DISQUS

I think the video podcast (boxcutters.net/vlog) has been doctored! If you look very carefully you'll notice John isn't moving at all. Or is that Brett...?

Has anyone noticed that the BIG FLOATING LETTERS from Fringe have invaded Mumbai Calling?

@ Lyndal: I plan to start watching it next week. I don't know if the scripts for this season are also adaptations from the original Israeli version or not; as long as they can keep up the quality. I will miss the teenage gymnast.What a fantastic performance that was. And Byrne is marvellously fidgety. With such a close study as this show is, minimal set and minimal action, even fingers have crucial dramatic roles to play.

Flash Forward (ABC network's LOST replacement) sounds like it is based on the speculative fiction novel of the same name by Canadian writer Robert J Sawyer. In the book, published at least 5 years ago, the "flash forward" happens when CERN turns on the large hadron collider for the first time and every person's consciousness leaps forward to the same point some 10 or 20 years in the future, lasting about 2 minutes. This happens early on and the rest of the book spins out the consequences, for individuals and for society, of knowing something concrete about your own future. The book is a great read and I can see it being made into television, even good television, but surely only for a single season or a mini-series.

On another topic, has anyone had a look at the new season of HBO's In Treatment (currently airing)?

You guys! You made me think it were Monday.

I turn my back for a week while I move to Brisbane and look what happens:

Boxcutters turns 150. Hooray! (@ boxcutters.net)

Jimbo's train pulls in.

Ross bids us all farewell. (You will be missed. Hope you will ring through with a segment from time to time.)

John Richards joins the team, even though he sounds nothing like Brett.

All the best to the new team, and the old one, and well over the fast ;-)

Happy 3rd Birthday, Boxcutters!

Coming up to the big one-five-oh, too. Onya.

And a well deserved break it is, too. Rest up and thanks for the muesli.

Is it some camera crew deal between the networks' shooters to shoot each other in action so that the channel nine shooter gets a spot on the channel seven news and vice versa?

Another entertaining show, fellas.

With the talk about TV camera crew, what's the deal with those split-second cutaways you see during door stop interviews and occasionally press conferences, where the vision cuts to a shot of the cameraman/woman? I don't mean the interviewer doing a noddie, but an almost subliminal slice of the cameraman/woman, on the job with full video tackle. There must be a name for this? I like it, because why shouldn't the shooter get some exposure (he he he) after all! But what is this behaviour called? Is it a variety of boneheading? Jimbo, somebody, please spill the insider beans we all know you carry.

Rob Boxcutter

I'll have Orson Welles' bushy face going down on all you Boxcutters before the year's out.

Thinks: must trawl back through shows with Marieke, Jess and Anna for "in July" moments ...

Blame HBO - all the answers were coming in Season 2! Well, not really, but I can see how they needed to leave some threads open (and introduce new story lines towards the end, like the organised crime stuff) so they could be picked again if HBO commissioned a second season.

I thought Season 2 of Deadwood was pretty boring, I have to say.

BBC press release about the start of filming of Steve Coogan's new vehicle, Sunshine: HERE

Cool - now I can add Brett's iteration of "in July" to my audio mashup. The only one left to capture is Josh. You have been warned. Choose your words most carefully from this point on, Mr Kinal ...

And so it begins ...

Thanks MordWa - I've been trying to remember the name of "Almost Anything Goes" all bloody week!

I find myself starved of good television. The Wire has finished, Lost is in mid-season hiatus, In Treatment is about to end ... things are bleak. Is there anything out there worth watching?

Jimbo: Is there anything good in the UK?

Has anyone seen the (currently airing) 7-part HBO "miniseries event" John Adams?

In HBO we trust.

Ah, Granola. With cinnamon and yoghurt.

I'm with Josh on In Treatment. Great writing, superb acting, set in what must count as one of the more unusually intimate settings two (or three) people can find themselves. I agree it is unrelentingly tense in many episodes, but this just draws me in further. The concept certainly is a dangerous one for television and could so easily be done very badly indeed. Thankfully, that's not the case. I don't think even Ross thought it was badly done, just not his cup of tea. One thing that would definitely ruin it is advertising. This show would be ripped to shreds if interspersed with ads on a commercial station, as it relies so much on atmospheric and conversational build-up, as well as periods of reflective silence.

Crunchy Granola! Sweet!

CNN had so many stats in so many different parts of the screen - all changing and updating at different speeds - my head, while not quite spinning, was literally swivelling.

... or was he rather a political advisor in the PM's office? A real head kicker, anyway.

Yes, Jim. The Thick of It is absolutely marvellous stuff, especially the press secretary / spin doctor - his barely contained fury is palpable even before he utters a word. I wish I could swear as colourfully and articulately. I think I've only watched five of the six 2005 episodes, and neither of the 2007 "specials", but I have them all somewhere ...

I have it, but haven't watched any yet.

Are you serving any Granola tonight, or can I go to bed?

Seasons greetings, Boxcutters all!

I am slowly (very slowly) adding to my list of cities in which I have listened to Boxcutters (Melbourne, Vancouver, Hobart..) It was particularly special listening to the podcast while crossing the Burrard Inlet by sea bus to North Vancouver earlier this year.

Re: Cricket KFC ads

I think dubbing over real cricket footage while not showing the actual KFC product is in fact a very devious advertising measure. So many people these days hit the 'mute' button as soon as the ad breaks start; when they play these ads during the cricket broadcast (and you have the sound off) you think play has resumed and you turn the sound back on ... just in time to hear all about KFC and realise you've been duped. Watching the test match this afternoon I noticed they didn't play any of these as the first ad in an ad break, making the deception even more successful.

Wily bastards!

Ahhhh, Granola!