biljao258

As Jay Swan - an indigenous detective- Mark Cole Smith doesn't have the rugged masculine presence of his predecessor in the role (Aaron Pedersen), which matters because the story is set in a regional mining town where the mixed-race population strongly identifies as 'cultural indigenous'. Two pivotal parts of the story - Jay's standing and authority in enforcing whitefella law and blackfella law, and his romance with a local woman, are both very weakly written and acted with little conviction ( the Jay-Mary romance has no erotic sizzle whatsoever).

Some of the secondary roles (eg the Sergeant, Jay's brother and uncle) are more interesting and better acted than the two lead characters. On the other hand, a couple of the other secondary characters are simply badly cast. What was the casting director thinking?

The main crime story takes some licence with police and legal procedures, is rather slow and convoluted at times and has dumbed down dialogue which uses more coarse language than is really necessary. The narrative suffers from too many undercooked plot elements and the frequent switching between brief scenes from sub-plots really kills the dramatic momentum.

The show has some pretty good cinematography and it may provide some insight into Australian indigenous matters for international audiences ( if it gets overseas sales?), but as TV entertainment it's not really at international standards.

It started off very promising - nicely shot and with very capable young actors. But the 'triple time line' story becomes increasingly convoluted and confusing, and the drama is on very, very slow drip feed ( which will be spun out into 10 episodes?). However, I'm done at episode 4.