To be honest, I'm usually happy to let Australian television pass me by. But the ads I saw for this series quickly grabbed me. Four episodes in, and I'm delighted to say that this series has plenty to recommend it.
David Wenham of Lord of the Rings fame plays real-life barrister Andrew Fraser as he seeks out and represents some of Melbourne's most notorious criminals, and he does an excellent job of portraying the two Frasers we see in the series- the brilliant, cocky, ambitious and utterly amoral lawyer who's built up his perfect life with all the trappings of success, and the broken wreck of a man trying to survive in prison, his life and reputation in ruins as he pays the price for his arrogance (although we don't know what specifically he's been convicted of at this point). But this show has more to it than just Wenham and the star power he brings. The acting throughout is excellent, despite almost all of the cast being unknowns to me. The director's done a nice job of showing us Melbourne at its best in places while simultaneously showing us just how degraded some of its citizens are.
There are genuine laugh-out-loud moments, most of them courtesy of the wonderfully psychotic Dennis Allen (AKA Mr. Death) and the smooth but ruthless crime boss Lewis Moran (played by Colin Friels). And it captures the full shock and horror of some the crimes committed by Fraser's clients. As someone with an interest in Australian true crime history I'm fascinated by the stories around these crimes which I'd only heard of in passing.
All in all, I'm glad I gave Killing Time a shot and I look forward to seeing how it all pans out. At the time of this review, IMDb's given it a weighted score of 5.9. However, the mean score for this show is 8.2 and I think that does it much more justice.
8/10.
David Wenham of Lord of the Rings fame plays real-life barrister Andrew Fraser as he seeks out and represents some of Melbourne's most notorious criminals, and he does an excellent job of portraying the two Frasers we see in the series- the brilliant, cocky, ambitious and utterly amoral lawyer who's built up his perfect life with all the trappings of success, and the broken wreck of a man trying to survive in prison, his life and reputation in ruins as he pays the price for his arrogance (although we don't know what specifically he's been convicted of at this point). But this show has more to it than just Wenham and the star power he brings. The acting throughout is excellent, despite almost all of the cast being unknowns to me. The director's done a nice job of showing us Melbourne at its best in places while simultaneously showing us just how degraded some of its citizens are.
There are genuine laugh-out-loud moments, most of them courtesy of the wonderfully psychotic Dennis Allen (AKA Mr. Death) and the smooth but ruthless crime boss Lewis Moran (played by Colin Friels). And it captures the full shock and horror of some the crimes committed by Fraser's clients. As someone with an interest in Australian true crime history I'm fascinated by the stories around these crimes which I'd only heard of in passing.
All in all, I'm glad I gave Killing Time a shot and I look forward to seeing how it all pans out. At the time of this review, IMDb's given it a weighted score of 5.9. However, the mean score for this show is 8.2 and I think that does it much more justice.
8/10.