The TV Set: Giving The Block & MKR The (Quick)Flix

The term 'All Stars' and the name 'Blockheads' have been seriously devalued in 2013 as the Nine Network launches The Block: All Stars, featuring "your favourite Blockheads". Amity Dry is certainly no 'All Star' - her first go on The Block led to her becoming a one-hit-album-wonder (Lighthouse, #6 in 2003) - and nor is she one of my favourite Blockheads (if I had to choose, I'd go with Chaz Jankel).

But Dry is just one part of the 'tent pole' shows the networks are boasting now that ratings season is upon us again. As Dry joins other past Blockies (a much more suitable term) for Nine's best-of-The Block, Ten's in full swing with 'The Professionals' edition of Masterchef while Seven's casually returned My Kitchen Rules without any extra gimmicks in the knowledge that it probably doesn't need any to clean up in the opening weeks of ratings.

So, like that copy of the Lighthouse that's languishing at the back of your nana's CD collection (Andre Rieu lives up the front these days, especially now that Guy Sebastian has 'gotten into the hip hop'), a TV viewer without a penchant for food and real estate competitions is left feeling unloved. Therefore, I'm now kinda thankful that I took up that free six-week trial for Quickflix that slipped into my letterbox late last year.

On a trip to the US a few years back, it became obvious that the Netflix DVD mailout service was just a normal part of time-shifted viewing there. Like they did with their myriad of cable channels before it, US TV viewers got a head start on us with DVD mailout - along with TiVo, streaming catch-up services and affordable downloads of popular shows. Australia is still coming to terms with a variety of TiVo-like DVR sevices (such as Foxtel's IQ) and our networks are lagging in the online catch-up trade (really only ABC's iView has its shit together). But Quickflix, the local take on Netflix, has quietly been moving forward in the disc-rental-by-mail market - as well as in on-demand streaming.

According to Wikipedia, Quickflix dispatched its 10 millionth DVD way back in April 2011 (Shrek Forever After - if anyone's curious). Seriously? Back in 2011 I thought only BigPond was dabbling in this industry here. But it would seem we also had HomeScreen for a while before Quickflix bought them out in 2005. BigPond also gave up on rental-by-post, selling their library to Quickflix in 2011.

Wiki-refrenced history lesson over, Quickflix seemed to launch an all-out marketing assault before Christmas. Suddenly everyone was saying things like: "Oh yeah, I gotta move that show up my Quickflix queue". Maybe they'd been saying it for a while but I wasn't listening because I still had a DVD/Blu-ray dealer that I could rely on to supply me with quality gear. But alas, those supplies dried up (Video Busters followed Video Ezy and Blockbuster out of this part of town), leaving the area with just a few prosaic DVD rental booths that cheapen the home-viewing selection experience. Using a rental booth not only sounds sleazy but is akin to rocking up to a cinema and finding it replaced by a row of seats with View-Masters offering a choice between Sleeping Beauty and Handy Manny.

Bowing to TV nerd peer pressure, I began to queue in Quickflix. The free six-weeks flew by in a haze of catching up on missed Futuramas and South Parks, watching Kristen Bell films that barely lasted a week in cinemas and trying to get up-to-date with Nurse Jackie and Justified. Crunch time came and I remained queueing, but now paying for the privilege.

It's not perfect but Quickflix will do for now. Having not yet sampled their pay-per-play streaming service, judgement has been passed on their postal offering alone. The service allows for there to be two discs dispatched to each subscriber at all times. [But there is a package that offers four streamed DVDs a month along with subscription to the postal service for just an extra two dollars than the post package.] Most of the latest release titles are available for post, problem is there are waiting lists. For example, you may have Holy Motors at the top of your ordering queue but it will be highlighted as a 'High Demand' item and most likely your next choices down the queue will keep arriving ahead of it. If you don't want to wait, it's pay-for-play for $5.99 - you get given a 48-hour period to view it in (no late-return fines, just blocked access and if you didn't get around to watching it, too bad).

However, relying on Australia Post for delivery takes some of the 'quick' out of the flix experience. Say your disc arrives Monday, you watch it straight away and post it back Tuesday. It might get back to Quickflix on Wednesday if you're lucky. If they dispatch your next disc immediately (which they seem to), it should arrive Thursday, Friday at worst. But usually there's a full week's gap between disc arrivals. And it seems as though post boxes aren't as common as they once were. To enjoy the ultimate Quickflix experience you require up-to-the-minute knowledge of key posting box locations that won't take you too far out of your daily travel routine. Luckily, there is an app for that.

[Side note: Have now discovered that all the Post Offices in my area have gone the way of DVD libraries... Should I be expecting an Australia Post booth at my local Safeway - one that loses parcels, takes bad passport photos and chastises you for sealing your Xmas card envelopes?]

Before this all comes off as some kinda Quickflix advertorial (it's not), it has to be noted that there is another annoyance that only became apparent a few weeks in. The Quickflix search function can turn up some previously-hard-to-find titles, you can happily queue said title only to discover later (maybe days or weeks, depending how vigilant you are of your queue) that it has actually quietly slipped into your 'Reserved Queue'. Worse still, browsing your 'Reserved Queue' you discover a note beside the title that reads: 'Unavailable'. Huh? So far, there doesn't seem to be an explanation as to why it shows up in a search in the first place. Initially the 'Reserved Queue' seemed home to 'coming soon' titles that appear in searches and are offered for queueing but now it's revealing a more sinister purpose.

The good news is, for all those who missed Amity Dry's breakthrough performance, all four discs of the 2003 season of The Block can be queued now - it isn't tagged 'High Demand'.