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TV Lounge

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1,698 Responses

      1. Search for “creative arts emmy 2023” on the web, all the Hollywood rags have articles. The Last of Us got 8, The Bear, Beef and White Lotus each got a few.

  1. Been reading some negative reviews of the new UK Wheel of Fortune. Viewers are less familiar with the US format, which is has been based on, and the introduction of a digital word board as removed the assistant role, so it is just Graham Norton hosting solo. The other change is the audience are now visible, as they are seen behind Graham, similar to ‘Millionaire’. Australian viewers are used to the digital word board, having upgraded to that concept in the early 2000’s, but like other Interntional versions, they retained the assistant’s role, where the letters are touched to appear rather than spun around. The US version has some similarities to the last incarnations of the Australian versions, including the second wheel for the final round, and the inclusion of the million-dollar wedge from the short-lived Channel Nine reboot. The UK’s reboot is a weekly airing on Saturday nights. I don’t think the AUS reboot will work here, it works best as a weeknight show.

    1. I think not having an assistant was one of the common big negative reviews. Why would they replace the assistant colleague? It could be to save money, or it could be that it might be considered progressive to not have a female assistant anymore (by the way, the assistant could also be non-female if they wanted to be more progressive).

  2. I finished Paper Dolls last night… um, what a mess. Incredibly overdramatic, catapulted by the complete lack of chemistry and likability of any character. The script was Home and Away level at times… isn’t this supposed to be a premium Drama? I’ve seen these storylines done a million times, and far better too. Emma Booth was the only cast member worth mentioning, she was actually fantastic with the awful material she was working with. Ditch Davey very nearly ruined the entire show with his role… a character we’ve seen so many times it’s completely tiresome and he didn’t try to do anything different with the role. None of the girls gelled either… which obviously was a major reason why we were meant to care for them with what happens in that final episode… but I couldn’t wait to get out. What a mega disappointment. Still, definitely not among the truly worst shows I saw in 2023… which is saying something about them.

  3. Finally started to watch first season of Joe Picket and am enjoying the unusual story thread. But we kept on saying the lead is familiar. Penny finally dropped – NZer Michael Dorman whose work in Oz series Wonderland and Wild Boys we loved. Didn’t realise his career has taken off in such a huge way. Great job Michael – congratulations and all the best for the future.

  4. Hi David, Is there any word on channel Nine screening the third season of Race Across the World? The previous two seasons were screened in the non ratings period which is why I’m asking. Thanks.

  5. It’s interesting that some recent articles published before Christmas teased Battlestar Galactica fans (once again) that a new series will soon be greenlit for a pilot episode, anyone who follows this type of industry rumour mongering will know that this show does receive a lot of speculation, including about a movie, but with ‘Mr. Robot’ creator Sam Ismail developing a new updated version of the show with showrunner Derek Simonds who created ‘The Sinner’, it will be something to look forward to for sci-fi fans, and hopefully the screenplay will be true to the original creative concept.

    1. Peacock announced the show nearly 5 years ago to compete against Paramount+’s Treks and Disney+’s Star Wars, with Esmail’s company producing it. Esmail publicly said he didn’t think he was the right choice as showrunner so in 2020 Lessie was appointed. Lessie bailed to work on an adaption of an Maddadam, the final novel in Atwood’s Onyx and Crake trilogy. This Battlestar Galatica has been in development hell during Covid and since. It’s set in the same universe as Moore’s classic remake and many critics have argued that it would difficult to resume so long after the ending Moore gave it, and there would be little left of interest to say. It’s looking like another Lord Of The Rings.

  6. My Greek Odysee….early hours of the morning….what a treasure….such amazingly beautiful places and points of history…..such wonderful stories.

    1. Great to see your comment Maev. I was just thinking the same thing yesterday morning when watching My Greek Odyssey. It is really the only show of it’s kind that makes me really want to visit the beautiful islands of Greece.

  7. FBI International, the second spin off of the original FBI, finally has season 2 airing from Wednesday week at 9pm on Ten in a double episode. This aired in US in September 2022.

      1. It’s a terrestrial feed just like 7Two and 7Flix. You need to ensure you have the FTA antenna cable attached to your Foxtel iQ4 box, then perform a full scan in settings (Settings > Local Channels > Full Scan). Hope this helps.

  8. I believe from reading some online reviews for the Magnum PI finale which aired in the US recently and next week on foxtel and binge, it wasn’t a great episode and was a bit of a dud.

    1. NBC aired the last two eps this week. NBC gave them an order for 20 episodes, which they intended to use as mid-season replacements for 2 seasons. Due to the strikes they ended up using the second 10 now. The first 10 were a story about Magnum and the team’s parts coming back to haunt them and quite good. It sounds like they had word it was being cancelled again and were just completing the contract with the second 10.

  9. The entire cast has brought their A-game to S5 of Fargo of course, but my God Juno Temple and Jon Hamm have been phenomenal. I lost my way with this show for a few seasons after the masterpiece that was S1… and whilst this season isn’t nearly as quirky as that one, it is no less impressive, making up for it by being incredibly dark. Talk about a show returning to form big time. Episode 8 was a near masterpiece. I’m loving that it’s releasing weekly so I can fully digest everything that’s happened.

    1. Not a fan of this season-far too predictable and all very unlikeable characters-all the men are vile villains or idiots, as well as the women mostly being so-even Juno’s character put her family in extreme peril for no good reason. This has been a great let down compared to the film or early seasons of the series.

      1. And interesting twist on the theme — A man conspires to abduct his wife of a car dealer, but he is the Sherriff. Hawley hasn’t really developed it into anything more than that though. S1 wasn’t that good either. Hawley took a spineless but amoral salary man and female cop from Fargo, a hit man straight out of No Country For Old Men, a scene from Strangers On A Train with a lot of motiveless violence. The no depth to any of the characters and no plot — everyone gets killed due to random coincidences while Oswalt misses all the evidence and screws up the investigation every episode. Hawley did a much better job with the writing and directing of S2 & 3. S4 started out well as a tale of the establishment of migrant crime gangs in Minnesota, but my enthusiasm fizzled as Elthelrida became the only likable character.

  10. Fox Sports currently have 2 cricket channels – FoxCricket (501) & FoxCricket+ (505). One of the programming decisions that frustrates me is the obsession with live coverage changing channels mid game. Tonights programming was: 501 6:45-10:45pm – BBL 10:45-11:05pm – Women’s ODI – (cont. 5 mins after scheduled finish on 505) 11:05-11:25pm – BBL Mini highlights (during ODI Innings Break) 11:25pm-3:00am – Women’s ODI (cont.)

    505 6:50 – 10:40pm – Women’s ODI – India v Australia 10:40 – 11:00pm – The Fox Box 11:00pm – 12:00am – BBL highlights (x3) 12:00 – :3:00am – BBL replay (of the match shown on 501)

    As it turned out, the BBL ran over so the post game didn’t finish until 11pm & the ODI was already in the innings break by then, but what’s the point of moving the ODI from 1 cricket channel to another? It can get messy when either game isn’t to time. If someone is watching the BBL & wants to watch the ODI they can change the channel, why make them change to keep watching the same game?

  11. Disappointed that Channel 9 cut away from the Melbourne fireworks before it even finished, to start the movie. Hours and hours of pre-show stuff only to cut away halfway through the main event!

    The ABC showed Sydney’s fireworks in full. What’s wrong with Channel 9?

    1. All controlled by the National Playout Centre in Sydney now. Sydney didn’t take the Melbourne show. Guess someone said “We’re starting the movie now so GTV9 had better join us, we’re not waiting for them!”.

  12. Dear Channel 9
    Contact me later this year and I’ll lend you my blu ray copy of Can’t Stop The Music.

    The fuzzy copy you play (also some of Gem’s British afternoon movies that I’ve purchased) is far from the best print available.

    Perhaps you and Studio Canal could come to some arrangement.

      1. As a long time long time TV fan, Can’t Stop the Music has been played on 9 for so many years now. But I assume that this is part of the tradition on NYE.

    1. It’s actually licenced by Madman Australia and given how many times Nine have run it, would most likely be an old master tape digitally transfered (whether it’s true widescreen or HD or not) and I can tell you Madman’s latest print isn’t any better than Nine’s broadcast.

      1. The blu ray put out in the USA by Shout (copyright Studio Canal) is 2.35:1.
        Sound is DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (definitely not tinny).

        Blu.ray.com rates both picture and sound qualities as 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

        Those Gem afternoon movies released by EMI (now Studio Canal) probably came from the same “master tapes”

  13. Trying patiently to watch Entitled on Foxtel Go whilst on holidays ….first time I have had to endure ads every ten minutes in a thirty minute show … paying full price for Foxtel and put up with them on their premium channels at start and end of shows but am not happy to do so every ten minutes …. Think only started today so perhaps a 2024 gift from Foxtel ?

    1. They have been doing it some time, some shows have ads, some don’t. Their server also tended to freeze a lot. Along with the loss of BeIN was a reason I cancelled my subscription.

      1. Yep server still freezing and then replaying parts you had already seen before the ads then going to another block of ads …. I have stopped bothering to watch and will record when home on Showcase and fast forward through ads …. But I thought showcase and BBC First only had advertising at beginning and end of an episode not littered throughout….. another cancelled subscription looks likely thanks for your reply Pertinax

        1. There are no ads in stuff like House of Dragon or Shetland but there were shows on those channels with ads, which didn’t matter because you could stream anything without ads, now there are ads in some of those shows. I shall be hoping the ABC gets Shetland S8 next year, a SBS gets S2 of Vigil. The only thing I’ve missed is the Darts World Championships over the holidays.

    1. Not poached, but bought the rights to re-runs of all the old series of Vera which the ABC have repeated many times. Any new series though will be on the ABC.

        1. The ABC bought the rights to Vera and Endeavour in this country when 13th Street was driven out of business. The ABC will only own the rights for a period of time, an exclusive rights only for shorter period. After that anyone can buy them from the ABC, if they are acting as ITV’s agents in this country, or from ITV if the rights have reverted back to them. Sleuth has already show many repeats of Vera. Seven is also promoting repeats of Shetland on 72 for 2024.

    1. Haha welcome to Disney+, I tried everything as it was defaulting to French subtitles and months later it stopped. Good luck, enjoy your free language learnings for 2024

    2. All device interfaces are slightly different but what you are looking for is a settings button. When playing something pause it & look around on your screen. There should be a little white box with a couple of black text lines somewhere on the edges of the picture that when you hover over says settings. Click on this settings button and you should have a Subtitles tab / menu where you can turn them off.

  14. Just watched the last year of television, it’s very… um… he’s so much smarter than society and that everyone in history is wrong… he’s funny but for an hour of it not changing his comedy style I found it draining

  15. Guys, I am not sure, but does disney+ have the rights for the classic era doctor who(that is William Hartnell through to Sylvester McCoy)? If not, then who has the rights in australia, as britbox is no longer showing it, and not sure if UKTV on foxtel still has the rights for the earlier seasons.

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