Jack Irish

For an Australian crime show, this is by far the one of the best. I like Guy Pearce and the supporting cast. I started watching Jack Irish the movies versions last year. I was pleasantly surprised that they made it into a TV series. It is a great watch, because it is so not like any other show on television. I'm hoping for more, a second season and continue on from there. This is one television show that should be aired in the United States. It deserves a larger audience.

I am really in a kind of quite love affair with the Blackhawk that Pearce drives in the series. I just wonder how many are still running around the down-under continent? Australia has a knack for holding on to a lot of nostalgic artifacts of American origin or design. Even with the right hand drive.

Cheers Mates.

Great actors and actresses, they all play phenomenal roles. A very good mix of comedy and crime with expected and unexpected outcomes. Watched the 3 movies and both series in 5 days.

I'm sure many agree that the writing, acting, direction and overall storyline are simply excellent. What really appealed to me, however, were the side stories. In most shows they are annoying and irrelevant, but the story lines related to race horses, the old footballers in the pub, the carpenter, and others make this a truly complete and enjoyable "universe."

The show has it's merits as it attempts to have the quirky comedic side story parallel the serious detective story. The quirky side has characters and plot lines that go from inane to stupid, the detective side has serious business going on. Unfortunately the inane and stupid too often migrate to the serious side. The police are either invisible or incompetent, the bad guys get to be bad without consequences episode after episode, and poor old Marta Dusseldorp gets hung out to dry (luckily she has a much better gig in Sydney circa 1950's). Jack seems confused more than not, and manages to get himself nearly killed every episode, and the cops just laugh. And they're not even shooting for satire!

I loved the first three "Jack Irish" movies, they just went from strength to strength.

They formed a body of work that can stand comparison with the best in the crime/mystery genre such as "Morse", "Lewis", "Wallander", "Jesse Stone", and "Vera."

All share key ingredients that are even more important than a cutting-edge plot, the critical one being that the lead character must have feeling. It doesn't matter how tough or worldly-wise they are, these people know your pain. All the best ones understand human failings even if they don't always forgive them. Wit serves their characters well - not so much cynicism, but a knowing, world-weary wit.

The first three "Jack Irish" movies had those qualities in spades, plus unique, beautifully realised characters right down the cast list.

But I'm not so sure about the latest 6-part series. I think the extended format works against the tighter format of the movie length episodes. Where the filmmakers edited to fit 90-minutes, they now extend to fill 4-hours plus.

There are still clever touches and some very funny lines, and you can't fault the performances, but there are definitely some well-worn themes: a trail that leads to crooked politicians; ruthless multinationals; terrorists, and that old favourite of just about every series, the cult church with dark motives. Despite sub-plots going off in all directions, the principle that 'no one is introduced for nothing' is applied with a vengeance - no one is random, everything is connected.

Familiar elements added spice to the first three movies, but here things are perilously close to being over-spiced. Jack's buddies get a major workout with a lot more business to get through.

A factor is possibly the creation of more content for a voracious medium, but I can't help feeling that the six episodes would have made two more succinct movies along the lines of "Bad Debts", "Black Tide" and "Dead Point".

It will be interesting to see where "Jack Irish" goes from here.