The Unusual Suspects

What a good surprise this show was. At times is reminded me of big little lies. Good acting and story. What's great is it's only 4 episodes so it goes by fast. Great Australian show.

When I glanced at the promo picture I thought this was a remake of the fantastic The Usual Suspects. If you've ever seen The Hustle, you know what a hideous idea that would be. But this little Aussie gem, now available on Hulu, is a lot of fun. It bounces around like crazy with lots of twists and turns. Recommended!

SBS has put together some really big names of Australia TV and film for this crime heist comedy that adds a layer to the story that makes it stand out from the many tv shows already in this space. They also avoided diving too deep into some of the sub themes like Asian Australians who work to send money to their overseas home, Wealthy vs working class but they allow these to exist as context to the plot.

No pun intended and obviously the characters here are not supposed to be ... well obnoxious. Not as much as the seagulls I borrowed my summary headline from at least. Especially rich people are not a group most viewers will feel closely attached to. But they are people too - of course the show gives us the helpers - which is they eyes we watch most of it through.

And it has a lot of female power behind it. Miranda Otto may be the best known of the bunch, but all the cast is doing an amazing job. The show may be a bit longer than it needed to and if I got it right, something like this actually happened ... but just roll with it and suspend your disbelief. Interesting stuff - a bit like the Bling Ring, but a bit more sophisticated I reckon ... and "different" ...

I was so excited to watch this, I love Miranda Otto and I want to support an all female lead but this is not great and I have no idea how it received so many 10 star ratings, could it be friends of the the crew/cast/network trying to bump the score?

Let's start with the Filipino stereotypes. Between the gold digging Filipino wife and the Filipino servants (mind you, one is wearing an actual uniform) this feels borderline racist. Don't even get me started on the poor little rich girl who is sent from Philippines to work as a cleaner. Miranda Ottos character is so overacted at times it pains me to watch her. Cue the evil mother in law, the philandering husbands...

The story has more plot holes than Swiss cheese, the viewer this needs to be as drunk as Sara to overlook them.

This wasn't a drama, this wasn't dark enough to be a noir, this wasn't remotely funny, so what genre was this? I think it could have swung a little more in any of those directions and achieved a far greater story.

There were some rather well placed flashback scenes but overall 80% of the show I found almost too cringe worthy to watch.