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Reviews
C*A*U*G*H*T: Everyone Loves Australians (2023)
This is Dire!
I love Bryan Brown, so I had great hopes for this, but I was sorely disappointed!
I admit to only watching 1 1/2 episodes (Brown hadn't appeared yet), but that was as much as I could tolerate.
With production values that make F-Troop look sophisticated, this was painful to watch, unfunny, poorly written, and just totally pointless.
Why anybody thought this was a good idea baffles me. It is a poor piece of film-making, which I hope won't impact the reputation Australia has for making outstanding drama.
If you want an under appreciated of excellent Australian drama, try Black Snow.
AVOID AT ALL COSTS!
Black Snow (2022)
Refreshing and engrossing
I tend not to be a great fan of Australian TV drama series, but this proved to be a breath of fresh air.
It's consistently engaging and rarelly drags as a well-created, and intriguing, plot leads to the denoument over six episodes - a great binge-able length! Although the climax might be seen as a little clumsy, it doesn't detract from the quality of the series overall.
The acting is generally excellent, particularly from Jemmason Power and Talijah Blackman-Corowa, with a good script and great cinematographhy in the cane fields of North Queensland.
Although I often find time-shifts to be very frustrating, the moving back and forth between the time of the murder, 25 years ago, and today proves to work seamlessly.
It also manages, in a moving way, to draw attention back to the appalling legacy of "blackbirding", or the effective enslavement of tens of thousands of South Sea Islanders in rural Australia, particularly Queensland.
Highly recommended!