Tag Archives: rake

Ep 320: Revolution, Bechdel Test

There is so much to talk about that we struggle to fit it all into one episode.

We review the new show from NBC in the US (and it appears on Fox 8 in Australia), Revolution. The second "o" is supposed to be an on/off symbol but that’s too hard to do.

Also, we look through all the TV shows we’ve dealt with this year, so far, and see how they stack up in the Bechdel Test.

There are a few surprises as well so listen carefully.

[audio:http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/media.boxcutters.net/BCep320.mp3|titles=Episode 320|artists=Boxcutters]

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Foreign shows are not for local networks.

The huge audience drop for Homeland raises serious questions about the challenges facing traditional TV. The brutal reality is this: content that has screened in other parts of the world is increasingly subject to online piracy and other platforms that allow internet browsers to get around ‘geo-blocks’ on content.

From ‘TV isn’t broadcasting impressive numbers’ in The Age

The answer to the networks’ problem lies in this paragraph from The Age.

Local networks can no longer compete by showing TV shows from overseas if they are not offering a day and date option.

The truth has been for some time that they were never really competing anyway. They were just ignoring their own fate.

Years ago the networks should have prepared their stakeholders for a few years of losses while they invested in the local industry, developing great story-tellers, characters and a unique perspective that the rest of the world would want a piece of.

We saw it this week with the US purchase of ABC’s Rake. They’re remaking it, but it means more money coming back into our industry. It’s a return on investment that regards the entire world as a potential audience, rather than a tiny population in a very large country.

This is as much about the short-sightedness of our television networks as it is about our own pride and conviction in our stories. It’s about having goals and allowing those goals to guide decisions based on a playing long game. It’s about taking some risks and aiming for innovation rather than gentrification.

The Australian free-to-air commercial television networks balked at the first sign difficulty. It’s not too late but it’s going to take some hard work, some pay cuts and some sacrifices to learn to make local television for a global audience.

Ep 250: Rake, Dr Janet Hall

Rake on TVHere’s the thing. We did 250 episodes of this show. This is episode 250 but we did our 250th a while ago so here’s one we did this week?

Did you follow that? Well, can you follow a whole review of the new ABC show, Rake? I’m sure you can.

Also, Toby Halligan starts us off on our look at the specifics of how television affects us as actual humans in his interview with Dr Janet Hall, following up her piece in news.com.au last week.

Courteney Hocking is our very special guest cohost because she’s just wonderful.

Don’t forget about being a part of John Richard’s Outland finale shoot this Friday.

This week’s question: Have you listened to all 250 episodes of Boxcutters? Is this actually the 250th? Send us an email..