As Blackbox goes to press, the Winter Olympics (WIN, daily until Sun Feb 28, 9am + 9.30pm) are in full swing – presuming they’ve managed to truck in enough snow into Vancouver. This of course means four things: 1) nobody else is showing anything good*, 2) everybody else is airing the 39th run of a popular comedy or action movie*, 3) none of the big ticket new programming – Underbelly, V – is going to start until after the closing ceremony and 4) you get to watch weird sports you’ve never heard of and test the white balance on your telly at the same time. The Chez Blackbox favourite is curling – do your bit and lobby the Australian Olympic Committee for a curling team so we can be the Jamaican bobsled team of curling. Unlike the Delhi School Carnival later in the year, the Winter Olympics will have you on the edge of your seat willing the Aussie team to victory against the odds, even if they’ve spent so much of their lives in countries laden with snow that they don’t really sound like Aussies anymore. But the best reason to watch – Aussie folklore –is after all the event that coined the phrase ‘doing a Bradbury.’
On the subject of interesting sports – Roller Derby fans might want to check out Airways (Prime, Sun Feb 21, 8pm) which stars the Sydney Assassins Derby team on the way to a meet. Nothing like checking out the potential competition for our own Surly Griffins and Black ‘n’ Bluebells (crdl.wikispaces.com).
Seven Ages of Rock (ABC1, Thu Feb 18, 8:30pm) winds up this week with an episode entitled What the World is waiting for: British Indie. Blackbox has a different view of Oasis that may lead to BMA being banned, if published here.
The press release for Cougar Town (Prime, Thu, 8.30pm) says it “explores the honest truths about dating and aging in our beauty and youth obsessed culture” but really it’s just a bit of fun. It does for cougars what Big Bang Theory (Go!, Sun-Thu, 7.30pm + WIN, Mon, 8pm) did for nerds – makes them cool.
New shows hitting screens during the Olympics include cult Danish crime series The Killing (SBS1, Wed Feb 17, 8.30pm), Sanctuary (ABC2, Mon Mar 1, 9.30pm) – a sci-fi monsters come crime show with Stargate-style writing, plotlines and stars, Gavin & Stacey (ABC2, Thu, 9.30pm) – the quirky show that Prime buried last year gets a rerun on auntie.
James May’s Toy Stories (SBS1, Fri Feb 26, 7.30pm) takes an in depth view of such childhood delights as plasticine – from which he creates an entire garden to enter the Chelsea Flower Show and Sex: The Revolution (ABC2, Wed Mar 3, 9.30pm) charts the sexual revolution from the 1950s until today – auntie style rather than SBS style.
7TWO continues to be a dumping ground for Prime and a promotional tool for the main channel – at last count there had been four encores of the Lost season opener. Blackbox doubts anyone dedicated enough to still be watching a show that should have lasted a maximum of two seasons would have missed the season opener of the penultimate season.
Don’t miss Academy Season: Guess who’s coming to dinner (ABC2, Sat Mar 6, 8.30pm).
TRACY HEFFERNAN
tracyheffernan@bigpond.com
*except SBS and the ABC who figure most of their ratings come from people who don’t watch sport (except lawn bowls, local rugby and girls sports).
