Barracuda

Being a swimmer myself (in the good ol' days) I was immediately attracted to this series' narrative. Swimming is one of the most competitive sports you can compete in, and one of the most gruelling to dedicate your life to. And all I can say is, I loved it!

I simply devoured this series. It is story telling genius in how it moves and what is beneath it but at the same time it is brutal and honest and. It just is. This follow up to The Slap, which could easily be called The Splash, in that it is about swimming, is an epic journey of a kid called Danny Kelly who gets inserted into a fancy college due to his incredible talents in the pond. But despite his excellent coach and natural talent for winning, Danny rubs up against his more entitled peers which soon awakens a raw anger in him that may or may not lead to a sort of destruction, at the height of his reign. This story is about winning, about class, about anger, and about Australia. An Australia that hinges it's identity on glory above all, but who has no real connection to life beneath its surface.

I am left sat on this sofa, remembering my old swimming days, what it felt like to dive into that blue, chlorinated volume. What it felt like to race. What it felt like to win.

It's new year's eve right now and I might have had a few beers, but so what. This series has prescribed me 'hope'.

See you at the Olympics guys!

On the plus side - good story and some good acting by most supporting cast members. Great underwater swimming shots. Matt Nable plays the school swimming coach and he's very good and anchors the series.

On the negative side - the preview 'shorts' at the end of Episode 1 basically spoiled the entire plot of the remaining 3 episodes. Hardly worth watching the remaining episodes because the big dramatic twist in the plot was revealed at the end of Episode 1 in the preview. The editors who decided that would be a good idea should get a kick up the rear end for that decision. The 2 young lead actors have obviously been cast for their athletic body shape and their ages, but their acting isn't great. One of the weakest actors in this mini series is Rachel Griffiths - which is ironic given that she's the only really internationally known actor in the cast. Every time she's in a scene, you are fully aware that she is 'acting' her lines, and not very well at that.

This series is very disappointing mainly in the acting department. It's annoying because Australia can produce some good TV series and movies, and plenty of our soapie stars are making names for themselves in the US market. So the talent is here.

What a Greek classic this is. As with others here I'm so glad to catch this series currently on ABC iView after dodging it previously. Maybe I was ready for it now because it's relevant and revelatory of what happens to young men finding their feet in a tough world. In this case, the world of elite sports. Admit I rushed to find out who this Matt Nable is and what else he's done. Totally surprised to find he's an Aussie and not Hungarian! How convincing he is, along with all the others in the cast. Barracuda's an attentive study in clashes and polarities, how you can make choices: to be aggressive, hungry, angry vs entitled, confident, moneyed and weak, and any combination of those. The structure is very much classical Greek theatre with Emma (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) in the role of commentator (Greek chorus) to Danny (and us) of her family.

Good treatment of the press mediating life into trash (especially if you watched Frontline TV series). Everything counted for something - even Torma's house. Great script and characterisations. Loved Theo and loved the motor bike guy ("I'm not a spastic!!"). Thought Rachel Griffiths good in the part of not being able to say much while her life spins away from her dreams. And Helen Morse the tiny, aged controller watching all of them vying for power and favour. In support of the focus on beautiful masculinity, an article somewhere described Elias Anton's dedication to building his physique for the role, so I hope people don't assume it's about beauty for voyeurism. Athletes are the gods of Olympus basically, physically and in the dramas they play out among themselves, beyond the rest of us. My heart goes out to reviewer Jacob James Stapleton from London who knows what it's like to live this life like a comet – a gift with a sting in its tail.

Some reviews here seem to miss the biggest thing in the frame – it's easy when it's so big we can't see it. The Pool, the arena. It's a beast, and as one said, what's going on above it, in it and below it. Frank Torma the water whisperer, kindly shares with us his wisdom and knowledge of this beast. And, much like Cassandra really, the key figures seem deaf to his warnings.

This mini series covers two topics so important to Australia: acceptance of migrants & obsession with winning. The acting is brilliant as we identify so well with a brilliant swimmer who has been given a scholarship to train at a school where white upper middle class privilege rules. The challenges faced by the main character are so well told. We really get a sense of the devastation that winning or not winning, can hold in the world of competitive sport. There are other issues explored including sexuality & the violence. This is a brilliant series, exploring topics that Australia and other nations need to explore & resolve on a personal, educational & leadership level. To accept others & value all people.

On the strength of the first two episodes of Barracuda, Christos Tsiolkas has failed dismally to recreate the elements that made The Slap the kind of drama that had everybody talking. There is no equivalent social issue. There are no similarly recognisable suburban archetypes. And the plotting falls well short of compelling. The first episode barely lifts itself above the level of Neighbours or Home & Away. Indeed, they've both done similar stories, and done them just as well. Much of the dialogue is also risible ("I've always admired the working class" says Helen Morse, as Tsiolkos's idea of a haughty society matron.) And while the director delivers pretty pictures of athletic bodies and swimming races, the performances he gets from his cast are mostly sub-standard. Rachel Griffiths struggles to make anything of a fatally under-written character. And our would-be hero is played by an actor with eyebrows that recall the Thunderbirds marionettes, except that they don't move - which leaves him with precisely two expressions: wet and dry. The stars are mostly for the actors' abs.