We’ve always been a bit nonplussed about Soul Mates, which returned to the ABC last night. It’s neither especially bad nor especially good comedy, but with its recurring characters and serial structure, it is at least an interesting take on the sketch show. Returning in series 2 are the Bondi Hipsters, Dom and Adrian, who’ve... Read More »
What is there to say as we wave goodbye to another year of Mad as Hell that we haven’t said at least four times before? Much as we’d prefer to have Micallef end each season with a Charlie Pickering-like threat of a guaranteed return, the fact that each series of Mad as Hell could be... Read More »
If you thought the Australian television comedy scene was dead at the moment, well, sometimes dead is better: Get patriotic on the Aussie comedy day with Open Slather (Seasons 1 & 2), Just for Laughs Australia 2015, Best of the Sydney Comedy Fest 2016, and Melbourne Comedy Festival’s Big Three-Oh! 2016. If you missed Open... Read More »
It’s the start of a new financial year, and we all know what that means: Australia’s various film and television funding bodies reveal where the money went! Considering how often we’re told that funding is essential to the development and production of film and television in this country you’d figure these lists would be a... Read More »
There’s been a bit of talk in the past year about whether this country’s political journalists are doing a good job or not… From New Matilda: ABC journalist Annabel Crabb last night began her sickeningly sweet profile of former Immigration Minister and current Treasurer Scott Morrison like this: “People describe Scott Morrison as ambitious, hard-line,... Read More »
The people of this country may have delivered an inconclusive result this election, but one thing was certain: politics provided a lot of inspiration to our comedians. Australian Tumbleweed’s specially assembled panel of top analysts (You mean our usual writers – Ed) take a look at the results… The Chaser were back with another of... Read More »
“This program contains content that may alarm some viewers”. That was the warning at the start of this week’s episode of The Chaser’s Election Desk. Considering the last time The Chaser did an election show they wrapped it up by showing a doctored photo of Chris Kenny rooting a dog, it wasn’t a warning to... Read More »
It’s been a long time since John Safran was on our television screens, and on last night’s special The Goddam Election! it kinda showed. Not in his performance as host, which continued to walk the line between charmingly geeky and slightly less charmingly geeky; nor his interview technique, which skillfully managed to win over most... Read More »
Sometimes we ask questions knowing full well the answer. More often, we ask them because we don’t have a clue. This falls firmly into the latter category: in 2016, what happened to Gruen Nation? Those moments when you really wish you had a television show that examined election advertising… pic.twitter.com/o2kgfDhnjc — Wil Anderson (@Wil_Anderson) June... Read More »
Anyone watching the ABC’s Wednesday night comedy line-up saw the signs of looming doom. But only David Knox at TV Tonight was brave enough to write them down: Tom Gleeson will host a new quiz show coming to ABC. Okay, first let’s count all the ways this might not suck: . . . … ok,... Read More »