The Box

"If you haven't bought a gun or a pickaxe at some point, it isn't a real relationship."

Roxy, "Death Defying", Dead Like Me Season 2

Lily and Marshall just got married on How I Met your Mother, and Lily (aka Willow Rosenberg) kept her own surname! Has the American sitcom dragged itself into the 21st century?

I happen to have some very close friends who work in television: we met back in the 80s at Macquarie University when we were members of MU's dramatic society, DRAMAC. (I was more of a backstage, front of stage and lighting gal, although I did have an onstage role as the nosy neighbour in a production of John Romeril's Mrs Thally F.) Back then, our stock-in-trade was sketch comedy reviews, and a great success they were: we got gigs in various pubs around Sydney, and a number of the 80s DRAMAC alumni (as noted above) went on to have successful careers as writers and producers of television comedy and drama.

As regular Misrule readers may have noted, I had a birthday last week, and one of my gifts was The Best of the Glasshouse DVD. The Glasshouse was a late-night satirical panel chat show about society and politics, axed late last year almost certainly in response to the latest in a long-standing campaign of claims of left-wing bias against the ABC.

Imagine my delight to see my old DRAMAC mate, nemesis and sparring-partner, Ian Simmons, The Glasshouse's head writer, on the DVDs' extra feature. Simmo always had a particular style of delivery as a performer, and back when he was head writer on Good News Week, I could always hear his "voice" in Paul McDermott's intro monologue—similar delivery style. Occasionally Ian did the opening voice-over on The Glass House, and his signature satirical tone always informed its scripted material.

So very cool to see him on the DVD. I hope he's not unemployed for too long!

This doesn't count as thesis avoidance because:

a.) I've spent four hours on it today (admittedly, most of that was fiddling with Endnote and cutting and pasting from my ACLAR paper into my draft first chapter, but hell, it had to be done!) and

b.) by the time this program comes on tonight, it will be way too late to be doing any sensible thinking or writing!

At 10.30 tonight, Life As We Know It, the TV series based on Melvyn Burgess's book Doing It, starts on Channel 7. (I can't for the life of me find Burgess's website, no matter how hard I google—can anyone help?) I recall people in the States rather liked it when it screened there (Monica?), although I gather it only lasted one season. (If so, it's in good company.) I'll watch with interest. (Actually, I'll be asleep, rager that I am. I'll tape it and watch it tomorrow—back to thesis avoidance! Yippee!)

COMMENTS ADDED WEDNESDAY 6 DECEMBER:

OK, I watched the first episode today (after working productively on the thesis, yay!) and I liked it a lot. I'm not entirely sure about the direct-to-camera speech, but it serves a purpose and works OK, I guess. I didn't think Kelly O was all that good, unfortunately, but the storytelling was, and the three boys are very good, I thought. A bit more likeable than they were in the book! I'll be interested to see more of the teacher (who was pretty much a sociopath in the novel), how they tease out her character, and Ben's emotional journey with that relationship.

Ben reminded me of a young David Boreanaz; Dino of a young (gulp) Tom Cruise. (Nope, not linking to that loon!) Jonathan was lovely, and his anxiety about popularity and going out with the "fat" girl more sympathetically played out than in the novel, from memory. (Reminds me somewhat of a confession made to me at a school reunion six years ago!)

I do hope that Channel 7 play the whole series during this silly summer non-ratings season—there are only so many DVD box sets a girl can own!

Warning: there are MAJOR spoilers in them thar links!

The season one finale of Veronica Mars screened here on Friday night. It was a brilliant finale, both satisfying in terms of the season's central mystery and with a completely tantalising cliff-hanger. I thought that I'd have to wait until next year for season two—but astonishingly, Channel Ten is going straight into screening it this Friday night! Yay! Not since Buffy have I been so devoted to a TV show. Great characters, great dialogue and a water-tight plot. Is it any surprise that Veronica Mars was created by YA author Rob Thomas?

I enjoyed this new program on the ABC last night. Good mix of panellists, a lively host in Jennifer Byrne, and intelligent discussion of the books. I've emailed suggesting Seven Little Australians as one of their classic titles.

Also, I've finished adding my responses to comments on the censorship thread. Thanks to everyone who contributed—let's keep the watchdog alert!