A complex novel, Cloudstreet was always going to be difficult to film, not only because of the number of characters within this book, the time span of 2 decades but also for the spiritual/metaphysical nature within the characters/plot.
This series was a brave attempt to film this adaptation which was co-written by Tim Winton. The first night's episode was a slow exposition of the characters, glossing over, in parts, the events that would eventually lead to the 2 families meeting up at the house in Cloud Street. Those who hadn't read the novel may have struggled to understand some of the events or actions in this first night's episode because of the curtailment of description.
The series, like the novel, calls for a perhaps a "suspension of reality" or perhaps, more accurately, a "leap of faith" to believe in some of the events portrayed. If a viewer does this, then the excellent casting of the lead characters allows you to enter fully into the inner life of not only the actors but also the house, which becomes a central character within the story also.
Yes, there are quibbles - music that isn't appropriate to the time portrayed, modern street lights/blurred high rise apartment blocks in the background but then filming a period piece set in the 1940s/50s in and around Perth was also always going to be difficult. This is a city that has little of it's "older" character still present thanks to the "tear it down and rebuild" mentality of the 1960s and 1970s. Kudos to the production for not only filming here in Perth but for also managing to recreate the era successfully, for the most part. Winton's work is always firmly rooted here in this state, again the landscape/architecture being a character within his writing. To film it elsewhere would have been a compromise too far.
