THERE'S been a glitch in my TV viewing. Literally. The six-part Australian paranormal drama, Glitch, which began showing on ABC TV in July, is not my normal TV fare.
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Set in the fictional country town of Yoorana (pronouned Urana with a posh accent), a country policeman is called to the cemetery in the middle of the night when six people rise from the dead in perfect health.
I did not expect to see out the first episode. Zombies R not Us. We let our eldest play Minecraft in Creative Mode only; we have a hostile-mob-free zone around her virtual home. (The same cannot be said for our actual home where angry uprisings occur over things like Meat-Free Monday.)
In July when the credits rolled after the first episode of Glitch I was surprised I was still watching it. To be fair, it was partly to do with the litany of Goulburn Valley references sprinkled throughout the script. From the makers of The Slap, this series was filmed in Castlemaine but the storyline continually refers to Shepparton, Echuca and Rushworth.
Having lived, worked and married in the Goulburn Valley, I could not turn off Glitch even if I wanted to; I did, however turn away a few times, very often!
Following the screening of the first episode, the ABC made the entire series available for viewers to binge online via iView. My husband and I agreed it was a silly story with few redeeming characters and even fewer laughs, before we watched the rest of the series that weekend. Like finding out the sex of your baby at the 20-week ultrasound (we didn’t, twice), we watched the whole series of Glitch in three sittings (we did, 48 hours).
Back at work on Monday, I felt bad I’d wasted a weekend on gothic rubbish even if Rochester Caravan Park was now on the map. On the whole, bingeing just feels bad. It also brings a whole set of problems when family and friends are watching a series at a different rate to you. Stilted conversations about House of Cards leave me wanting to thump Frank Underwood’s desk. It was easier when we were all in sync on SBS.
My sister-in-law recently texted me: “Not Ragnar … Nooo!” I knew she was partway through Vikings 3.
“Are you up to the last episode now? May the Gods be with you!” I replied.
“I’ve seen the last one,” she replied. I knew there was one to go but how could I alert her to the fact without giving away the plot.
“There’s one to go after the baptism episode,” I texted thoughtfully, hoping she wouldn’t read between my lines.
"Oh cool, I’m hoping Trojan Horse then … yay Ragnar!” she replied.
My husband and I tried to go back to ordinary viewing a couple of weeks ago when police drama Line of Duty returned to the ABC. We watched two episodes in the regular time slots before we were hooked; within the hour my husband had paid $15 to download the rest of the series.
The final episode of Glitch screens on the ABC on Thursday but it seems like an eternity since we watched the ending.
SPOILER ALERT: I fear ABC series downloads and Glitch are far from over!