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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
A small Australian town faces the return of the beloved dead – some recently deceased, and some long gone.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Relationships with the Past : How Australian Television Dramas Talk about Indigenous History
2017
single work
criticism
— Appears in: M/C Journal , vol. 20 no. 5 2017;'In recent years a number of dramas focussing on Indigenous Australians and Australian history have appeared on the ABC, one of Australia's two public television channels. These dramas have different foci but all represent some aspects of Australian Indigenous history and how it interacts with 'mainstream' representations of Australian history. The four programs I will look at are Cleverman (Goalpost Pictures, 2016-ongoing), Glitch (Matchbox Films, 2015-ongoing), The Secret River (Ruby Entertainment, 2015) and Redfern Now (Blackfella Films, 2012), each of which engages with the past in a unique way.'
Source: Author's introduction.
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Glitch Season Two Review – Flounders between Necrophiliac Soap Opera and Boring Zombie Show
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 13 September 2017;'Despite admirable acting, the new series of this sumptuous Australian gothic fails to revive drop-dead boring characters or its dramatic credibility.'
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Is the Tide Turning for Australian Sci-fi on the Small Screen?
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Conversation , 29 August 2017;'Netflix’s planned Australian TV series Tidelands has been met with excitement from a country not known for its sci-fi. Tidelands will focus on an ex-criminal who returns to her hometown, investigating a mysterious group of half-humans and half-Sirens known as “Tidelanders”.
'The ten-episode series will be filmed in Queensland in 2018. Co-creator and co-executive producer Tracey Robertson said of the show:
The primeval landscapes of Queensland are a perfect setting to tell the story of betrayal, small-town secrets [and] ancient mythology …
'Meanwhile, the not-for-profit organisation Scripted Ink will invest in developing Australian author C.S. McMullen’s sci-fi thriller series Awake. The series is set in a dystopian future in which the world’s richest 1% are able to choose to live without sleep.' (Introduction)
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Full Focus
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 4 June 2016; 'Director Emma Freeman's filmography includes some of Australia’s best-loved TV dramas, but her greatest challenge came at a much earlier age.' -
A Glitch in the Script : Fantasy, Realism and the Australian Imagination
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Coolabah , no. 18 2016; (p. 85-99) 'The Glitch is a six-part television series first aired on the Australian public broadcast network, the ABC, in July 2015. My interest is in ways that the series reflects certain aspects of Australian culture and history and, in particular, how inclusive the series has been in representing Indigenous Australian ways of seeing this history. The Glitch — set in a fictional Australian outback town where a number of residents who have lived and died there return from the dead — holds great potential for critiquing the cultural and perceptual frameworks that have created what popular culture often describes as ‘quintessential Australianness.’ Narrative genres that have a particular relevance in framing Australian identity within a postcolonial context are also important to my examination. They provide a way to explore the aesthetics of identity in the play between reality and unreality where an Australian Gothic sense of the uncanny is contrasted with the subversive way Magic Realism places the extraordinary within the same realm of the possible as the ordinary everyday event. This aligns with contemporary analyses of Australian Indigenous narratives where Indigenous perceptions of reality question a Western hegemonic view of what is magic and what is real and highlights the cultural origins of both. It is the mix of the mysterious and the mundane and the play between reality and fantasy that has enormous potential in The Glitch. However, as I also discovered, maintaining the magic and the real in such a delicate and continuous balance is no easy task.
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What Lies beyond
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 2 July 2015; (p. 7)
— Review of Glitch 2015 series - publisher film/TV -
Back among the Living
2015
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 4-5 July 2015; (p. 23)
— Review of Glitch 2015 series - publisher film/TV -
Brammall Is Building Bridges
2015
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sunday Mail , 9 August 2015; (p. 5) -
Full Focus
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 4 June 2016; 'Director Emma Freeman's filmography includes some of Australia’s best-loved TV dramas, but her greatest challenge came at a much earlier age.' -
A Glitch in the Script : Fantasy, Realism and the Australian Imagination
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Coolabah , no. 18 2016; (p. 85-99) 'The Glitch is a six-part television series first aired on the Australian public broadcast network, the ABC, in July 2015. My interest is in ways that the series reflects certain aspects of Australian culture and history and, in particular, how inclusive the series has been in representing Indigenous Australian ways of seeing this history. The Glitch — set in a fictional Australian outback town where a number of residents who have lived and died there return from the dead — holds great potential for critiquing the cultural and perceptual frameworks that have created what popular culture often describes as ‘quintessential Australianness.’ Narrative genres that have a particular relevance in framing Australian identity within a postcolonial context are also important to my examination. They provide a way to explore the aesthetics of identity in the play between reality and unreality where an Australian Gothic sense of the uncanny is contrasted with the subversive way Magic Realism places the extraordinary within the same realm of the possible as the ordinary everyday event. This aligns with contemporary analyses of Australian Indigenous narratives where Indigenous perceptions of reality question a Western hegemonic view of what is magic and what is real and highlights the cultural origins of both. It is the mix of the mysterious and the mundane and the play between reality and fantasy that has enormous potential in The Glitch. However, as I also discovered, maintaining the magic and the real in such a delicate and continuous balance is no easy task. -
Is the Tide Turning for Australian Sci-fi on the Small Screen?
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Conversation , 29 August 2017;'Netflix’s planned Australian TV series Tidelands has been met with excitement from a country not known for its sci-fi. Tidelands will focus on an ex-criminal who returns to her hometown, investigating a mysterious group of half-humans and half-Sirens known as “Tidelanders”.
'The ten-episode series will be filmed in Queensland in 2018. Co-creator and co-executive producer Tracey Robertson said of the show:
The primeval landscapes of Queensland are a perfect setting to tell the story of betrayal, small-town secrets [and] ancient mythology …
'Meanwhile, the not-for-profit organisation Scripted Ink will invest in developing Australian author C.S. McMullen’s sci-fi thriller series Awake. The series is set in a dystopian future in which the world’s richest 1% are able to choose to live without sleep.' (Introduction)
-
Glitch Season Two Review – Flounders between Necrophiliac Soap Opera and Boring Zombie Show
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 13 September 2017;'Despite admirable acting, the new series of this sumptuous Australian gothic fails to revive drop-dead boring characters or its dramatic credibility.'
Awards
- 2017 nominated Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards — Best Television Drama Series
- 2016 shortlisted AWGIE Awards — Television Mini-Series - Original
- 2015 winner Logie Awards — Most Outstanding Drama Series
- 2015 winner Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards — Best Television Drama Series