It’s all in the title.

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Further to our discussion last week about useless statistics and whether or not people are aware of when the analogue signal in their area will be switched off.

Here’s a map that tells you non-specific information. Click on it and see for yourself.

If you navigate through it, you’ll see that there’s a definite date for Mildura and NONE for anywhere else.

Longtime Boxcutters listeners will know that I have never been one to watch much live TV. When we started doing this show, I had three video recorders hooked up that I would variously record on or try to work through the previously recorded shows while juggling the physical tape space on multiple VHS tapes. I still have episodes of Jake in Progress and Caroline in the City I’m sure I’ll get to one day… Anyway, I digress… The reason I was a power user level time shifted viewer from way back was so as to have a ready reserve of quality viewing available at a time convenient to me, rather than the time and day convenient to the networks, and to waste less of my life waiting for the show to come back after the ads. With more than 25 years of experience, I’m a veritable guru when it comes to readying the zapping finger over the remote buttons at the first sign of going to a break and getting the right count to come back to normal speed.

So it takes something really special for an advertising campaign to start to piss me off consistently. Congratulations channel 10… You’ve done it. Continued inside »

The League is another show about men and their relationships with one another. We take a good long look at it.

We also have a long conversation about whether or not there is a place for episodic drama on television. It’s a very interesting chat with lots of information. We go a little bit high-brow so you might want to wear your thinking-cap.

There’s also a surprise guest right joining us for One Thing.

Episode 210 is the show that had so much in it, we had to go into extra-long overtime. You have been warned.

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Comedian Nazeem Hussain joins us in the studio to talk about how dark people, Muslims and immigrants in general are portrayed on Australian television.

Then Ben McNair from Channel 7 News sits down for a chat about Haiti, Black Saturday, the ABC’s 24-hour news channel and Kevin Rudd.

It’s jam-packed information from start to finish.

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Oh yes. We’re back, and we’ve prepared for your listening pleasure the greatest 70 minutes of television related discussion OF ALL TIME.

Nelly Thomas joins us at the start of the show to prove that she is not just John putting on a funny voice.

Then we discuss Men of a Certain Age, a new drama starring and co-created by Ray Romano.

Also there’s an I Don’t Buy It and some other stuff.

OF ALL TIME, people. OF ALL TIME

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We’re very excited to welcome Nelly Thomas to the regular Boxcutters team.

Long-term listeners might remember Nelly from her co-hosting duties on episodes 130 and 137.

Joining us fortnightly, Nelly will bring her wonderful experience in all matter of media, her unabashed love of good television and excellent comedic sensibility to Boxcutters.

She will alternate with John Richards, whose many other commitments have forced him into fortnightly hiding lest he incur the wrath of the government broadcaster.

It’s an exciting new time for Boxcutters. We return this Monday with all new insights into the world of television. Nelly starts her Boxcutter tenure on 25th January.

Note: At the end of last year I talked about East West 101 as an Australian TV highlight. Here’s some extended thoughts.

I continue to beleive that one of the last things we need in this country is more cop dramas but when a good one comes along, it’s really hard to ignore.

The second series of East West 101 was so good, we would do well to ignore the first with its ridiculous contrivances and overbearing political correctness. Now we get to see exactly what Australia can produce when drama is allowed to run its natural course.

Don Hany plays Zane Malik, a Muslim cop in Sydney’s west who’s trying to make a go of being a religious man in a secular world.

While the first series focused too much on revenge and the world’s inherent lack of fairness, the second delved into much more complicated territory: Maintaining one’s values in a society that offers constant temptation.

It’s complicated themes, treated with subtlety and patience, that make really good television. Imagine how much more interesting Dexter would be if there was no voice-over narration and his dead father didn’t keep explaining things. If there is limited exposition, then the audience is forced to work out the characters’ motivations. East West 101 stands out from other local drama because the creators seem to understand the importance.

The many storylines demand constant attention. The organised crime and terrorism world of Sydney’s west has many players. In addition, though, we see some of the trials of the characters’ home lives.

Susie Porter, whose presence in the series is mandatory under the SBS charter, is Patricia Wright. She’s Malik’s immediate superior in the police force. with has her own family issues to deal with and the piling dead bodies don’t make it any easier.

Both characters are, obviously, finding society’s inherent discrimination more difficult than it would be in a more ideal world. Still, they are committed to their jobs, their families and protecting themselves.

Yes, that all sounds very serious, but there aren’t any jokes here. It’s serious business, but it’s compelling, and that should be enough.

Buy DVDs, including the entire 2nd season of East West 101, at Sanity Entertainment.

A Special Note: East West 101’s first series alternated between unnecessarily melodramatic and promising. Those of you who remember my rant about Cptn Cardboard possibly also remember that I changed my stance on the programme after a few more episodes. I still think the first season could have been better.

Hey there lovely Boxcutters Family.

We’ve decided we need just one more week to get everything back in order for a wonderful 2010 Boxcutters-style.

We’ll be back with normal, but seemingly fresher, programming about programming, programmes and other television-related discussions on 18 January.

Thanks for understanding.

“In the history of network television, no remake of a previous hit series has ever become a hit itself on network television.

“Plenty have been tried… Digging through the files of series past, one could perhaps make an argument for some shows spawned from original hits. Star Trek, of course, gave birth to four separate series, but those were all spinoffs. They were not remakes of the original with the same characters.”

– from Why Studios Keep Cranking Out TV Remakes, Despite the Flops – NYTimes.com

We’ve talked about TeeVeeLand’s inability to come up with solid new concepts for a while on Boxcutters. While this New York Times article doesn’t seem to build anything on what we already know, it’s good to see that the studios and networks are aware that all they’re doing is throwing shit at a flagpole, or something.

It’s also good to see the argument that the only good remake was Battlestar Galactica and that might just be because it was on Sci-Fi (as it was called when it launched), a cable channel that may just have given the creators the freedom they required to make a show on its own merits.

Countless television projects try and fail. It’s the nature of the beast. But the problem with remakes of old TV shows is that there is an inherent lack of understanding about what made it popular in the first place. It’s not just about the characters, the actors or the subject matter, but also what its competition was, how people led their lives and what could they be shown that they have never seen before.