13 schoolyards, Author at Australian Tumbleweeds - Page 5 of 105

Win Big With Gruen

Gambling ads have been in the news recently, what with an exciting new proposal to ban them because they’re pure fucking evil. “Gambling advertising and simulated gambling through video games is grooming children and young people to gamble and encourages riskier behaviour,” she said. “The torrent of advertising is inescapable. It is manipulating an impressionable... Read More »

Vale The Weekly 2023

You know what they say – you cannot kill what does not live. And so trying to shovel some dirt over The Weekly once again proves to be utterly pointless, because across 19 episodes the whole thing showed about as much life as your average Dodo and yet it’ll somehow be back again next year... Read More »

A Note to Staff Wrapped Around an Axe

By now we’ve all heard the news about even more cuts at the ABC. Didn’t we vote in a Labor government to stop this happening? ABC has announced departmental restructures of its new Content division, spanning Scripted, Entertainment, Factual, Indigenous, Arts and Childrens across television, radio and online from July 1st. The Content division is... Read More »

Betooting in the Back of the Ute

Once again we return to what seems to be increasingly familiar territory: new Australian series that you’d think would be comedies, but are not. And not in the “because they’re not funny, geddit?” sense either. The Betoota Advocate Presents is a perfectly well made and successful program that just… isn’t really trying to be all... Read More »

Utopian Fantasies

Ok, so Utopia is back for a record-breaking (not really – ed) fifth season. It’s been almost a decade since season one first aired – surely after a tumultuous decade in politics this particular satire has morphed into something all but unrecognisable? Yeah, nah, it’s business as usual once again. You can’t really fault Working... Read More »

It’s a Tie

There was only ever one of two ways Deadloch could go. One way had us excited; the other… yeah, not so much. So what exactly have Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan served up with their big budget Amazon murder mystery series? And why aren’t we super excited about what’s to come? Behind door number one,... Read More »

Going Out Of Business

Press release time! SYDNEY—May, 31 2023—First there was the UK’s David Brent, then came the U.S.’ Michael Scott. Now, middle management has a new archetype in Aussie Hannah Howard. Prime Video, BBC Studios Australia and New Zealand, and Bunya Entertainment today announced The Office Australia, a new Australian comedy series from the global hit juggernaut franchise The Office, with its... Read More »

Taking the Dirt Nap

In Limbo is the ABC’s latest dramedy, and in classic dramedy fashion it’s about a topic so hilarious you don’t even need to write jokes to get laughs: a husband and father kills himself and nobody knows why. Comedy gold! To be fair (why? – ed), that isn’t really the comedy part. Oh no, the... Read More »

Vale Aunty Donna’s Coffee Cafe

Okay, this is going to be a tough one. How do we review an Australian sitcom that’s actually funny? Yeah, sure, Fisk was pretty good too, but c’mon. Fisk didn’t have an episode where a crippling addiction to playing a drumming arcade game really badly was resolved by having someone who’d shrunk themselves down to... Read More »

A Bargain at Twice the Price

The Cheap Seats is back! Still good? Still good! We’re done then? Yeah, pretty much. The show came back earlier this week without skipping a beat. There was plenty of mileage in the Royal Coronation and even more in Melanie Bracewell corpsing while Tim looked on in mock confusion. She’s from New Zealand, he’s short... Read More »