Good News Week and the writers’ strike
Everyone here seems to support the writers’ strike. Which is as it should be, I suppose, though it feels a bit weird to see those kinds of slogans in the LJ icons of people a continent or two away from Hollywood. Not watching much in the way of new TV, I’m kind of indifferent about it, though the writers damn well deserve the extra cash.
The problems start when Aussie TV networks try to make up for the shortfall in between-ad filler by ramping back up their production of “quality” local content, when they previously were often happy to get by with the bare minimum required by law. Australian TV is on the whole no better than American TV, and much less likely to have big-budget special effects to at least distract the viewer from the crap, so this is by no means a good thing. (Americans who complain about the quality of the popular culture they export should first check out the shit other countries produce.)
And then there’s this bit of news. Given the Chasers are running out of steam, it should be nice to have Good News Week back (Brits, think Have I Got News For You; Americans, think of a cross between Fark.com without the boobs-and-beer fixation and The Daily Show with the gloves off) but this could all go so very, very wrong . . .
Especially since there’s no mention of Mikey Robbins or Julie McCrossin coming back. And the beginning of the end for GNW the first time round was its going on a commercial network in the first place and losing the energy it had as a half-hour-no-ads show.
Oh well, fingers crossed . . .
The problems start when Aussie TV networks try to make up for the shortfall in between-ad filler by ramping back up their production of “quality” local content, when they previously were often happy to get by with the bare minimum required by law. Australian TV is on the whole no better than American TV, and much less likely to have big-budget special effects to at least distract the viewer from the crap, so this is by no means a good thing. (Americans who complain about the quality of the popular culture they export should first check out the shit other countries produce.)
And then there’s this bit of news. Given the Chasers are running out of steam, it should be nice to have Good News Week back (Brits, think Have I Got News For You; Americans, think of a cross between Fark.com without the boobs-and-beer fixation and The Daily Show with the gloves off) but this could all go so very, very wrong . . .
Especially since there’s no mention of Mikey Robbins or Julie McCrossin coming back. And the beginning of the end for GNW the first time round was its going on a commercial network in the first place and losing the energy it had as a half-hour-no-ads show.
Oh well, fingers crossed . . .