I’ll be upfront about this. I’m going to have a rant and then make up for it with something nice. I’ll explain the nice and then I’ll have my rant.

Ya ever think about Kylie Minogue? And how fucking deadly she generally is? Well the big con to Kylie Minogue is that she’s put out a million songs with a million live albums and at least on Christmas album, so the bangers are mixed out among a lot of shite. Well here you go, the ultimate Kylie Minogue greatest hits as curated by me.

Ok, so now for ranting. And it’s not a musical rant. It’s a TV and film rant. Have you been to the cinema lately? Watch the trailers and count the “original ideas”. What I mean by an original idea is one that is not based on a pre-existing fan-base. So films that are not based on books, comics or fairy tales or are sequels/ prequels/ reboots/ English language or live action remakes of previously released films. In my last few cinema trips I’ve seen one new idea in eleven trailers. There is a glut of huge budget films with low risk ideas, never letting a possible franchise die. The movie making machine is churning out more and more content with out really taking any more ideas in.

Even when a new idea appears, it is bled of any marketable value to the point until nothing remains. To be honest it’s hard to come up with an example of a film that has come out of nowhere and been massively successful in a long time. So I’ll take an example that came from literature before moving to film, Harry Potter. That was an original idea once. Almost 20 years later it is done. There is nothing more that can be explored, imagined or discussed about it. And that is just how things are done now. Everything that’s half way decent gets a sequel or another season. Everything successful that’s not in English gets remade. By the time a studio has made their sequels and trilogies, nobody cares about the ending. Think of Lost. Everyone loved the beginning but how many people lasted to the end? And again, how many people look back on it fondly? Probably not even the cast.

I know that new ideas are out there. Ideas of complete story arcs. Narratives that begin and end without thinking about merchandise or season finales. I know lots of people who have studied film and are making films. More people are creating unique things all the time. I just wish we could see more of them really be successful. Stories need to end and new stories need to be told.

Now here’s Kylie Minogue to make it all better