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The new TV show that everyone is talking about

We highlight the best shows of the week

This week on TV we’ve got the return of a big favourite, a blockbuster new series on streaming, and a historic wedding. But which of them is worth watching? 

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Matt Denby from WHO’s TV podcast Binge List discusses all of these options below. 

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Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan  

The biggest new show this week is Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, which debuts on August 31 on Amazon Prime.

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It’s another lavish post-9/11 spy thriller, and it looks like there’s been more money spent on this than Australia’s total annual TV drama budget! It’s sometimes even cinematic in scale. 

But for all the glossiness, epic set pieces, good acting and globe trotting action, this seems extremely familiar. We’ve had so many thrillers in this style over the past 17 years, they all begin to bleed into one.

From the opening shot of the young Lebanese boys in eighties fashions, listening to Men Without Hats, we know instinctively exactly what is going to happen. We have the jets flying over, the expensive-looking and chilling bombing run laying waste to their village, and we know instinctively that one of these boys is going to grow up to be the nemesis faced by Jack Ryan, out for revenge.

And sure enough the drama then proceeds to Jack tracking the next Bin Laden, and we know who that will turn out to be.
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Jack is also constructed in the cliched manner of the moment – being a flawed hero torn apart by his own dark past, which we get a glimpse of through his flashbacks and his scarred, shirtless body.
If you like this genre you probably can’t help but enjoy this. It hits all the right notes, and it’s so lavishly done. But I’ve seen this all before and I feel it’s time to move on to something else.  
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Gogglebox, Season 8

Everyone’s favourite excuse to watch people watching TV is back on Foxtel’s Lifestyle from August 29, and on Channel 10 the following day – and it just never gets old! Not only does this show save you from having to watch a huge amount of buzzworthy tele – the various households here do that for you –  but it’s also like catching up with old friends. 

This week on Binge List we were lucky enough to host two of our favourites from the show, Angie and Yvie, who gave us some insight into what it’s like to be on the other side of the cameras. We also found out how many of the other households ended up on TV – and some of those stories were pretty surprising. 

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So what’s it like watching TV on TV? 

‘You forget the cameras as there,’ Angie says. ‘Yvie farts all the time. They did a wrap of all of my burps and I’m like oh my god I’m disgusting.’

What about having to talk when you just want to watch?’ 

‘If we’re right into it, especially like Real Housewives or something, you don’t want to talk’, admits Yvie. ‘Intense stuff and really good reality shows.’

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And what about some of those outrageous comments? 

‘We’ve got legal letters before,’ says Yvie. ‘We’re used to it!’ 

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Neighbours: David and Aaron’s wedding

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Something historic is about to happen on iconic Aussie soap, Neighbours.

It’s been thirty years since the most famous wedding in the history of Aussie soaps – the nuptials of Scott and Charlene.  

And plenty has changed since then. On September 3 the show features its first-ever same sex wedding, as characters David and Aaron tie the knot before friends and family.

As always with weddings on long running soaps, you have endless references to key family members who couldn’t be there, because they’re not in the cast any more! Can’t the producers splash out for some guest spots?
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There is the usual array of petty dramas and dumb humour – and I’m not entirely sold on Magda Szubanski’s guest spot as the celebrant. 
Kudos to Neighbours for not shying away in any respects in its depiction of a same sex wedding as loving and normal, and allowing the guys to express their love naturally and physically. But I’m still conscious that similar long running soaps in the UK and US did this sort of thing several years ago.
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Let’s hope other Aussie shows in this genre follow suit and get braver and more contemporary soon – not naming any names!

To hear full discussions of the above shows – and more – as well as our interview with guest co-hosts Angie and Yvie, see below. 

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