Ep 221: Masterchef, Dead Gorgeous

Nelly Thomas is back in the co-host chair after a very successful comedy festival. We discuss the changes in this year’s Masterchef and review the ABC kids’ series, Dead Gorgeous, in ‘Before and After School’.

News Items

Here are some news items we didn’t get to cover this week:

3 Comments

  1. The Jamie Oliver series was called “Ministry Of Food” and was great, partly because Jamie kept failing. After all the “love conquers all” series about disaffected yoof and school lunches, it was interesting to see a series where he really had to struggle. What he was doing was a great idea, but the people of Rotherham really weren't behind it, and it was a fascinating thing to see the various cultural conflicts involving food, geography and class being played out.

  2. I can't think of a current affairs host who doesn't have a political or social bias, but some are better than others at keeping their opinions in check.

    Ten wants The 7pm Project to be taken seriously (in the commercial context, at least). Hughes and Pickering are progressive, and Bickmore seems too vague to have defined views, but all of them strike a good balance and play devil's advocate where necessary. That said, I don't see Rove McManus knowingly producing pro-right content.

    So, in my view, The 7pm Project takes off on the left foot, but only marginally. As with Insiders, the looney shock-jocks are almost certainly there just to defuse the show's right-wing critics. George Negus is also a regular, but provides a brilliant counterpoint to Andrew Bolt and Steve Price.

    Nelly's point about Bolt's Iraq war comment not being challenged is a good one, but might that have more to do with time limits than right-wing sympathies? Because the show allocates two or three minutes to each topic, nothing can be thrashed out in detail. Some of Negus's socially conscious views also go unchallenged, probably because there's just no time.

    The exception seems to be when two guests clash and the hosts step back. Last night, Todd Sampson suddenly attacked Bolt for misleading the public on global warming; Bolt was caught by surprise, and angrily leapt to his own defence. Both were seething with fury. It was wonderful television.

  3. Daniel D Boxcutter says:

    Possible connection between South Park bear suit and NYC car bomb.

    http://www.theage.com.au/world/south-park-bear-

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