Only mild spoilers ----
I was looking forward to Underbelly for many weeks. The advertising campaign was fantastic and the banning in Victoria definitely helped this. With all respect to the parties involved in the current litigation, I am only commenting on the artistry of this project more than anything related to the events it represents.
Underbelly is correctly based on a true story about the gangland battlegrounds of Melbourne Victoria. This is quite a powerful story and quite possibly something that will be marked for the crime library of Australian history.
This is only a comment on the pilot episode, so I'm unsure of how the rest of the series is going to be. I understand that it is wrong in some cases to even begin to comment on an entire series just on the strength of a pilot so I will only comment for the pilot.
The opening of this series felt weak. So weak that it was almost embarrassing. It was only thanks to Vince Collosimo's performance, that it held together. Even so, with dialog that was undoubtedly written by a soap opera professional, it was amazing to see that all of this almost worked. The violence was not that violent considering the camp "Terminator SCC" was on immediately afterwords and left it for dead. The sexual content is about as sexy as a bad hand-job. I don't know what the tabloids are trying to enforce because the Direction on these areas were mild. Doesn't matter much on this point though, we know that this kind of thing doesn't make up for a good story. Now, a lot of the introductions to these characters were almost comical, like a lock stock and 2 smoking barrels kind of slating for gang members. This felt cheap, it looked cheap and it was unintimidating in any way. If this was an attempt to make us aware of a possible "coolness" to come from these characters, then it just wasn't right.
One begs to wonder whether this series needs or now needed a better Director and a better cinematographer or should I say a videographer. (Well, it felt like that anyway) Maybe even a better writer, because a lot of our actors here deserve way better than this. I think some of the most unfortunate and lifeless work was lingering around the gang meeting scenes at the sports arena (or was it a racecourse?) But apart from this, there are definite believable and smooth moments. I hope more of these moments occur and I must say I am somewhat interested in seeing more of Gyton Grantley who looks exactly like Carl Williams in real life.
There are more episodes to come and I look forward to eating my own words. For a TV mini series, it's not over till the fat lady sings - but so far, I'm hearing a scratchy record loop.
I was looking forward to Underbelly for many weeks. The advertising campaign was fantastic and the banning in Victoria definitely helped this. With all respect to the parties involved in the current litigation, I am only commenting on the artistry of this project more than anything related to the events it represents.
Underbelly is correctly based on a true story about the gangland battlegrounds of Melbourne Victoria. This is quite a powerful story and quite possibly something that will be marked for the crime library of Australian history.
This is only a comment on the pilot episode, so I'm unsure of how the rest of the series is going to be. I understand that it is wrong in some cases to even begin to comment on an entire series just on the strength of a pilot so I will only comment for the pilot.
The opening of this series felt weak. So weak that it was almost embarrassing. It was only thanks to Vince Collosimo's performance, that it held together. Even so, with dialog that was undoubtedly written by a soap opera professional, it was amazing to see that all of this almost worked. The violence was not that violent considering the camp "Terminator SCC" was on immediately afterwords and left it for dead. The sexual content is about as sexy as a bad hand-job. I don't know what the tabloids are trying to enforce because the Direction on these areas were mild. Doesn't matter much on this point though, we know that this kind of thing doesn't make up for a good story. Now, a lot of the introductions to these characters were almost comical, like a lock stock and 2 smoking barrels kind of slating for gang members. This felt cheap, it looked cheap and it was unintimidating in any way. If this was an attempt to make us aware of a possible "coolness" to come from these characters, then it just wasn't right.
One begs to wonder whether this series needs or now needed a better Director and a better cinematographer or should I say a videographer. (Well, it felt like that anyway) Maybe even a better writer, because a lot of our actors here deserve way better than this. I think some of the most unfortunate and lifeless work was lingering around the gang meeting scenes at the sports arena (or was it a racecourse?) But apart from this, there are definite believable and smooth moments. I hope more of these moments occur and I must say I am somewhat interested in seeing more of Gyton Grantley who looks exactly like Carl Williams in real life.
There are more episodes to come and I look forward to eating my own words. For a TV mini series, it's not over till the fat lady sings - but so far, I'm hearing a scratchy record loop.