Packed to the Rafters was an authentic TV show about an ordinary family. The new reboot has family at its centre while touching on issues such as climate change and homelessness.
A two-week analysis of Australian news and current affairs programs shows they do not represent the make-up of the wider community, either in presenters and journalists or in the stories they depict.
Anna Potter, University of the Sunshine Coast e Amanda Lotz, Queensland University of Technology
With commercial broadcasters threatening to thumb their noses at local content quotas, it’s time government finds new tools appropriate for the 21st century television environment.
Lucy spends much of her life living through her phone screen – what happens when we are let into this vantage point?
Mia Forrest/ABC
Lucy is a millennial having a quarter-life crisis. In Content, a new kind of TV using the selfie as a camera technique, we view her life as it is reflected back at her through her phone screen.
Chris Lilley as Gavin: an Instagram lord.
Princess Pictures
There is no writer working today with better grasp of the contemporary Australian vernacular.
A still from Dennis O'Rourke’s 1988 documentary Cannibal Tours. O'Rourke was part of a surge in Australian documentary making during the 1980s and 90s.
Institute of Papua New Guinea Studios
At a time when formulaic factual ‘content’ reigns on our TV screens, a new essay on Australian documentary making is a rallying call for those who believe the genre can effect social change.
Bruce Beresford’s 1977 film The Getting of Wisdom.
IMDB
School stories hold a special place in popular culture. Stories set in Australian schools have often celebrated outsiders and underdogs, in contrast with their North American counterparts.
Elsa Pataky and Marco Pigossi in Tidelands (2018)
IMDb
Tidelands, is a speculative story about half-human/half-siren beings who live in the coastal Queensland town of Orphelin Bay. Unfortunately, it is not always a success.
Sean Keenan in Australian sci-fi drama Glitch. The show’s second season was a co-production between ABC TV and Netflix.
ABC TV/IMDB
Amazon this week purchased the global rights to J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings to turn it into a television series. What are the implications for Australia’s content and its global reach?
Shows like Cleverman and Tidelands are showing how Australia can work as a sci-fi setting, but where has it been until now?
Goalpost Pictures
Australian TV has been slow to enter the sci-fi genre, but the success of series like Cleverman shows we could have our own distinct brand of local sci-fi.