Vibe coding an ad free TV viewing experience

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Vibe coding an ad free TV viewing experience

6 November 2026

Vibe coded apps are improving the TV viewing experience by doing away with adverts, removing bloatware from the device, and blocking tracking apps, enhancing viewer privacy in the process, says John Higgins, writing for The Verge.

Maybe now we can settle into an evening of watching some TV, without being watched by the TV.

Patrick Stewart, Star Trek Captain Picard, dies aged 86

30 October 2026

Some late news to hand. British actor Patrick Stewart, known to Star Trek fans as Captain Picard, of The Next Generation (TNG) series of the iconic sci-fi show, died on Wednesday, 28 October 2026.

This just days after Walter Koeing, from TOS died earlier in the week, on Monday.

There is the erroneous tendency to believe TNG crew are considerably younger than those of TOS, given TNG is set almost one-hundred years later. I was slightly surprised to realise — or, should I say, be reminded — Stewart was just four years younger than Keonig.

It’s been an awful week for fans of the Star Trek franchise.

Rest in peace Koenig and Stewart, and thanks for the great stories.

Then there were two: vale Walter Koenig, AKA Pavel Chekov, of Star Trek

28 October 2026

The American actor, who died on Monday at the age of ninety, was best known for his portrayal of Russian navigator Chekov, on the star ship USS Enterprise, in the Star Trek original TV series, from 1966 to 1969, and the subsequent movies.

I obviously don’t follow the sci-fi show as much as I used to, and was surprised to learn yesterday Keonig reprised his role as Chekov in a 2015 fan made film, Star Trek: Renegades, trailer.

In Renegades, he’s over one-hundred-and-forty years of age, and holds the rank of admiral. A nod perhaps to a certain line of his from the 1986 Star Trek film The Voyage Home? But don’t all Trek alumni end up as admirals?

With Keonig gone, George Takei as Hikaru Sulu, and William Shatner, as Captain Kirk, are the only remaining core members of the original series. It’s a sad day for fans of the franchise.

Talking of Sulu, I was likewise surprised to find out he served as president of the United Federation of Planets, after eventually leaving Star Fleet. This though was in a series of Star Trek novels written by Shatner, which were not series canon.

The vinyl revival spreads to CDs, DVD, other physical media

8 June 2026

Some people are tired of streaming, says Iskhandar Razak, writing for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

I’m not sure if it’s the actual process of watching, say, a movie online, or having to deal with streaming content providers, that’s fatiguing viewers, it sounds like a bit of both

I’m hardly the biggest consumer of small (not so small) screen media, it’s usually after nine in the evening before we lounge back on the sofa to watch something. The good news there, with such low consumption, is we only need to deal with one (subscription) streaming provider.

We’re fortunate to also have access to the likes of Kanopy, and iView, and their extensive repositories of movies and other shows. But I don’t even regard streaming as streaming, it’s simply a means by which to view a show or movie.

Others see things differently though. Some think streaming is too transient. They have come to miss owning physical copies of the films and shows they enjoy, and keeping them in a home library, sitting a on a shelf.

Surprisingly perhaps, the sentiment is not limited only to people with fond memories of watching movies on DVD‘s twenty-years plus ago. Many buyers of DVD’s and — incredibly — VHS cassettes, in 2026, are in their twenties.

It’s one thing to own all this physical media though, but a way to view it all is still needed. I assume VHS players, in working condition, are available. We still have a modest DVD collection, but need to hook up a small DVD player to a laptop, then to the TV screen, if need be, to watch them.

The DVD player, which isn’t much bigger than a DVD really, is fine. I’m not sure I’d be in favour of a larger player, and having to haul it around, let alone a VHS player. Plus a whole load of DVD’s and VHS cassettes. I’m having flashbacks to VHS cassette tape getting jammed in the player, and rental DVD’s glitching because of damage to the disc.

Streaming has made those particular playback hassles a distant memory. But that’s just the situation here. For others though, it seems owning a large collection of physical media, in addition to the required playback paraphernalia, adds to the viewing experience.

It has also offered a lifeline to some retailers of physical media, whose businesses were brought to the verge of collapse by streaming.

Vale Patricia Routledge: Mrs Bucket has left the building

7 October 2025

British actor Patricia Routledge died at the age of ninety-six last week. I came to know Routledge through her role as Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced bouquet, it would seem), in the BBC produced TV sitcom Keeping up Appearances, which ran from 1990 to 1995.

I think the show screened in Australia a little after that time.

I’m not much of TV watcher, but I’d come home one day, flicked on the TV, and there was her show. Hyacinth, originally from a working class family, believed her place was near the top of the pecking order, not the bottom. Her attempts however to scale the social ladder were frequently thwarted by her sisters, and brother-in-law, who were quite content with their working class lives.

I made a point to tune-in each week, and ended up seeing a series or two of the show. After production ceased in 1995, Routledge was frequently asked to reprise her role as Hyacinth, but refused. Speaking later, Routledge said she wanted the show to go out on a high. A good call.

Keeping up Appearances starred numerous well known British actors. Clive Swift portrayed Hyacinth’s hen-pecked husband Richard, with Shirley Stelfox, and Judy Cornwell, as her sisters Rose and Daisy, respectively. Geoffrey Hughes played Daisy’s husband Onslow, and Josephine Tewson was cast as Liz, Hyacinth’s jittery neighbour.

Although Routledge was opposed to continuing the show, a prequel film, Young Hyacinth, with Kerry Howard in the titular role, was made in 2016, which was set about forty years before events of Keeping up Appearances.

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Where no Star Trek syndication royalties have gone: to William Shatner

12 September 2025

William Shatner, the Canadian actor perhaps best known for portraying Captain Kirk, in the original series (TOS) of sci-fi TV series, Star Trek, claims to have not been paid a penny for the shows that screened in syndication. After the show’s original run, between 1966 to 1969, after which the series was cancelled, some TV stations began broadcasting re-runs.

It seems incredible to think that Star Trek might not have become the cultural phenomenon it is today (that is, numerous movies and spin-off shows), if not for those re-runs during the 1970’s, which ignited broader interest in the story.

I imagine none of the other (original) Star Trek cast members received any residual fees either. It seems no one gave any thought, at the time, to the notion of TV shows being re-screened after their original run concluded. Perhaps though cast members received compensation in kind, when negotiating their fees to appear in the later series of movies.

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Shatner also said he’d only ever seen a small number of the original TV shows, and none of the spin-offs. Of course the point can be made that there’s no use watching the shows since you were in them, and presumably know what happens.

But the experience of participating in a broadcast production, be it a TV show or a movie, is a world removed from viewing same. This is something Keir Dullea, who portrayed astronaut David Bowman, in 2001: A Space Odyssey, touched on at a special screening of the film, in Sydney, in 2006.

Dullea said all he could see — particularity during the close-up scenes where his character appeared to directly face the audience — were cameras, and production crew and equipment.

As a result, he said he didn’t get a true sense of the story until watching the finished product. This despite being right in the middle of proceeding at times. It can’t have been much different for Shatner. But we’re talking Captain Kirk here, someone whose perspective is a little different…

Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, return for Northern Lights trip

12 August 2025

It seemed pretty clear 2020’s The Trip to Greece was the final jaunt for British foodies Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. This after travels to the north of England, Italy, and Spain.

But now a new six-part series, The Trip To The Northern Lights, where the pair will venture around Scandinavia, starts production later in 2025, and presumably screens sometime in 2026.

Margaret Pomeranz, David Stratton, join Australian Film Walk of Fame

28 June 2025

Colloquially referred to as Margaret and David, the long time Australian film critics became, on Sunday 1 June 2025, the first non-actors to be inducted to the Australian Film Walk of Fame.

The pair are perhaps best known for the two film review television shows they co-hosted, The Movie Show, on SBS, from 1986 until 2004, and then At the Movies, on ABC, from 2004 through to 2014.

Among other roles, Stratton served as director of the Sydney Film Festival from 1966 until 1983. Pomeranz meanwhile was a prominent anti-censorship activist, and was once detained by police during a protest. Despite the warmth of their professional partnership, they often disagreed with each other as to the merits of a film. This became a distinguishing hallmark of their collaboration.

In the earlier days of disassociated I wrote a fair bit about film, and often saw Pomeranz and Stratton at various previews screenings and other events. Stratton hosted a conversation with Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood, of 2001: A Space Odyssey, in 2006.

One evening, while waiting to go into a preview screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Sydney in 2012, Pomeranz walked right passed me, as she was leaving the earlier screening. “Any good?” I asked her. She nodded politely in response.

The Australian Film Walk of Fame plague awarded to Pomeranz and Stratton earlier this month, is the second one presented this year. In recent years, the Walk, located outside the Ritz Cinema, in the Sydney suburb of Randwick, has been a little quiet. Is this something of a Film Walk of Fame revival?

Netflix adapting My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin into a TV series

27 June 2025

Talking of Miles Franklin, the late Australian author, not the literary award named in her honour, Netflix is filming an adaptation of her 1901 novel, My Brilliant Career.

Principal photography is currently underway in parts of South Australia, with Melbourne born Australian actor Philippa Northeast in the role of Sybylla Melvyn. Here’s the novel’s synopsis:

Trapped on her parents’ outback farm, Sybylla simultaneously loves bush life and hates the physical burdens it imposes. She longs for a more refined lifestyle – to read, to think, to sing – but most of all to do great things. Suddenly her life is transformed when she is whisked away to live on her grandmother’s gracious property. There Sybylla falls under the eye of the rich and handsome Harry Beecham. Soon she finds herself choosing between everything a conventional life offers and her own plans for a ‘brilliant career’.

Anna Chancellor portrays Sybylla’s grandmother, and Christopher Chung has been cast as Harry Beecham. At this stage, word has it the show will screen either later this year, or in early 2026.

While you’re waiting for the TV show, track down and watch Gillian Armstrong’s 1979 film adaptation of My Brilliant Career, which starred Judy Davis and Sam Niell as Sybylla and Harry respectively.

Harry Potter producers pull lead actors for ten year TV adaptation from hat

31 May 2025

Two years after the announcement of a ten series TV adaptation of the (original) Harry Potter books, members of the primary cast have been announced.

This includes Dominic McLaughlin, Arabella Stanton, and Alastair Stout in the roles of Harry, Hermione, and Ron, respectively. Other castings include John Lithgow as Dumbledore, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, and Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape. No word yet on who will portray bad guy Voldemort, though rumours suggest this might be Cillian Murphy.

So, another ten years of Harry Potter on the screen. No doubt fans will be delighted. It is anticipated the first series will be broadcast sometime in 2026 or 2027.

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