RIP Movie Show
Posted on June 7th, 2006, under Viewing, Work
It’s all over - the game where I get to indulge my fascination with Megan Spencer’s stockings and compare current trends in New Farm, Newtown and St Kilda hairdressing.
I feel a bit ripped off. I thought they would have at least provided a summary of the films that scored the highest all-time ratings. It was, after all, a rare thing to be an arts-based program on Australian television to last that long. Or was it? Anyway, all we got was a tiny and random selection of films & interviews with little sense of history, context, or preference. What gives, SBS? Couldn’t you summon some pride and some money to send off a show that did bring you an audience for a long time? At least they included Margaret’s great stand-off with the cops, which I remember from when I lived in Sydney. Nice to see someone on TV sticking up for what they believe in without having to shower in front of a bunch of cameras every night as well.
I’m hardly up to speed with recent debates about SBS’s marketing tactics or the tyranny of entrenched demographics. But it will take me a while to forget the closing image of 3 Gen Xers and one Gen Why kid waving to the audience resolutely, having just expressed such sincere gratitude for the great opportunity of working for the past 2 years. Only to dissolve to an ECU of bellicose George Negus shouting his hard-won career credentials into my living room. Maybe he speaks that way because he knows the audience better than I do. He would, I guess: apparently he’s the same age as most of them.
The contrast made me shudder, not because I loved The (New) Movie Show with any great passion, but because it seems to me Megan, Fenella, Jaimie and Marc have from day one been symbols of something wider. Namely, a generation of portfolio workers in the much-vaunted “creative industries” of a nation with seemingly fewer opportunities for talented, educated non-Boomers to be cherished, mentored and appreciated - to even know that a career could be a possibility to entertain or invest in. I hope their over-studied cynicism and urban outfits continue to be supported by someone’s payroll well in to the future, but I doubt whether the pre-graveyard Sunday night shift at Triple J is enough to pay the rent. Here begins the campaign for Soundlab podcasts, and here continues the campaign for a more variegated register for cultural criticism in Australia.
On June 8th, 2006 at 2:37 pm, Mel said:
As a portfolio CI worker who this morning turned down an opportunity to appear on The Today Show as the ’serious’ talking head alongside Chris “Bloke” Franklin, I say YEAH! to your concluding remarks. (I did, however, say yes to 2UE - I’m not made of stone!!)
Still, I feel as though Melbourne’s equivalent of New Farm and Newtown would surely have to be Fitzroy.
On June 8th, 2006 at 2:56 pm, MPPS said:
I enjoyed the new Movie Show, for a while at least. But it all got a bit smug towards the end. Megan Spencer’s smackdown in a SBS Insight debate with industry heavyweights was the beginning of the end I suspect.
In the end it was Fenella who grated the least. Odd because at the beginning she was the one I connected with the least. I suppose it’s just old David and Margaret now. That’s show biz.
On June 8th, 2006 at 2:58 pm, MPPS said:
Oh yeah. I’d go further north Mel. Fitzroy’s a tad yuppified these days. Northcote? Brunswick?
On June 8th, 2006 at 3:37 pm, jean said:
Right from the beginning I found Megan insufferably smug on the telly, but never thought so when she was on the wireless.
PS I heard Eddie is sacking a whole bunch of Nine’s news and ‘current affairs’ folks and that both Today and Sunday might go? I would miss Jana terribly, and I’m sure the slot would get filled by Nine’s Big Bumper Sunday of Motor Sports or something.
PS New Farm and Newtown aren’t actually analogous in the first place (self-consciously cosmopolitan shiny furniture-store-yuppiedom vs. unreasonably smug faded 90s grunge chic), so let’s go with St. Kilda anyway.
On June 8th, 2006 at 7:16 pm, melgregg said:
I admit I hesitated to put St Kilda, but Jean makes me realise why it felt apt in the triad with New Farm and Newtown. New Farm is the middle ground of the other two: it has water (tho no beach) hence the cosmopolitan al fresco thing, nostalgia for a 90s now passed, complete with the musos, it’s full of new money, which sends the “authentic” locals crazy and, what I think is key, a rare mix of retirement homes, mental health clinics and short-term gentlemen’s accommodation.
However, I am soon to have two visits to Melbourne in quick succession to update my inner-city knowledge!
On June 8th, 2006 at 10:06 pm, Mark Bahnisch said:
Oh, was it the last one last night! I didn’t watch it. I’m a big fan of Fenella, less so of Megan, but think the two women are fabulous together. Jamie, I’m afraid, is quite annoying. It may be the constantly raised eyebrow.
I’ve often thought that St. Kilda and New Farm are quite comparable. I remember thinking so when I first visited St. Kilda in 96 - presumably before 90s nostalgia set in! Not so sure about Newtown - but then I tend to think comparisons between Sydney and Brisbane are hard to make. Though Glebe still reminds me of what West End used to be like before it became Uber…
On September 6th, 2006 at 4:12 pm, home cooked theory » Blog Archive » MySpace, boys in jackets said:
[…] What this second clip makes me more aware of, if it was necessary, is the blokeyness of this genre of news-satire show. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, as part of my quest to understand my position re: the ubiquitous Chaser boys. In the past I’ve had a quite personal reaction to what I have taken to be their rich private school boys making a killing by being smart-arses vibe. But the fact that there are definite correlations in subcultures of comedy across the Pacific makes me think there’s something broader at stake. To put it simply, I’m disappointed and disillusioned by the prospect that boys in nice jackets performing an uber urban, over-educated knowingness appears to be the most popular and only remaining voice of derision tolerated, indeed solicited, in the current political climate. Then again, things could be turning. After last night, I’m just so pleased that there’s one more heroine to add to our public service broadcaster trail of portfolio Gen X workers. Imagine: Marieke vs. A Chaser Boy: A Five Week Series. Now that’s a show even I’d get cable to watch. « B(u)y me […]