Fires

I was in two minds as to whether I really wanted to spend too much time on a disaster movie while we are still in the middle of a pandemic The first act of the kids on the beach showed how life was normal before disaster strikes. A not uncommon treatment used on movies like these However the situation that followed was not successful in portraying the obvious horror that ensured.

Maybe I'll give episode 2 a look but not impressed so far.

The show is quite good and the producers and writers have done a good job at capturing the chaos and drama around what happened in the fires so far. The only gripe I do have is that they got aspects of which service was involved and car regos right for Queensland, but when it came to anything about NSW they didn't do their research. The car regos were wrong and the service responsible for Bushfires is the NSWRFS. Other than that it is good.

I thought the acting, direction, effects and story we're all really captivating. I really like these types of shows that focus a lot of energy on the character development and dialogue. Realistically probably an 8 so far but thought it needed a bump up.

After three episodes, I think that I am getting the message from Tony Ayres. Other reviews seem to miss the point. Very few people predicted what the fires were going to be like. We have always had bush fires in Australia. The RFS has fought them with a fair degree of success. What those fire fighters faced in 2019-20 was, to use the word of the year, "unprecedented".

The young fire fighters in the first episode were behaving like typical teenagers until they came face to face with the reality of surviving. I found this episode to be the best so far, not knowing whether or not they would survive.

The uncertainty of knowing where loved ones were and the loss of communication was the focus of the second program. I found this part a little too slow. I felt like I was living the experience in real time.

Property owners in the third part were typical of people who have been told how to prepare their homes in the event of a bush fire. As with the fires in Victoria a few years earlier, the fires were too intense for preparation to make any difference. I thought that the ending was not satisfying.

This series has exceeded my expectations. "The Newsreader" was a hard act to follow on Sunday nights but "Fires" has proved to be a worthy successor.

I used to be mostly embarrassed and bored by our Australian serials but this is top notch drama. It is very perceptive and sensitive regarding the terrible experience of many Australians due to the recent and immense bushfires and it keeps the viewer enthralled throughout the series. I am so proud of so many new series that are made here as they are not only original but so well acted and directed. When I look at more USA's dramas they are just so repetitive and quite frankly dull although there are some brilliant ones but they are few and far between. Give recent Australian dramas a go, you will be surprised.