Netflix
Netflix’s most ambitious and expensive original drama is historical fiction at its most lavish.
Homer Simpson visits the Sydney Opera House in a promotional video ahead of Matt Groening’s visit to Australia this week.
Twentieth Century Fox/Sydney Opera House
The subtlety laced with satire that graced earlier shows has been replaced by a brash, carelessness. And Homer, while always loud-mouthed, is now positively abusive. After 28 seasons, is it time for The Simpsons’ creators to call it a day?
BBC/The Fall 3 Ltd/Des Willie
The Fall writer Alan Cubitt is ‘hurt and upset’ at being accused of misogyny. But maybe misogyny isn’t the point.
BBC’s The Fall has been accused of being misogynistic.
BBC Images
On screen violence against women is increasingly detailed, intimate and frighteningly authentic – but there’s often just no need.
Jack Bauer is now Tom Kirkman, designated survivor.
Shutterstock
Trump is a Hollywood comedy blundering around in the ‘real world’ of American politics. Hollywood drama can show us what is needed instead.
Nocturama, BFI
Anarchists old and new are populating film and TV a lot at the moment – reflecting the profound anxiety of the times.
Great British sign off.
BBC
The programme’s move to a different channel has cooked up a storm. But that’s the reality of reality television.
BBC/Two Brothers Pictures Ltd.
Women’s privates have moved to the front and centre of popular entertainment. And they’re not always pretty.
Women in South African cultural industries feature prominently on stages and in studios, but not in its boardrooms.
John Hogg/EPA
South African creative and cultural industries have taken some early steps to elevate women to leadership positions, but there is still some way to go.
Universal
Same same but different.
The Starship Enterprise, the famed setting of the original ‘Star Trek’ series, was almost lost to the graveyard of failed pilots.
alanoodle.com
With a pilot that was deemed too complex and cerebral, ‘Star Trek’ looked dead in the water. Fifty years later, we look back at the show’s rocky beginnings.
Medical experts are rarely quoted in TV news stories about contraception.
Image of TV studio via www.shutterstock.com.
TV news stories often frame contraception as a political or social issue, rather than a medical issue, depriving the public of vital health information.
BBC
Baking offers some interesting insights into the state of the modern world.
Aaron Pedersen as Cam Delray in Jack Irish. In 1999, Pederson was one of two Indigenous actors on Australian TV.
Supplied.
Indigenous representation in TV dramas has surged, but other culturally diverse groups are still under-represented on screen.
plastic cups.
The high street chains cop the heat, but shouldn’t you be doing your bit too?
Bold claims from adland have left us inured to deception.
York Mix/Flickr
Advertising complaints hit 37,000 in the UK last year, but companies keep chancing their arm.
K C Bailey/Netflix
The popular TV series encourages us to question how we understand identity and community in light of religion.
Talk show host Jerry Springer enters the stage on a motorbike as co-host of the 2008 Miss Universe contest.
Reuters/Adrees Latif
Daytime television talk shows are known for their confrontational style. But there is a different model: a harmonious, cohesive and relational approach may offer a better way to communicate.
How many of these do you find in history books?
©2016 Home Box Office, Inc.
The medieval period wasn’t always dark and full of terrors
Gillian Anderson as Jane Bond.
It’s time for a new Bond – what about a woman? Two academics debate the cultural implications of changing the spy’s gender.