Operation Buffalo

Entertaining dark comedy and original period drama about the A.Bomb testing at Maralinga. An authentic depiction of life in the 1950s, the hair styles, clothing, cars, advertising signs.... everything except for women using the 'F bomb'. Even men rarely used the F word in the 1950s and women NEVER used it. Why do writers and producers insist on spoiling good period dramas by using present day swearing? Some may say its to appeal to a younger audience, but why go to the meticulous effort of making everything else a true reflection of an era, then spoil it with modern day language.

While the setting of this show in post WWII Au. reminds me at times from A Place To Call Home. Mostly in the way a character of being good or bad can very from one episode to the next.

I agree that the humorous element of this series seems misplaced and jangling but the basic story line comes through. Maybe the English and Australian key characters are caricatures but maybe not so much given this is 1956. The dispossessed Aboriginal people and presence in the region comes through, as does the unfolding horror of significant radiation exposure. I think give the series a go and some of the reviews are perhaps overly harsh. An important event in Australia's history.

Sadly it looks as though this series is going to be unseen by many due to a combination of bad timing and some truly terrible reviews here. Personally I think it's excellent, using humour in the vein of Catch-22 to highlight the horrific, callous and ignorant ineptitude around the Maralinga atom tests. Ewen Leslie is excellent as the overwhelmed, undermined base commander, trying to keep everything under control. All the cast are good, the setting and period feel are beautiful, and it highlights a period in Australian and British history many know little about.

Finally, it's always refreshing to see an Australian drama which doesn't take itself so deadly seriously, while still managing to deliver its message.

Marilinga, South Australia was the British above ground testing area for nuclear weapons in the 1950's.

The British Government indescriminatly murdered thousands of Aboriginal People and their own soldiers with reckless and incompetent testing protocols, corruption and and cover ups. It was a serious disaster that by and large has been kept from history books. It was the first nuclear disaster that never happened.

They approach the story with a fictionalized account, that has some dark humor and downplay the genocide. Aboriginal People were intentionally contaminated with nuclear fallout, the studied, dissected and tested.

Read up on Marilinga, then comment. Otherwise you just have no standing to reviwe this series.

It's good, worth a watch, do some homework.