett could keep pace.
ActualChad says:
Hell, I’ve been waiting since last season for you guys to talk about Doctor Who, since the terrible end to Series 3 with John Simm and the reset button. And you never did. Curses!
Now I want to know if anyone else thinks the quality of this year’s series is the highest yet? Seemed to me with, with a couple of exceptions, the overall quality of the show has really picked up this year, rather than the hit and miss quality of last year.
Definitely , get John back. As well as the Who stuff, the background on the pilots was fantastic. Looking forward to more in the future.
Interesting to think of a commercial channel using Channel 31 as an OFFICIAL breeding ground for new talent. Smart idea for everyone: network gets to see what works, creators get to hone their skills without having to worry about “broadcast” quality issues, but with enough budget to produce decent material, and because the production aren’t high, the quality of the writing and acting is at the forefront.
Good job everyone.
jimbo says:
Trained monkeys??
jimbo says:
And another Australian hybrid remake of a foreign show – don’t forget Ladette to Lady. Taking eight Aussie girls to the same finishing school in northern England to be dealt with by the same posh etiquette teachers.
Brett says:
Jimbo – I know how it started out but I think John’s main point was really about the ACA/TT shonk chasers.
When are they doing the Oz L2L? Maybe it’s been and gone and I didn’t bother switching over at the right time.
As I mentioned a couple of shows ago, who the hell would want to turn into a stuck-up twat like either of the main Marms of that show? Could have been done well but the execution of the UK version I’ve seen is just horrendous. It caused a real physical reaction for me.
Speaking of physical reactions, I can’t believe the racist, who had been voted out, ended up winning BB. It’s a travesty and if they can let those types of shenanigans go on, channel 10 should have the show taken off them. What a pity they jumped before they were pushed.
fourthof5 says:
Sad thing is, it seems the contestants feel they are responsible for the demise of BB as they weren’t entertaining enough. Since BB was supposed to be about “observation” television is somewhat sad that the blame seems to be on (or at least felt by) those being observed rather than the show itself. Especially when you have two pilocks like “kyle” and “O”. I truly don’t know how they get work at all. Jacky O has got the personality of a flee and isn’t particularly attractive on screen. Kyle is just an idiot.
Ben Boxcutter-Roxas says:
So, two and a half years and 107 episodes later poor old John is still talking about making the Outland series. The ABC has put out a press release/blog post though, so progress is being made:
http://blogs.abc.net.au/abc_tv/2010/11/its-all-systems-go-as-filming-starts-on-outland-abc1s-new-six-part-comedy-series-produced-by-princess-pictures-s.html
The patience that must be required to survive the TV development process…