This Month
Why screen villains always play golf
Short of kicking a puppy, there’s no more reliable signifier of utter rottenness than a man – and it is always a man – playing golf.
- Peter Swain
Rivals is the bingeable bonk-fest we need right now
The elite of Thatcher’s Britain behave very badly in this Disney+ series based on the salacious novels of Jilly Cooper.
- Terry Pontikos
The TV watching habits of Australians (in three charts)
The way Australians consume media is changing – these three charts show how.
- Edmund Tadros
October
Netflix’s co-CEO says it’s ‘impossible’ to run the $500b giant alone
Greg Peters once wanted to be an astronaut – now he’s leading a company worth more than Disney, Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery combined.
- Sam Buckingham-Jones
- Opinion
- Opinion
What the new hit ‘bonkbuster’ series Rivals gets right about posh life
I reckon almost everyone I know has seen at least some of the show, adapted from Dame Jilly Cooper’s racy 1988 novel. But how accurate is it, exactly?
- Sophia Money-Coutts
This outback comedy-drama is an instant classic
If you’ve ever wondered what the baby of Wake In Fright and Pulp Fiction would look like, look no further than new Stan series, Thou Shalt Not Steal.
- Terry Pontikos
Jeff Goldblum’s not dead, he’s immortal in Netflix’s Kaos
Once famously declared deceased by TV host Richard Wilkins, Jeff Goldblum has now transcended earthly bounds, playing Zeus in this wildly original series.
- Terry Pontikos
- Analysis
- Media & marketing
Nine mulls adding advertising to Stan in search for new revenue
Streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video were once entirely commercial-free. Now almost all services have a cheaper ad-backed plan.
- Sam Buckingham-Jones
Liked The Sopranos? You’ll love this doco about it
Twenty-five years after The Sopranos first aired, this two-part series on Binge explores the way the show’s art mirrors the life of its creator.
- Terry Pontikos
September
Streaming powerhouse to launch in Australia next year
A new streaming player will deal a blow to Foxtel, which stands to lose HBO shows like “Succession”, “True Detective” and “Game of Thrones”.
- Sam Buckingham-Jones
The West Wing is 25. Writer Aaron Sorkin explains the ‘walk-and-talk’
The show has become a cultural touchstone and, in an interview, its creator speaks about why he believes the politics were mostly beside the point.
- Marc Tracy
- Exclusive
- BOSS
Disney chief goes retro for AFL finals to reel in streaming rivals
Disney’s Australian boss Kylie Watson-Wheeler is bringing her AFL obsession into her day job as the US giant takes on the dominant players in the local streaming wars.
- Patrick Durkin
How Netflix won the streaming wars
The company has staged a remarkable recovery since the ‘great correction’ of 2022 and now has the edge over rivals in traditional Hollywood.
- Christopher Grimes
Shogun wins best drama Emmy, Hacks shocks in comedy category
A tale of political machinations, Shogun also won acting awards for Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai, the first Japanese actors to win their categories.
- Lisa Richwine and Danielle Broadway
If you liked ‘White Lotus’, you’ll probably like ‘Bad Monkey’
Apple TV+’s latest major series has Vince Vaughn playing a wisecracking Florida cop amid exotic locales, Tom Petty songs and a menacing capuchin.
- Terry Pontikos
Comic spy thriller comes with biting humour and dysfunctional office politics
The losers, misfits and boozers of Slow Horses are back for a fourth season, and are up for nine Emmy Awards next week.
- Chris Vognar
The streaming service reeling in Netflix in Australia
Amazon Prime Video is closing the gap on the nation’s most popular entertainment platform, all while more Australians are downgrading to ad-supported plans.
- Sam Buckingham-Jones
August
This Gen Z banking show has made greed good again
Because of the show’s sharp-witted, slickly produced treatment of money, privilege and existential emptiness, some critics have anointed it the heir to HBO’s ‘Succession’.
- Spencer Kornhaber
This 30-year-old podcast genius just landed a $148m deal
With her Call Her Daddy show, Alex Cooper’s “fearless, unfiltered approach” has created a fanbase “unmatched in podcasting”, says SiriusXM’s president.
- Ashley Carman
- Exclusive
- NRL 2024
Fox Sports, AFL, NRL sued in US over alleged misuse of Meta tracking
The legal actions centre around the use of a monitoring tool on subscription services to watch the football codes outside Australia.
- Updated
- Max Mason