Underplayed Gems

The Briefcase (2016)

The Briefcase poster
Genre
reality television
Country
Australia
Length
1 season, 6 episodes
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

Two financially struggling Australian families are each given $100,000 in cash. They must decide whether to keep the money or give some or all of it to the other family, unaware that the other family faces the same choice.

emotionaltensemanipulativesuspensefulrawearnestuncomfortable

What happens

The Briefcase is an Australian reality television program, based on the American program of the same name, which airs on the Nine Network. Each episode sees two Australian families, struggling financially, each given $100,000 in cash that they must decide either to keep for themselves or to give all or in part to help out the other family, unaware that their counterparts are also faced with the same dilemma. The six episode program debuted on 20 June 2016. It received a generally negative reception from audiences and critics both before and after its premiere broadcast, with one commentator calling it "exploitative poverty porn at its worst". After two episodes, the program was moved from its 7:30pm timeslot to after 9:30pm following low ratings which also resulted in a poor lead-in for Nine's marquee drama Love Child which followed immediately after. The last episode was burnt off as counter-programming against the 2016 Summer Olympics. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.