Firebite

Visually great, and an interesting setting, but it sort of comes across as ultimately, your cliche bad guy vampires vs some good guy underdogs... not too different to the many straight to video vampire movies.

There's some very heavy handed politics tossed in from the start, (the white people that came to Australia were all vampires apparently) which is clumsy and really, may be of interest to some people, but seems to be oddly shoehorned into the whole thing and is a bit obvious. The messaging could of been done, but may be a bit more subtlely.

The photography and setting is great, and it has a mad max feel.

Storyline wise, its nothing special. Some of the acting isn't great, though overall its ok.

Vampires are a bit cliche.

Overall, could have been better if the villains were a bit less 2D, and if more importance was given to the story than the political messaging.

I thought television land had moved on from the plethora of Vampire series that we, the viewers, were bombarded with a few years back; I think about a quarter of all TV series back then were Vampire programs. So I was surprised when I saw that this was yet another one but, after the first episode it was obvious that this was NOT just another one.

So when I see namstonk rambling on about his 'Woke rubbish' and 'Lefty Wokes' (a truly numb-nut stupid word used by wannabe trendy peeps these days that I cannot stand) and calling it boring and unoriginal its a shame! Its not at all the same old vampire stuff (as they mention) that has been regurgitated for 2021/2022. It has taken a whole new approach to the old legends (especially with it being based on Aboriginal tales of England sending vampires over to wipe out the indigenous people of Australia to prepare for their take over).

They don't live in the cellars of old houses or crypts etc but in the old opal mine shafts, caves and tunnels. They are more or less feral animals and live aimlessly...until we see the new elder (or King as they are known in this series). The vampire killers are utter amateurs in their badly executed but lucky exploits and as a father and daughter, they are nothing like any well organized van Helsing's of the old world...and they are not called van Helsing by the way.

I think I would be absolutely correct that the likes of the negative reviewers - who say its the same old seen before stuff - have NEVER seen vampire hunters using boomerangs and power drills. Its great to see an almost all aboriginal cast spearheading this new wave of bloodsucking TV. The acting is good and very laid back but not too slow and I cannot wait for the next 4 episodes of the current season 1.

The Alt-Right idiots are spewing fake reviews, and the lefties will praise the 'indigenous content' without even watching.

And, this is one to watch. Yes, there is a bit of 'hard done by' in the writing for the Koori characters, but it's not over done, and it's there to show the characters have depth and feeling.

Some of the characters have a little too much cliche - the white cop implying the witness to an attack was drunk in episode 3 for example - but on the whole, it's no more then you'd expect to hear if you were privy to private conversations, and that's situations you see the characters in, private places, or where they thought they weren't being heard, or just school bullies being dickheads,..

Some of the acting is stilted, no doubt due to the experience level of some of the more local actors, with this show being the only experience listed on their credits pages.

Rob Collins, Shantae Brown-Cowan, Tessa Rose and Ngaire Pigram all stand out as actors to watch, here and in the future.

As for the technical arts, the sound is crisp and dialog clean, the visuals are fantastic, and the editing keeps the show paced along just fast enough, all working together well to keep the view in the story, rather then noticing the hard work done to get this level of production quality.

It's well worth a watch, even if just to form your own opinion, rather then follow the political effluencers comments.

It's really not a terrible show - it's just not too exciting or great either.

The plot and characters feels re-used from a thousand other stories, the acting is quite ok and the special effects are kinda bland.

Having said that, it's watchable. It just won't blow your mind in any way or make you desperate for the next episode.

5/10.

Structurally quite flabby and endearingly cheap at times but Firebite is a genuinely interesting new take on vampire lore aided by some strong central characters (and performances) that really make it worth sticking with. A potential cult classic in the making.