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Australians can rejoice! We've finally got The Mighty Boosh on DVD for the low, low price of less than $20 from EzyDVD.

What is the Mighty Boosh? Here's a snip from an incredible episode that takes place in the Arctic tundra:

Buy the first season from EzyDVD!

The Mighty Boosh might be one of the most original and interesting comedy series in recent memory. The musical numbers are oddly comforting, the colours are vibrant and, most of all, it's surreal and hilarious. My girlfriend claims that it's humour for boys, but I'm sure there are legions of female Boosh fans.

Remember,

"Boosh, Boosh, stronger than a Moose"

...is the call for an adlibbed rap song in the Arctic Tundra. Go forth and purchase your box set. I'll see you there.

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Posted By: Cibbuano - Category: Television

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Life on Mars Series 2

February 20th 2007 00:30

Last week saw 'Life on Mars' series 2 go to air in the U.K.
I just gotta say (and I'm sure I've said it on this blog before), 'Life on Mars' is one the best television shows I've ever seen. It could be the first truly great television show of the 21st century. It could be one of the best television shows of all time. It's so good that I want to keep on with all this hyperbolic talk just so I can think of more and more new ways of praising it.

The basic premise of 'Life on Mars' goes as thus...
Sam Tyler is a modern-day police detective in Manchester. He gets hit by a car and wakes up in 1973. He doesn't know if he has travelled back in time or if he is in a coma, but he must team up with a rough-and-tumble 70s DCI, Gene Hunt, and help fight crime in seedy 1970s Manchester. Predictably, the two police officer clash repeatedly... Gene Hunt is very much a man of his day, living by his wits, fighting crime with his fists as much as his head, and not very partial to the rules at all. Sam Tyler has come to the 70s armed with all his 21st century political correctness and complicated police procedures, his rudimentary knowledge of forensics gives him an edge but more often than not his new colleagues aren't particularly interested in listening to his advice.

It's the typical police show formula - but one given all kinds of new edges and dimensions via the time travel angle. The dynamic between Sam and Hunt is wonderfully deepened by their era-gap, and there's a kind of metaphysical ambiguity to it all too... after all, if Sam is in a coma, then what part of his mind does Hunt represent? What do any of the other characters represent? What's going on?

The first series of 'Life on Mars' ran for only 8 episodes, and it's said that this second series of 8 episodes will be the last. So, with this finite number, the writers and actors seem to be really giving it all they've got. Every episode is a winner, a brilliant new take on a tried-and-true police show story... new developments pop up in regards to Sam's situation all the time and you can't really guess exactly where it's all going to go. The last episode of the first series was an absolute corker. The first episode of this second series is brilliant too... it sets things up nicely for another 8 episodes, and hinted at some new twists. I can't wait.

Why can't all television be this good?

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Posted By: Luke - Category: Television

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Hey Dad..!

January 24th 2007 06:11

If you lived in Australia between 1987 and 1994 (or, inexplicably, Germany around the same time), chances are that you watched an episode or two of 'Hey Dad..!', one of the few successful Australian sitcoms.

Successful Australian sitcoms are few and far between. The 70s and early 80s had one or two (including 'Kingswood Country' and 'Mother and Son'), but beyond 'Hey Dad..!'s 7-year run I can only think of about three more sitcoms to have had any degree of success - 'Frontline', 'We Can Be Heroes' and 'Kath and Kim' - all of which are somewhat unconventional as far the 'traditional' sitcoms go.

Anyway, getting back to 'Hey Dad..!', it was fairly run-of-the-mill stuff. Martin Kelly is a work-at-home architect raising a family on his own. Betty - the bane of his existence - is his somewhat slow-witted secretary. His children - Jenny, Debbie and Simon - do their best to aggravate his existence, and Nudge is the mooching neighbour who never seems to go away. For some reason this show was a big hit in Australian and Germany. I have a theory that this is due to the fact that there was nothing else being played on Australian television. As for Germany, I have no idea, and the high number of German-based 'Hey Dad..!' websites has baffled me for years.

As the show went on various characters disappeared (Nudge, Debbie) or were played by new actors (Simon, Jenny). New characters were introduced to keep the show afloat, including the popular and highly annoying Arthur McArthur (portrayed by Mathew Krok, who is now allegedly a Mormon) who entertained Australia for a good two or three months with his catchphrase 'I'm only a little kid'. Other characters to get introduced into the show included Sam and Tracy (substitues for Debbie), and Ben (a dim-witted substitute for Nudge). The show hit it's all-time low point in it's last year when Martin Kelly - the main focus of the show - left and got replaced by Uncle Greg, leaving Betty as the only original character left.

TRIVIA...
* A spin-off called 'Hampton Court' was launched in 1991. It featured Betty as the main character. It was a huge flop.
* Naomi Watts appears in an early episode as Simon's 'dream girl'.
* The last episode ended with the house blowing up and every character being killed. It was a silly and bizarre way to end a show that had been resoundingly in the 'melodrama and light comedy' mould.

And why am I talking about 'Hey Dad..!' at the moment? Well, it's getting a DVD release soon! Set to be released in mid-March, the double-DVD will feature 13 episodes.

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Posted By: Luke - Category: Television

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The Hogfather

January 22nd 2007 04:23

The Hogfather is the first case of a Terry Pratchett novel being adapted into live action. In the past we have had one or two animated Discworld mini-series, and a stop-motion mini-series of 'Truckers', but no one has ever put a Discworld novel up on the screen in live-action form before. Perhaps the special effects haven't been up to scratch in the past... the recent advances made in CGI in the last ten years have made it possible for all sorts of books and comics to be adapted for the screen. This is great news for Discworld fans and the recent success of this adaptation should pave the way for further live-action of Discworld novels

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Posted By: Luke - Category: Television

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The Sarah-Jane Adventures

January 5th 2007 01:34

Viewers in the UK were recently treated to the debut episode of 'The Sarah-Jane Adventures' - the latest spinoff from the new series of Doctor Who. This hour-long episode acts a taster for the rest of the series (which is due to air later on in the year) and went to air on CBBC - the children's orientated channel of the BBC

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Posted By: Luke - Category: Television

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Five cool Cult TV shows

December 30th 2006 06:16

Life on Mars
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Posted By: Luke - Category: Television

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Changi

December 14th 2006 12:09

Like 'Blue Murder', this is one of the few Australian mini-series I've ever found worth watching. Also, like 'Blue Murder', I feel that It's quality is so high that it even eclipses a lot of Australian films

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Posted By: Luke - Category: Television

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The League of Gentlemen

December 12th 2006 05:58

I'd always wanted to see this show because I'm a huge Doctor Who nerd and one of the guys who writes and acts in 'The League of Gentlemen' had previously been a Doctor Who novelist. Never mind the fact that positively scores of people had been reccomending this show to me. Doctor Who is all

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Posted By: Luke - Category: Television

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Blue Murder

December 7th 2006 11:01

This would have to be one of the greatest things to ever be put on TV. It's better than a lot of Australian films, not that that's really saying anything, but just take my word - it fucking rules

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Posted By: Luke - Category: Television

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Top 5 TV shows!

December 1st 2006 10:22

I'm going away for a few days so I'm just doing a short post on each of my blogs today

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Posted By: Luke - Category: Television

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Lost Season 1

November 9th 2006 10:40

Recently I decided to get into the show 'Lost'. It was a fairly mammoth undertaking, but I hoed straight into the first season and devoured it all in around a week or two. It was very good! And now I'm hooked

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Posted By: Luke - Category: Television

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Extras, Last episode

October 22nd 2006 08:28

Watch it here - BBC website
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Posted By: Luke - Category: Television

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Extras, Episode 5, Series 2

October 18th 2006 06:36

Watch it here - BBC website
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Posted By: Luke - Category: Television

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Hitler: Rise of Evil

October 16th 2006 06:25

Hitler: Rise of Evil (2003)

This mini-series went to air a few years ago on Australian TV and was hyped up to the max. Unfortunately, I bought into this hype and was very excited when the first half came on the telly. Alas, it wasn’t to be. Such was the level of my disappointment in this mini-series that I want to make it known what this could of been, and - unfortunately - what it was

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Posted By: Luke - Category: Television

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