I haven't yet listened to the show but very much looking forward to it. Jim Schembri was one of my journo idols in high school - as an aspiring journo. I even interviewed him for a Year 11 assignment though I'm sure he wouldn't remember it! One of the gentlemen of the game, was very generous with his time, and a great writer to this day. Yay for us this week!

I think that Jim must a full time side-line in letting students interview him as I did the same thing when writing for Lot's Wife at Monash. He was lovely and generous with his time then too.
I've listened to the first hour of the show (which gets us just about to the end of the news!)and am highly entertained by this episode.

It's great that someone who is as passionate as Jim is in a position to reach so many people. I'm sure there is an inclination for Age readers to take the "I only watch the ABC" high road, so to have someone who clearly loves TV in all its forms championing the medium is very valuable.

For the concept show, although obvious.

"under-belly dancers"

@Josh: You can get Alfred Hitchcock Presents Seasons 1-3 on Amazon
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3

Hey guy, thanks for another great episode!

But after hearing you guys talk about 'sit down shut up' I found some stuff on youtube! But I'm sure people are must likely across and I'm last to this, but here is one of the links for those interested! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqv5rr7VSlo

Anyway, Looking forward to the next week!

Not everyone likes the guy. Sorry guys. 'ABC only high road'. Are you kidding me? Try free to air only high road. Jim Schembri... Lame As hell. Sorry. It's true. This guy is a 'tv critic' who doesn't have foxtel. Or free to air time shifting technology in DVR. This is a guy who doesn't even know 'The War' is going to be on. This guy needs the sack. Are you kidding me? This is a guy who doesn't know what a DVR is. Actually asks the Ice TV guy whether 'they have things like that in the US'. Again, are you kidding me. Wiki lists this guy as 46. That means he was a mere 33 when the internet came out mainstream here. And this guy is a dinosaur. I've got 44 year olds in my family who can find their way around a torrent. Meanwhile, the age's tv critic is 'maybe' gonna buy Stargate Atlantis if it is 'on special'. Are you kidding me?

This bloke Schembri is a dinosaur. Time to retire. What kind of a 'tv critic' waits for season 1 of Dexter to come out on DVD to frigging see it. I had seen the final ep of season 2 within four hours of it airing in the states last november december. I could do this guy's job standing on my arse. Kinal is the guy who should be doing it however.

The guy's voice grates with me too. Not Kinal's, that grates a little, but Schembri's voice sounds so god damn annoying. I'm glad he's not on radio. You can use words like 'transmogrify' and 'imbroglio'... I couldn't give a shit. I'm not gonna listen to some guy who doesn't even own foxtel. Are you kidding me. That's like calling yourself a film critic and only going to imax movies. Oh, and when the imax movies come out on DVD that's ok too. If, they on special that is.

Kinal should get Schembri's job. I'd never buy the age anyway. In fact, i'd never buy a hard copy of a god damn thing. Any intellectual property is ripe to fall onto my hard drive. I am a leech, and I am proud of it. You don't like it media industry, change your god damn model. Life's too short to give a fuck where the money to make my fave intellectual property comes from... do I think about a stripper's dad putting food on her table when she was a kid when I watch her pole dance? Life's too god damn short, and my boner, whether it be for Dexter or some skank stripper, is here and now.

I'm sorry, guys I usually love your show. But this scathing review for Schembri is warranted, and I'm damn pissed off I wasted 50 megs downloading this dinosaur Schembri's hamhanded visit to your show. The guy's successful moron. Too many of them around this decade.

Schembri calls himself an 'early adopter' of technology, he actually says that in your god damn show here, yet 13 years later he doesn't have pay tv, and he don't know what a PVR is, for god's sake. Are you kidding me. I bet the guy had to be walked through how to use his word processor by IT.

I can understand why Kinal would be in awe of this guy, after all he has the job Kinal would love. But the bottom line is, I don't feel Schembri chucks in a cent of effort. You can clearly see he's just a hack. He phone's it in. Are you kidding me? A tv critic, without foxtel, in a 'thinking man's paper' the age, with higher net worth readership, who all have foxtel? Are you fucking kidding me? This guy's a loss. Chuck Kinal in there. Na. Na. This guy is a total loss. I've just gone and googled some of his film reviews, he totally sucks. Give me stratton any day of the lifespan.

This loudmouth, dumb guy with a thesaurus, has got nothing. Man I hate this guy. Never have him on again. I registered and joined for the first time to post just because this pissed me off so god damn much. Seriously!!!! How in the flying fuck can we take this guy seriously? The guy don't have cable, the guy calls himself an early adopter! and then fucking contradicts himself. My god. The guy's voice sounds like an erect penis fucking a violin, also. Fuck. Fuck I'm pissed off now. I cannot understand why I listened to the whole thing. I have no life. I will have to end it all. Call Jeff Kennett the big pharma shill, I need some black dog placebos. Doesn't even know celebrity apprentice, what in the flying fuck. How in the fuck. That' all i've got to say. I should just delete this whole rant. And just type 'how in the fuck does this moronic dinosaur have any cred'.... What a god damn dicksnap. Fuckin contemptuous delete of the mp3 coming right now. Better be moron free next week guys. After all i'm paying you as much as I pay for all my entertainment.

See you later fuckers.

Very funny, Josh, but I think you should have gone with a more obvious fake username like Kosh Jinal.

@ billodowd. That's some passionate response. Generally if I don't like someone I might just think, "gee blah blah doesn't know shit" and mentally glaze over their bit of the paper or just never click through. I do agree with you on one point though, I think Josh Kinal would be a great addition to The Age TV review pool.
@ Gem - I hadn't seen that so thanks for posting up the link. The whole idea makes me feel funny as I love Mitch Hurwitz & the cast rocks but it's like a kid you grew up with getting famous and everyone suddenly thinking that they are fantastic when you remember that they wet the bed til they were nine. You are excited for them, but can't quite buy the public image.

@guywithoutaname Thanks for those links. They've gone straight into my Amazon wishlist.

@billodowd Wow. But what do you really think? Honestly, I think it's wonderful that our Boxcutters family are such a passionate bunch. I think that one of the things that makes television crticism strong is passion and dissenting views. Jim Schembri definitely has the passion and I think you make a good point that passion should translate to keeping up with the times. At least that's what I think you were saying.

@brett You're a tool.

Now, has anyone had any thoughts about the campaign to save Ice TV? How do we get the word out there that Australia is being left behind the rest of the world?

Thanks for talking about IceTV Recommendations. We're pretty happy with the way it works (obviously given we power them :) ).

Being a TV geek myself, it was the one thing I really wanted out system to do. So working with IceTV happened to be a personal favourite.

Keep up the great podcast.

Rich

Hahaha yeah, I'm pretty stupid. I ought to get a life. I can't believe I sat there and wrote all that, and listened to a whole hour and a half podcast of the guy... I really need to get a life.

Christ Bill, such passion!

Don't give up on Boxcutters just yet. I promise this week's episode will be thoroughly moron-free.

Though I'm certain last week's was too.