It’s Consumed week but I really felt like this one had to go out first.

Okay we all know I watched The Pitt so let’s just get that out of the way.

This month I finished Shetland, which can be a bit of a hokey show, but it is a very good mystery regardless.

What’s not a good show? Emergency NYC. A large part of it could be that the health system in America is shocking and this show was hard to follow. I needed a narrator – who is America’s Samuel Johnson? – I needed pieces to camera, and I needed a segment at the end which told me that everybody was okay. It had none of that.

Desperate for more World’s Greatest Hotels, I watched World’s Most Incredible Hotels. It was pretty boring.

The Holdovers has been praised for its original story, an accolade it deserves. I just felt like it needed to be a bit shorter. But to be fair to The Holdovers, this is the feedback I have for most movies.

I’m not sure why I watch shows centred around a sad but witty white man, but I keep watching Shrinking and this month started Rooster. Both shows were created by Bill Lawrence, the guy behind Scrubs and Ted Lasso, so you can really see the sad white guy thing. Charly Clive is 100% the standout in Rooster. She is hilarious and sharp as Steve Carell’s daughter whose husband, a fellow professor, went and cheated on her with a grad student.

What have you been consuming?

Whilst I worked after I’d finished work, because teachers work on the holidays, regardless of what people think about how many holidays we get, I was able to take 12 months because the leave was available and I work in a government school. I’m not my own boss and bowing out of the entire school year was my own way of ensuring that I gave myself space from work, because like many people, having a baby was the only way I would take that kind of time off from work.

Unsurprisingly, a lot has changed since I had a baby, and another seismic shift occurred when I went back to work. My media consumption has dropped considerably, and I genuinely feel like I couldn’t even tell people what I like anymore. Besides The Pitt, obviously.

Being a Media teacher means having a high general awareness as to what is happening in the world of media; what movies are about to be released, who recently said what, and which bands that I’ve never heard of are about to release an EP. Being on leave, returning to work, and then not being able to wrap your ahead around what day it is, really isn’t conducive to also just keeping an eye on general things happening around pop culture.

This isn’t a woe me but rather acknowledging a change to something that has been imperative to my work for the longest time; before I even considered it work. The feeling I am describing is not unique, it’s common for a huge change to throw everything up in the air, but also to make you wonder whether this is something you want to pursue. No better time to make change when change is happening etc. etc. I am not sure if that’s a saying but I’ve no doubt that there would be lots of sayings about this. It just feels really lame to type ‘quotes about change’ into Google.

This piece feels like it’s at an impasse. Should I talk about motherhood and media, or should I talk about media that keeps me up to date with media. Perhaps the latter. I don’t have it in me to talk about the former right now.

Dan Barret’s Always Be Watching is the ultimate TV newsletter. It’s an industry focused newsletter that has some of Dan’s thoughts on shows without these being the central focus. It is great at flagging what’s good, what’s going on and what’s coming up. I will forever be grateful to Dan for writing about The Pitt before anyone else was talking about it.

Just Watch is an app that I talk about a lot, but I don’t feel like enough people use it. Essentially you enter all the streaming services you have and you can search across them, save things to your watchlist etc. It has also has a ‘new section’, where you have a feed of what’s just been released on your streaming service.

Other newsletters related to media things that are happening that I always read are; One Thing, Highly Flammable, The Social Juice, Candice Wuehle and Mumbrella. I subscribe to lots of great newsletters but in terms of this specific genre these are the ones I will always open. Oh, I also really love Evan Shapiro’s War and Peace but I can struggle to contextualise what I’m reading, but he is the first ever Media Cartographer and his stuff is fascinating.

Anyway, not media related but I love that someone would see this mug and think ‘I did get another chicken!’.

Task is a cat and mouse story of two men, on opposite sides of the law, who have their families at the centre. Yet the undercurrent of the whole show seems to be their personal connections with nature. These interactions with their environment, punctuate many exchanges, particularly when they finally cross paths.

The river is constant. Robbie (played by Tom Pelphrey) constantly refers to how he and his (deceased) brother went swimming, regardless of the weather. They had a ritual of running water over the shoulders and chests so the cold wouldn’t stop their hearts. We see this through flashbacks. We see Robbie at the river with his children both in the past and present, with his wife, with friends after a job. He meets people at the river and other people meet at it too. Eventually, someone is killed at the river. The space where they went to cleanse is now dirty.

Sam, a kidnapped child, sees the river and wants to free a fish. A fish he caught whilst fishing, and that he doesn’t like the idea of eating. Sam leaves the car, not knowing that he is someone people are looking for. Sam develops a connection with one of the chickens at Robbie’s house, Gertie. Sam’s affection for Gertie helps keep him safe, even when he doesn’t know it. He is sheltered, both metaphorically and literally, in the chicken coop.

The fight scene which is the crescendo of the FBI, the motorbike gang and Robbie meeting takes place in the trees. It acts as a hinderance but also somewhere for them to hide and recoup between rounds.

Tom (Mark Ruffalo’s character) likes gardening and he likes birds. There are many cutaway shots of birds at the bird feeder, and some key conversations take place when Tom is in the garden. An episode called Vagrant, is named after a bird that gets lost from its flock and ends up outside the area where it would normally be. Tom shares this with Robbie when Robbie somewhat takes him hostage. Highlighting that Robbie is a good person who have found himself outside of his normal parameters, doing things he would not normally do (killing people, stealing). Robbie is too far gone by this point but lets Tom free in the forest. Walking via Robbie’s directions to find people, to then find his way home. Walking through the forest he is enamoured by the sun streaming through the leaves. They are golden. Tom is looking up and the sun beams down on his face. This is repeated when Robbie is in the car, being held by Tom as he dies. He too looks up and the sun beams down on his face through the car window.

It was the only way the whole ordeal could end.

Task is on HBO. It was created by Brad Inglesby, the create of Mare of Easttown, another great show.

I cried two nights in a row watching Stacey Dooley’s Rape on Trial but I didn’t want the available episodes of Series 6 of Stacey Sleeps Over to end (Lily Philips: X Rated Creator and The Surrogacy King.

After I finished The Lincoln Lawyer, I sat back and spoke about how I can’t wait for the next season.

I nodded and shook my head whilst reading The Period Brain by Sarah E. Hill. Feeling both validated and annoyed.

I concentrated when watching The Shining. I’ve seen it before (I used to teach it), but I didn’t want to be scared.

I’m impatient for each episode of Shetland, something is brewing on The Pitt, and I don’t think I want to watch Task, but then I’m watching it and I know that I do. Shrinking is still one of the most annoying shows of all time but I’m still watching.

Every night I eat watermelon as I watch TV. The season will be over soon.

What have you been consuming?

I have a hesitancy to not start anything because I worry, I’ll get too far into it and not be able to think of anything else. I’ve tried to watch K-Dramas in every spare second (even at work – don’t tell anyone), I’ve locked myself in rooms with books, not emerging until I’ve finished reading and I’ve been to midnight screenings of films. This isn’t about my fear of letting go and worrying that my passions will leak into all elements of my life, and I won’t be able to contain them, like one long-time psychologist thought.

Whilst it may not seem it, I’d say that I’m a patient person – though it’s always strange to accept what positive attributes someone says about themselves as fact. I don’t even think this comes from a place of impatience, but rather a skimming over the emotions. I read quickly, sometimes my eyes dart from paragraph to paragraph, sometimes I even fast forward conflicts or never rewatch seasons in which characters who are usually friends aren’t talking. I’ve lived through it once or can anticipate how it will make me feel and I’d rather not sit in that. Non-fiction media provides enough situations in which I can feel like that. As does life.

Although if I start a mystery novel, I’ll want to know who did it and why. If I begin a romance, I’ll need to keep reading to ensure they get together. If I was being drip fed the media – episode by episode, instalment by instalment – I’d have to wait. But that’s not often the case anymore anyway.

I was ready to hit play on the final episode of The Lincoln Lawyer after watching episode 9, the second last episode. My boyfriend said that he didn’t want to watch anymore, and we should save it for tomorrow, so we don’t race through it, he said. I told him he was cock blocking me. We laughed, but I was serious.

This year I am undertaking a ‘no buy’ in which I buy no clothes, bags, shoes, or accessories for the year. It’s something I’ve done before (quite a while ago) and whilst there is the financial motivation, I am trying to shift the time and energy I spend thinking about/looking for things to buy.

In Navaz Baltiwalla’s The New Garconne there is an interview with fashion designer Bella Freud, in which she talks about consumption. Whilst she admits she enjoys consuming she talks about this tension ‘There’s a weird sort of test that happens when I do go shopping. I think, ‘Am I really going to buy this?’. I think about this often, and especially now I think to myself ‘is this what I am going to break this promise to myself for?’

When restrictions are put in place it’s easy to find a convenient substitute, similar to the person who is not drinking alcohol that suddenly develops the taste for sundaes from McDonald’s. I have noticed myself buying lots of makeup. Which is funny (but not really) because I thought stationery might be the issue. I guess there’s still time. Returning to work after taking a year of parental leave has meant that the desire to buy myself something to mark the occasion or as a ‘reward’ is incredibly strong. But to be honest, gift-giving is my love language which just seems like a great way to support my consumerist habits.

There is also new identity formation at play, and a large part of that is how we present ourselves, so there is the desire to buy things which more accurately represent this new version of myself. But I don’t even know who that is yet.

The world doesn’t want you to stop buying things; I have to unsubscribe from emails and sms lists, ignore whatever trends I see anywhere and remind myself I’m old enough to have seen them before, and didn’t even get into them the first time round, regardless if I bought into them or not.

I’m sure there are some people reading this who feel like they could do a ‘no buy’ really easily, and I am happy for them. I am not one of those people and I keep finding myself looking at things and thinking to myself, ‘Am I really going to buy this?’

Some other pieces you might like:

Beauty’s State of Play

Capitalise Every Moment

We’re Sorry To See You Go!

I’ve come to accept, that like majority of the tennis watching population, we are seasonal tennis watchers in this house. Perhaps that means we are fake fans I’m not sure, but there is zero drive to pay attention to the tennis besides in January. Having said that, I watched a lot of tennis in January. But sometimes I watched tennis and did my crossword.

Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood is a book where big things happen, but I had to reread it and clarify what actually did just happen. It’s categorised as a Southern Gothic and it’s sparse and its subtle. But it’s sharp. The story centres around a returning WWII veteran and his preaching of his new faith, the church of Jesus Christ without Jesus Christ. I’d never read any of O’Connor’s books before, but I’ll be reading more now.

Queer Eye is back for its final season. But what a mess. Firstly, the season is much shorter than usual and whilst the first episode is great, it seems to get weaker from there. Then there is the disharmony within the group which I really can’t get a good read on but let’s just say Bobby, former cast mate, is commenting without commenting. For example, he posted an Instagram picture with the caption ‘how is everyone’s week going?’ soundtracked by the song Kink is my Karma by Chappell Roan knowing full well how people’s weeks are going! I’m stressed just thinking about it. Anyway, I will probably finish the episodes at some point.

The Pitt is also back. This time, the shift (for those who don’t know, each episode of the show is an hour of their shift), is on the Fourth of July, Independence Day so they are prepped to be busy. It is also Dr Robby’s last shift before he goes on his sabbatical, but naturally nothing goes to plan, and he says, ‘I should’ve left last night’. It’s so good.

Hamnet actually made me bawl my eyes out. I really liked it but there were a lot of parts I found frustrating, like Shakespeare. He was absent for a lot of it and it just felt a bit too little boy lost when his family was going through it, although my friend pointed out he was trying to break his own generational trauma. Literally in one scene his wife is trying to sleep with their baby, and he is crying and drinking whilst trying to write in the corner. But when I put that aside, I remember all the beautiful and heartbreaking scenes and remember it’s actually very good.

Okay, The Lincoln Lawyer is back which feels exciting. Inspired by Wise Blood, I’m currently reading To Kill A Mockingbird and I am trying to find some new but good music to listen to, so if you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

What have you been consuming?

In many media texts, sitting at a desk is not a site of work but a reminder that in between the storylines work supposedly happens. Unless you’re watching Severance and whilst they are constantly at their desks, not even they understand what type of work they’re doing. The Office also has the desks at the centre, but they act as a springboard for whatever storylines occupies the characters. The desk in media may create distance between one character or another, it may show the power. In the New Girl episode, Fancy Man Part 1, dishevelled Nick sits at ‘fancy man’ Russell’s desk, akin to putting on someone’s clothes in their wardrobe, he is imagining the life of a person who has a desk like that. Nick starts saying things the desk makes him want and feel.

Part of imagining a corporate working life, is imagining the corner office. A status symbol, that other people can enter and witness you at work. Though many people who espouse the portfolio career claim that the real freedom comes from not having a desk at all, just a simple laptop that starts at $2,499. A free-to-air community television station, Channel 31, used to have a program called Fish Cam, a live broadcast of a fish tank. It was mesmerising. Sometimes I picture Fish Cam but with a live stream of an office.

Next week I’m starting work after taking a year of parental leave. The desk that was mine, isn’t anymore. I’ve been at the school for almost 10 years and have had many desks in that time. But this time that desk I left still feels like mine even though I’ll be sitting at the one next to it instead. I have started collecting things to take to work and to put at my desk. It feels like an opportunity to start again, what should my desk say about me now? A previous colleague had nothing at their desk except for their laptop, keyboard, and mouse. I’ve always carried too many things with me, and I still prefer the analogue so that doesn’t feel right, but neither does taking back everything I had before. During the pandemic, each night one of my sisters would ‘pack up’ her desk into a small tub. I feel like I move in to work and back out again every time I step on to the premises. I even bought a coat rack for the office.

I’ve written numerous times about my capitalistic, consumerist tendencies. The desire to have lots of things to do anything. I have chosen to do a ‘no buy’ this year. No clothes, shoes, bags, or accessories. It feels weird to not be marking the occasion of returning to work, the new year, or the new school year without anything new. The logical part of me knows that buying something would not make the transition easier or answer the question of what work will be like, or what I will be like at work. But just like I start having my tarot cards read I would just like to be told. And I, like many other people, am under the illusion that buying something and believing it to be the best thing, or ideal version of whatever it is, is a way to provide clarity and direction. It’s the strangest thing.

My computer desktop is bare; it has one folder entitled ‘working on’ where I stuff everything. But even this is cleaned our regularly. I don’t think it is a symbol of anything except for the sign of an active external hard drive. The new update (on the Mac) allows you to turn your icons clear (just like the iPhone) so it is even sparser. It means nothing, but for some reason, I feel like it means something. Probably just the desire for a clean slate.

The cyclical nature of this content is buy/organise/purge – the order is not fixed and there is consumption at every stage of the process- containers, label makers, new seasonal décor and then a buying of things to replace everything you purged, or duplicates of what you have already, because stockpiling is considered normal, which often means you need a large enough space, or more storage to have the stockpile.

I never seem to be able to get to the end of these videos. They’re not channels I’m familiar with, but rather trying to become so. As a result, I watch five to 10 minutes, maybe more, always with some fast forwarding to ascertain whether this is a channel I am willing to give my time. You see, I recently unsubscribed from a lot of channels and am now looking for more – the buy/organise/purge cycle exists in all contexts.

Towards the end of last year, I took up running. I ran so infrequently that I actually forgot I took up running. I also ran so slowly it would’ve been quicker to walk but I respect that that’s a part of the process. I have developed a real aversion to booked in exercise classes and to gyms. This isn’t how I used to be, but I had booked in for a series of weights classes on a Tuesday night and every Tuesday would come and I’d think to myself, ‘I don’t want to do this’, so after three sessions I cancelled them all.

Prior to this, I went to a floristry class on a Tuesday night. In Year 10 (so at 15, 16 years old) we had to choose three prospective careers and map out the requirements. I had no idea what to do or what I was interested in and chose optometrist (I wear glasses), florist and teacher. Funny really, because when I think back of what I wanted to be when I grew up (!) it was fashion designer, editor of Vogue and/or a scientist. Anyway, I thought I would enjoy being a florist so one of my goals last year was to learn some floristry. I did not enjoy it in the way that I thought I would. I didn’t mind the flower bit, but the learning and being told what to do bit was not for me. You might think this is because I am not a good student, but I actually love being a student and would still be at university if I didn’t have to go make money.

And suddenly, this image I had of myself and my different life as a florist kind of just crumbled. Kind of like when you love a show and then one day you don’t want to watch it anymore. And once I realised this, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

There was a time in my life when I could have told you the name of every magazine editor in Australia. I knew who was writing for who, and I recognised the names as they went from magazine to magazine, who took the leap to digital and those who had decided to work freelance. I could list the names of models and who had been in which editorials. I knew designers and fashion houses and trends and what shops where stocking what, and which designs had influenced the high street and which designers had which style and which house they were at.

I knew the all the bloggers and where they worked whilst they were blogging and remember when they all decided to vlog full-time. I have memories of when they all started their own brands and watched as some of those brands folded, and they just went back to blogging or influencing or whatever but this time we call it content creation. Even though I know how this industry makes money, I still wonder how anyone can afford to live and dress like that whilst renovating their kitchen.

I couldn’t be a content creator. I tried to have a public Instagram account and share stuff. I even stood in front of bare walls and took photos on a timer and didn’t look at the camera, as if I wasn’t the one that was taking them. It was an exhausting time. I have a lot of respect for people who share so many elements of their life all the time. I get embarrassed posting a photo of myself to my Instagram stories. If I were to make a YouTube channel about anything it would be stationery.

When I was writing about stationery for this very newsletter, I wrote a long and loving piece about my Cloth and Paper planner. But a sobering conversation with my boyfriend made me realise it was a giant brick that was bigger and heavier than it was worth. I had all these amazing ideas about how to use this and manage my life, my work, and this newsletter. It didn’t work out like I imagined. Even before I went on maternity leave, the system was too complicated, and I couldn’t really think straight. I adore looking at pictures of people’s workspaces on Pinterest. I love the Desk Tours on Olivia Muenter’s Substack. To me, it’s way better than a peek inside a beauty cabinet. I recently mentioned sharing the process of how this newsletter comes together which is quite funny because there isn’t really one.

There’s a lot of thinking and some ideas are ideas that must be mused on for a long time, some feel like they could be worth writing about, but I don’t always know how until is clicks, and some just come together. The trickiest thing about writing this newsletter is participating in the world enough to have things to write about, so hopefully this year that will be easier, as I go back to work and kind of start living in the world again. Oh also, I made a mood board like all those YouTube videos told me to, so 2026 here we go.

In the Orthodox religion, there is the belief, that after someone dies, their soul hangs around on Earth for forty or so days before being sent to heaven. This event is spurred on by the priest at a chosen church sending the soul that way. The deal is formalised with the creation of and serving of koliva, a dish of wheat and sultanas and icing sugar. It is one of the many things about Orthodox religion I never fully considered until trying to explain it to someone.

A couple of months ago, my grandma died. So, I have had to reengage with practices I forgot existed in a church I no longer wanted to go inside. I’ve always been fascinated by religion in the same way that I’m scared of it, and if I’m honest, I can’t really wrap my head around it.

Sometimes, when I have the energy, I consider myself agnostic. Like many people, I am too baffled by the mysteries of the universe and our emotions to consider there is nothing more to us than flesh and blood, but then I remember how religion controls and how horoscopes attempt to make us see ourselves in narrow ways, and how all of this can be manipulated to make us behave in a certain way and for capitalism and I don’t like to think about it anymore.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, focuses on two priests and a group of parishioners who attend the church for reasons other than Jesus being a priority in their lives. Josh O’Connor’s Father Jud is a young priest (and former boxer) who is sent to a small town to deal with the untameable Monsignor Wicks, an egomaniac who manipulates those around him. Father Jud believes religion should sustain people, whereas Monsignor Wicks is more fire and brimstone about his religion.

The film touches on many themes which feel relevant today. Parallels have been drawn between Monsignor Wicks and Donald Trump; two men in positions of authority who have a different set of rules for themselves and everyone else. They are shameless and embrace the curated, binary arena of social media to raise themselves up whilst pushing down others and well, they also both rant a lot. A central storyline is the vilification of Monsignor Wicks’ mother, a misunderstood woman, who was baited and branded a whore throughout her life for no reason other a couple of men decided it should be this way. These themes trickle down to the small and somewhat desperate followers of the church, the only ones who continue to attend the services despite the dwindling congregation. Feelings of loss, of community and isolation, anger and betrayal all sit within the characters we follow.

There hasn’t been a census in Australia since 2021 so whilst it stated that more and more people are choosing ‘no religion’ it’s hard to clarify where things stand. There are many conversations around what we lose when we lose public spaces, many arguments to focus on these hubs in the community, but the agenda feels like one for the church, not one for the people, and because of this, the spaces aren’t really for the public. Wake Up Dead Man’s ending shows a community of people trying to heal and whilst its assumed the church plays a role, you can also see that they’ve got to start again when it comes to the role religion has in their lives.

The following media are pieces I would feverishly implore others to check out again and again, which is why they’re my favourites.

This year was the year The Pitt came into my life so it’s hard to talk about anything else. Granted, it is a show with a lot of hype around it, but it’s totally justified. Perhaps it’s the nostalgia of the week-by-week episode release TV, the fact these people made E.R and know how to make good TV, maybe the secret is in the 24style each episode is an hour in their shift, perhaps the world was like ‘we need a new medical show!’, I’m sure it’s all these things. Plus, the writing, the characters, the storylines. I spoke about it in a previous Consumed so I won’t write (anymore) about it again, but Season 2 is out in January so now is the perfect time to rewatch it.

Sinners is a movie-movie and fuck it was good. When people go to see this film and tell me they didn’t like it I wonder if they actually watched it you know? It was nothing like I expected, mainly because I didn’t know what I was going to see, except for a film with Michael B. Jordan directed by Ryan Coogler. Which is lucky because if I’d known it was a supernatural horror, I probably wouldn’t have seen it. Actually, once the trailers started playing and I became aware of what kind of movie I was seeing, I felt a bit panicked. Anyway, it’s a vampire movie that’s really about racism, trauma and othering and it’s incredible.

I love an album. Putting a piece of work on that’s been selected to be heard in a certain order? Magical. Rubyby Jennie was my favourite of this year.

There’s no book that really stuck with me this year, but I took great comfort in multiple detective series’ and for them I am grateful.

What is your favourite media from 2025?

These systems of ideals help by a society may move between categories as people’s values change and evolve. Sometimes however, it still feels as if ideas which we feel should be dominant are emerging or, in some dire situations opposing.

For example, having a baby when not being married may have once been scandalous and only the minority of people thought this was okay, which made it in an opposing ideology, as people’s religious beliefs, thoughts on marriage and acceptance of different relationships changed, the idea of having a baby and not being married became and emerging ideology because it gained traction. I’m not sure if we can say this is a dominant ideology yet, but I’m sure we’ll get there.

As discussed previously the media are hugely influenced by these ideologies. So, the protagonist may represent a dominant ideology, a villain may represent an opposing ideology and the underdog or best friend may represent the emerging ideologies of the time.

There are many ideological systems, and these are the broadest categories for them. But, if you start to understand, or even simply pay attention to the political, economic and social context in which these were created, you can start to see what is being represented, supported and positioned negatively.

Dominant, emerging and opposing ideologies shift and evolve as society does. Ditto, yours may change as you age and learn new information.

When watching Netflix’s Hallmark style Christmas movies, one must suspend their disbelief, which I’m totally happy to do, but one thing I couldn’t believe was that Sydney in Champagne Problems, could have taken that many coats to Paris in a carry-on suitcase! But she looked great, so let’s believe this Christmas magic. Champagne Problems is exactly what we need it to be, and now I want to watch everything Minka Kelly acts in.

Our Little Secret is the same vibe as Champagne Problems but its worse. I still watched it though. Kudos to Lindsay Lohan for finding a new gear in her career. In this film, Lindsay Lohan is dating a guy whose sister is dating Lindsay’s ex – aka the one that got away. The thing with this movie is you don’t believe any of it, or that anyone cares about each other, but they all get to where you think they’re going in the end.

Grace is a British detective show set in Brighton, if you’re into that kind of thing, it’s worth watching. The mysteries take centre stage but there is some personal stuff going on between the characters. Each episode is 90 minutes.

I’m back into Donna Leon’s Commissario Brunetti novels. Unsurprisingly, for me, they’re detective novels and the two I’ve read recently, Trace Elements and Earthly Remains both have something to do with soil which is weird. Set in Venice, the city provides a rich backdrop for the storylines and will often inject political elements. Something I find in the Inspector Montalbano series also.

I loved The Roses, it’s super dark and funny. I wrote about it here.

To say I watched Uncut Gems is a bit of an exaggeration because I watched bits of it. It’s chaotic and stressful and confusing which I get is the point, but you have to be in a certain mood to watch it, but I wasn’t in that mood. I can see why the film bros love it.

What have you been consuming?

In The Roses (2025) Theo and Ivy continually spar, arouse, offend and sooth one another with reference to, or using material possessions. This preoccupation with visible wealth is something that links them throughout the entire film and is eventually what leads to the repair of their relationship, as well as their ultimate downfall. Throughout the film, material gestures, such as buying a person a restaurant or hiring your out of work husband to design your/his dream home may seem as if they are in support of the other person, but the strings attached, as well as the expectation as to the other’s involvement in the project shows that there is another cost alongside these things which have an exorbitant price tag attached.

The Park family of Parasite (2019) are considered a chaebol family. This means that they have extraordinary inherited wealth and are protected because of it. Their wealth also means that they are naïve about social issues and choose to deal with everything at a surface level. So much so, that they literally have someone living in their basement and have no idea. They see their money to solve everything and very much believe the more expensive, the better – leaning into the idea that poor = dirty or unworthy whilst rich is the opposite. As a couple, Dong-ik and Yeon-kyo have little to do with each other, the expectation is that he brings in the money and she keeps everything looking rich.

Beyonce’s 2006 song, Upgrade U (feat. Beyonce’s husband) lists a whole host of exclusive, designer items that a woman can bring into a man’s life to upgrade him. These items mean that he will close more deals etc. (when you’re in them big meetings for the mills) Through Beyonce’s husbands’ lines hear that he is just as aware of how they can make one another look, and that other people are looking (it’s humorous to me, they watchin’ and we just yachtin’), like the The Roses, and The Parks, the third party of others (whether they know them or not) is a key part in how they relate to one another.

It may seem like I am simply laying into traditional media businesses, but it is important to distinguish that talking about traditional and new media is not talking about good media or bad, the terms traditional and old are not stand ins for these phrases. Traditional media, or broadcast media simply refers to business models which, at the centre, blast out content on more traditional media platforms with less opportunities for audience engagement. New media has plenty of flaws, it creates personalities out of everyone and pretends that we all live nomadic lives with portfolio careers, yet most people will simply consume more and more content with less and less understanding.

But having said that, traditional media could learn a lot from the communities created on new media platforms and recognise where audiences are heading.

Reality is people are consuming content. Lots of it. And if you look at the core business of traditional media, to produce things for people to watch, to see, to hear, to read, it’s the same as the core business of new media. The main difference is how ads are involved, or how revenue is made. But the fact people want to make money is still the same right?

Traditional media businesses are like a person who is looking at changing careers ‘later’ in life. They are trying to retain as much of the pay and skill set as possible with as little disruption to their career and lifestyle as possible.

It’s also really tricky when the people making decisions are still holding on to long held perspectives and fantasies around what they think working in media is like. And let’s be honest, many of these decision makers may only have ten or fifteen years left in their career, so they just must get a business through this period, if that.

Reality is, a serious blow up needs to happen in order for these traditional businesses to maintain and even grow their relevancy. It’s like traditional media is walking around with a USB, sure it still works, but everything is on the cloud, and we can all see they’re about to become discontinued.

Launching new digital stations, cutting back a new news show you’ve literally just started, resuscitating shows from the dead that have the same talent rotating around on them, or thinking that getting on TikTok will make a difference, is just not how this will work. All it does is highlight the lack of understanding about this new media landscape and give you a couple more circles around that drain.

Both new and traditional media need to check their similarities, acknowledge their differences, and assess the landscape as it stands to make educated decisions about what the Australian media landscape is going to look like moving forward.

It’s always interesting writing this Substack to you all because I never know how interested people are in the behind-the-scenes minutia, if at all. But essentially there’s a bit going on. I mean, if I didn’t tell you that I swapped next weeks and this week’s piece, how would you know? Also, the idea that I have some kind of content calendar is laughable; CONSUMED is the only piece with any routine. Perhaps one day, if anyone is interested, I’ll talk about the creation of this newsletter and the haphazard fashion to which I’ve kept it going alongside, my fulltime job for the past five years. But it’s not like I have millions of subscribers or have quit my job to have a portfolio career, so perhaps it’s not even worth sharing.

Anyway, one of my favourite things to talk to people about is their recommendations. I want to know the book they’d tell me to read, if they could only suggest one, and the TV shows they go back to time and time again, or the artist that is their constant, so with that in mind, here is my list of recommendations that are always floating around in my head. Obviously, everything isn’t for everyone, and I pride myself on being able to tailor my advice, but these are the things I am obsessed about and would love to get out to as many people as possible.

My younger sister text me asking ‘what is that period book you’re always talking about?’ and its Period Powerby Maisie Hill and anyone who has a period should read it. It, and I don’t mean this lightly, changed my life.

The Murderess by Alexandros Papadiamantis is one of the most concise, enchanting, and harrowing books I’ve ever come across. First published in Greece in 1903, it was released bit by bit in a magazine. It’s incredible.

We all know I love The Tokyo Express by Seicho Matsumoto but that’s because it’s amazing.

If you love romcoms, there are a lot out there to choose from. Last Night by Mhairi McFarlane was the one who got me into the genre and she is still a stand out for her fully fleshed, out protagonists who are over 25, and sharp dialogue.

Wim Wender’s 2023 film Perfect Days is so melancholy and beautiful and allows you to just sit with it. Not enough people have seen it! I cried a lot.

In The Mood For Love by Wong Kar-wai is visually perfect.

Robert DeNiro and Michelle Pfeiffer led mob film, The Family, is everything you want out of the genre with more humour.

This Way Up is funny and encapsulates the daily wobbles like no other show.

The Pitt is popular for very good reason. One of the best shows I’ve seen in recent time. A great balance of within-episode story lines, and arcs for the characters across their shift which spans the season.

I’m just going to say it, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is the best Arctic Monkeys album.

What are your ultimate recommendations?

Film Club (Binge) is the kind of show, and I mean this has the highest compliment, that every media girl would love as her first writing credit. The story follows Evie, who hasn’t left the house in 6 months, after having a break down. Each Friday, she participates in a dwindling film club which is the highlight of her week. The show has similar themes to Such Brave Girls in that it deals with mental health and features a single mum and two sisters, but it’s nowhere near as dark and it’s a different kind of funny. I really enjoyed it. Aimee Lou Wood and Nahbhaan Rizwan are great, like you felt like you were watching the two of them hanging out. Suranne Jones is amazing as mum Suz. There are six 30-minute episodes.

I put on World’s Greatest Hotels (Binge) as something to watch with dinner as a one off, and then I became so invested. The last couple of episodes of season 1 were average as you could tell they didn’t have access to the featured hotel or staff but those first few were really interesting. Desperate for season 2 to also be released because I know it’s out there, I just kind find anywhere to watch it yet.

Each season of Only Murders In The Building surprises me with its twists and story arcs. Season 5 did not disappoint and neither did Selena Gomez’s nails. I feel like by now, people know if they like this show or not so it’s not so much a recommendation as it is a confirmation if that makes sense? Oh, and the five brothers were totally my favourite this season.

The Nancys is a reread that really hit the spot. This debut novel from R.W.R McDonald feature Tippy and her two uncles who, inspired by Nancy Drew, investigate a murder in their hometown in New Zealand. If you love this genre, it’s absolutely worth a read. It also deals with themes of found family, grief and ideas of home. So far there are two books in the series, but I have since learnt a third is out at the beginning of next year.

This next month has me watching Blue Lights and Grand Designs Australia. I’m keen to watch The Lowdown and Frankenstein when its released on Netflix. I need to get back to the movie theatre, maybe that’s another goal for this month.

What do you recommend from the month?

Just this week I received two emails from brands, one with the subject line ‘a quiet reminder’ and the other with the subject line ‘a gentle reminder’, prompting me to revisit carts. This is a new tact from brands, I’m used to seeing ‘Natasha, you forgot something!’ or ‘Natasha, quick! Before it sells out!’ appealing to frenzy that occurs so that I don’t miss out on some coveted thing.

For some of you this process may seem completely foreign, and well, silly. For others, I’ve no doubt that you too engage in some parts, or even all this process. Perhaps you enjoy it, or like me, are sick of it and wish to disentangle yourself from each step. I am fully aware of how this came to be, I’ve done enough reflecting to understand the role that consumption has played in my life. Each even is punctuated with a purchase- a celebration, a commiseration, a concert all marked by a treat. Then there is the lure of something new, justified by the fact that anything and everything may be happening, a party, the beginning of term, a dinner, all an excuse for a hairclip or mascara, or even a new pair of shoes.

I can recount many situations in which I have not intended to buy anything and walked out with everything or got home from shopping and had to plan when I will get back to return what I bought.

Some of these habits have loosened their grip over time, getting older has taught me that you can wear the same things around the same people and nothing terrible will happen. I don’t care about dress codes anywhere near as much and have made peace with the idea that I’m not a ballet flats kind of person. New for a night has also lost its shine.

Over the years I have created a range of rules to temper my relationship with shopping. These have included:

· I will not buy things online without having seen them in person first

· I will not buy things online unless I can buy them in person

· I will not buy things for an event or specific occasion

· I will not buy things the same day I’ve seen them

· I will not buy things on sale that I wouldn’t pay full price for

· I will not buy things I wouldn’t pay off when it comes to the cost per wear

· I will only buy one thing a month

I mean I could go on and on, but all these things did was create a framework which I was constantly trying to navigate, and to be honest, manipulate. I did a no-buy year once and plan on doing it again next year. Much like ‘the diet starts tomorrow mentality’ there is a tendency to stockpile items that you anticipate you may need, even though the whole idea is to manage with what you have – which for most people is more than enough.

Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy on Netflix, looks at the current context created by brands that encourages people to purchase. Unsurprisingly, the documentary shared many frightening facts about our consumption habits. One being that Americans buy four time more clothes than they did in 2000. The flip side to this is the increased production and more frequent drops, as well as the marketing of said drops. A report from 2023 stated that on average, a person in Australia buys 56 pieces of clothes a which is a little more than one piece a week, if we were to break that down. You don’t need me to point it out, but I will, that’s insane.

Walking through a shopping centre, I am struck by how many stores just sell bits of crap, licensed, character themed bits of crap. Limited edition, special collaboration bits of crap. This can take the form of keyrings, drink bottles, tchotchkes in blind boxes, seasonal serving platters and body sprays. All produced and marketed in a way that suggests having more than one is reasonable, in fact it’s encouraged. There are also accessories for your accessories, such as this straw pouch which you can put on your overpriced drink bottle. Customisation appears to still be massive increasing the desirability and its perfect-for-me attitudes.

We are aware that marketing prays on our insecurities and that the internet has provided lots of new, convenient ways for us to covet and bring these things into our lives. It has also given us a whole host of new people to compare ourselves to, new ways of selling us products, and new ways to ensure that people see what we have.

I’ve read Sherry Ning’s piece You’re overspending because you lack values a few times. It suggests that overconsumption is a spiritual problem. It’s a confronting read, especially when so much of your identity, is tied up in the consumption of things that make us seem or feel a certain way. Ning writes ‘Stronger values make you spend more mindfully because they shift the axis of desire.’ I’ve done many a values tests to ascertain what mine are yet typing this I can’t remember any except for maybe work and money. Like I said earlier, it’s no mystery to me how I’ve become to be this way.

I won’t end this on some altruistic note suggesting that I am determined to change my ways, even though I am. This change is going to require a lot of work that goes down to the very core of how I spend my time and see myself. No doubt, this is a work in progress that begins with unsubscribing from marketing emails and finding places to occupy me that aren’t shopping centres.

There have been many times where I’m convinced, I need a spoon rest for the kitchen. There are also times that I’m convinced that this is the epitome of consumerist stupidity that I would need to buy something to leave a spoon on when cooking. But if you are pro spoon rest, I probably could be convinced.

Tomorrow, a book I have been waiting five years for, will be released. To prepare for Philip Pullman’s third book in the Book of Dust trilogy, I was going to reread the first two. That hasn’t happened. I feel as if I am on the edge of a precipice; will I wait till I have reread them before beginning the third, or will I simply read it so I can find out the ending to a story that has haunted me for decades. I can be impatient and don’t want to ruin it for myself, so will have to ensure I don’t flip through to the end to simply see what happens. Yet I can imagine that the not knowing will act as some uncomfortable itch I’ll want to scratch to settle in. Gone are the days where I can lock myself with in the bathroom with a beanbag to avoid distractions, and spoilers on MSN.

Interestingly, the books above might be being spoken about on Book Tok? I have no way of proving this except for the fact the first two were in Big W. I feel like Big W’s book purchasing is mainly influenced by Book Tok.

Australian Media is having a moment that really feels like nothing even though it could be quite notable? I don’t mean to be ominous but the media industry might be suffocating itself and pretending it isn’t. I will come back to this, I don’t feel up to date enough to talk about this fully just yet.

Did you know that when you send yourself an email on Outlook, it comes up as a ‘note to self’? Often people are shocked that my email is still @hotmail, but I have my initial and surname with no numbers, in what world will I ever get that again?

This process allows us to project a life and emotions onto the animal or object that reflects our own desires, needs or wants.

Whilst, we this word encapsulates the relationship we have with inanimate objects, I’m not sure of what term would be most applicable when seeking to describe the ways in which automated emails speak to customers so that they will reengage with a brand, or stop themselves for disengaging with a brand.

We have discussed eDM (electronic direct marketing) before. A defining feature of this practice is the voice employed by the company. Whilst there may be a marketing professional behind the copy, the personal element is broken once the email is sent out to its many recipients. Through this process, we become a mailing list. A large mass which stats can be milked from in order to position the brand and sell more.

A little while ago, I received the following email from Status Anxiety, a brand whose mailing list I ended up on to no doubt receive the 10% off discount upon making my first purchase. The marketing was around Father’s Day, and the brand was suggesting I buy myself something whilst buying something for ‘him’ - a promo code was included in the email, secrecy ensured, because as if a woman can buy something for herself without needing to hide it from a man in her life. Case in point, these stupid door mats.

I very rarely interact with this brand, so the email acted as a reminder to unsubscribe from this mailing list, prompting this very common response.

The term parasocial relationship seems parallel (is that a pun?) to what we are speaking about, as there is an imagined relationship there, but I’m unsure as to whether a customer would receive this and genuinely think the brand is sorry to see them go.

NZ Brand, Checks Downtown’s emails are signed by founder, Jordan. I’m not sure how big the label is but I also think I spoke to Jordan via the brand’s chat. I say think because how do you really know with these things. The emails are personalised to the receiver as well which is a whole other level of confusion as to the personal level of these messages. Many smaller businesses have brand founder emails, unfortunately for them the automatic emails of other businesses can take away from the community feel as we are so sceptical.

There are two mailing lists I am on because I love the emails I receive from the brands. One is Mim’s DVD Emporium, a great second hand DVD store located in QLD. Please note the font of the brand and emoji choices.

Lastly, Melbourne Office Supplies, the vendor of my whiteboard marker refills, have the zaniest and highly produced eDMs I have ever seen for the most banal products to exist. And I just really appreciate it.

Brands will increase their ability to speak directly to us, as well as when, in order to further strengthen the connection we have with them and to maximise our vulnerability when it comes to decisions surrounding purchases. We just need to see it for what it is.

Which brand sends your favourite emails?