Ep 271: Crownies, Four Corners

After a short break we return with a review of the ABC’s new sexy legal drama, Crownies. Did we like it? You’ll have to listen to the episode to find out. If we told you here, that would spoil things.

Sue Spencer is the Executive Producer of the long-running investigative journalism programme, Four Corners. Josh spoke her to find out if people still want investigative reporting. Do they? You’ll find out by listening to the episode. That’s how this thing works.

There’s some news in which we’re flippant about death, there’s some hating on MasterChef and religious figures, there’s some things to watch if you were going to.

[audio:http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/media.boxcutters.net/BCep271.mp3|titles=Episode 271|artists=Boxcutters]Why don’t you spend some time finding out what else is a prime number?

In memory of Sherwood Schwartz, here’s a nice little article of appreciation from the LA Times.

If you are interested in applying for the next series of the Amazing Race, don’t forget to read the terms and conditions.

15 Comments

  1. Daniel B says:

    Hey Guys,

    Maybe the new page format is throwing me, but can we still download the podcast off the website?

  2. Great show guys. Just to clarify though or maybe I misunderstood? Wildred is on Eleven not One (HD) I got the impression you guys were saying otherwise?

    And I have to agree re: MasterChef… jumping the shark! Series one and two we all loved. Series three I think the mood of the audience is definitely changing (although the ratings are still good.. but then again The Block is rating well too… go figure)

  3. Oh, it’s the Malaysia SNAFU all over again…

    Yes, apologies for that, it was all my fault that Wilfred ended up on One instead of 11… I was actually thinking of An Idiot Abroad and crossing that over with Wilfred.

    To clarify, Wilfred is on 11; An Idiot Abroad is on One.

    I can’t confirm which channel Wildred is on.

  4. murrayNE says:

    Welcome back!

    I don’t know if I’m misremembering it’s former presence but if not, I thought I’d throw out a ‘vote’ for a return to having the “If You Watch One Thing…” suggestions on the episode notes page. It’s very fiddly to find the right spot in the episode to hear the details again if you’ve listened while on the move – especially if the segment is relatively long, like in this ep.

  5. I agreed with everything you said about Crownies. I wish it didn’t suck so much and I’m slightly horrified to think that the ABC have commissioned 22 episodes of that.

    Rather bizarrely the sense of alternate-universe Sydney non-space you spoke about is also experienced Sydneysiders watching the show. Many of the outside shots are clearly at the Justice Precinct in Parramatta, but the places they walk to from their office are definitely not in Parramatta. The waterfront apartments and cafes that also feature seem to ignore all sense of space and time.

    The wardrobe department also needs to do a bit of research into what a niqab actually looks like.

  6. David Boxcutter says:

    You forgot to mention that Googie Withers also invented Google.

    Josh appears to be misremembering Television, as That’s My Bush! was completely unfunny.

  7. Paul Boxcutter says:

    When you guys were talking about the Dalai Lama and Lou RIchards and a mask, and that it was most likely a terrible PR exercise for him to be a part of, I just kept thinking that

    “he would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for you pesky Boxcutters”

    I didn’t watch it, but I did think it was very odd for him to be involved.
    @Josh, I’ve no idea, is he anti-gay?
    @John, I still love you, but what was that pizza joke, re-workshopping Karl Stefanovic material? 🙂

    • Paul, I was using the Traditional Buddhist Pizza Joke which has been used by bad comedians for centuries. Well, for quite a few years. At least since 2005.

      Here are some overly literal blogs about Karl’s usage of it:

      http://www.according2ed.com/2011/06/why-dalai-lama-couldnt-understand-pizza.html

      http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/30244/can-someone-please-explain-this-dalai-lama-joke-to-me

      The second contains these beautiful explanations of the joke for non-English speakers:

      The joke here is the use of the phrase “one with everything”.

      It can be used with either of the following meanings.

      spiritual: to be one with everything means to be unified with everything else. This is a main concept in Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. where one feels that everything else is a part of self. To be one with everything is one of the higher aims of such religions.

      The other meaning of the phrase is to get a pizza with every (available) topping.

      xxx

      And this additional comment from another user explaining why the Dalai Laman didn’t get the joke:

      “It’s because the Dalai Lama does not like pineapple. Getting a pizza with everything would imply that there would be pineapple on it.”

      • Paul Boxcutter says:

        Aaah, the traditional joke. Got it.

        I was just taking the piss, I apologise for putting your name in the same sentence as Stefanovic.

        Pineapple on a pizza, that just doesn’t make sense.

  8. I don’t know, I’m both impressed that Karl actually said it to his face, and slightly disappointed that Masterchef didn’t incorporate it into their dinner.

    Pineapple. Yum.

  9. DarrenBoxcutter says:

    When you mentioned that Crownies didn’t identify which city they were in it reminded me that a classy writer like David Simon specifically identifies the city as its own character. As in The Wire to Baltimore and Treme to New Orleans.

    This really adds another dimension to the show.

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