Rush

Great Aussie series, well acted great story's.just being repeated on uk tv now my third time watching this series. Australia really has some of the best actors and series.

It is surprisingly impressive. I would expect something of this caliber from a higher budget American studio (everyone knows America has the best technically inclined staff at their disposal).

When I watched the first episode I was in awe, this show was much better then next to anything I'd expect from Australia. It has so many things you just wouldn't expect from an Aussie show, and it's on so many more levels. The technical skills and creativity are much better then most other shows on the same budget.

I went to the 24 Hour Film making festival of 2008, and I was surprised to find the lead actress of the first episode there (Aurora). The directors make the actors look great.

It is better then most other cop shows. The stories are a lot more complex and things are done more interestingly. It's not just "find the evidence, yell at the killer", it is visually entertaining and more intellectual. They characters aren't just run off the mill killers, there are large stories behind them all.

It obviously doesn't have the budget of CSI, but it is certainly more interesting (I mean, who wants to watch a monotonous guy wearing sunglasses indoors?). It's more like Law and Order, but even then, the technical skills are better and it makes it visually more entertaining.

I do have to admit, watching it for the second time around it's not as shocking as the first time around, but lightening doesn't strike in the same place twice. I am glad it has been brought back for an encore series. I'll finally get to watch the episodes I missed!

I absolutely loathe most American shows of this broad genre (Bones and CSIs spring to mind) because the characters are often so stereotyped, plastic and generally uninteresting that I want to puke. (Most HBO shows stand excepted.) Aussie shows often get slammed for various reasons I honestly can't fathom - Rush, City Homicide, Wildside and East West 101, to name a few, are all excellent shows. They were/are all populated by real people with personality and flaws galore, so that the viewer readily becomes involved with and can easily empathise (or not) with them. In Rush, the dialog is entertaining and natural, the relationships are complex and believable.

I have taken off one star for the weapons handling as commented on elsewhere by someone who says he knows about these things. However, for me, this is a minor detail because my knowledge of procedures and weapons is superficial and what I see (99% of the time) is plausible enough for me as a general viewer. I am more than happy to suspend belief in those areas - I just want to watch a show with the right mix of drama, action, characterisation and dialog. I LOVE all those aspects of Rush. And needless to say the acting is of the usual extremely high Australian standard - Catherine McClements is a standout in a generally superb lineup of talent.

The first couple seasons were really good, but after that it got increasingly stupid. By season three the characters got more and more childish. None of these people would ever even be a real street cop let alone an elite unit member. That and the firearm handling were amateurish at best. I gave it five stars because of the first two seasons, if they would've kept up the quality I'd have given it much more.

Rush isn't just a great cop show, it's a great drama as well, with characters who stay true to themselves and each episode outdoing the last. Instead of overloading the viewers with meaningless action, Rush prefers to spend a lot more time on its characters, adding depth to each one of them every episode. Each character is well developed throughout the course of the series and, despite the lack of meaninglessness, the action contained in a single episode rivals any cop show any American television. ANY cop show.

Each line of the perfectly restrained script flows naturally from the characters, never feeling forced and never feeling scripted. The actors themselves help to create this feeling, each of them seeming to know their character inside out and instinctively know how to portray; a welcome change from the soap opera actors which usually back up the lead in todays cop shows.

The writers also seem to realize that drama doesn't only manifest itself in the killing off of characters, creating twisted character arcs with forbidden love, delusions of grandeur, the whole shebang. They also are incredibly inventive, thinking up new and interesting, though never unfeasible, ways to test the team's abilities. And they're far too smart to, 1) always let them win and 2)let them get away with a clean conscience.

The direction is fantastic. It looks like a constant Bourne film, but if that puts you off, don't worry, each and every shot is perfectly chosen for maximum effectiveness and won't impair your view exorbitantly.

And yes, I know what you're thinking, it's an Australian show, they probably constantly introduce themselves with a g'day and throw in phrases like strewth or fair shake of the sauce bottle (what does that even mean??), but Rush (kindly) eschews this cultural stereotype, focusing instead on the actual plot/technical-aspects-in-general of the show (hint to all other Aussie shows out there, get you're acts together!).

If you haven't found this Aussie gem yet, find it, buy it, watch it and then watch it again. I guarantee you'll love it.