Wanted

A hugely enjoyable twist on a tried and tested old storyline of hapless innocents wandering into a heist plot with gangsters and bent cops. Better than expected. Yes the plot is daft and much of the on goings incredulous but the two lead actresses are good enough chemistry and subtle comedy with a warm relationship & some painful life truths to carry this through. Its an Australian "Thelma and Louise" meets "Home & Away" meets "it's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" The only complaint is some of the support acting is atypical B rate Australian soap, in fact almost all the support are dreadfully inept actors & that somewhat lets down the hard effort of the two leads & the writers

Predictable but great fun. Just when you think its over, they're off again.

I went into this series knowing nothing about it. It was refreshing to see that there was a good old fashioned Australian action/drama without needing to engage the help of Vampires, Zombies, Time Travel or Superheroes. I was hooked from the moment it started. Lola (Rebecca Gibney) captured my attention from the get go with her ability to portray a gritty-real person, a tough talking no bulls%it kind of Aussie chick who like all of us, is just trying to get through the day without the inevitable curve ball life tends to throw our way. As the episode progresses we find there is much more to Lola (Rebecca Gibney) than meets the eye, and with the introduction of her kooky counterpart Chelsea (Geraldine Hakewill), the characters begin to develop and an unorthodox relationship is formed.

In the interest of not spoiling this for anyone I will only say that this series has ticked most boxes for me with the humour, the characters and the use of so many locations around our gorgeous country. Wanted has it all and hopefully it will continue to deliver the action and drama one can expect from the likes of Rebecca Gibney. It doesn't hurt that it also stars two of the hunkiest Australian actors in the likes of - Chris Murphett (Ryan Corr) and Josh Levine (Stephen Peacocke).

This is good stuff for dialog writing, acting, location work (Bangkok! New Zealand!). and two strong, appealing female leads whose growing friendship is a pleasure to see. That said, though, there are a couple of plot devices that I started to get tired of. One is the hairsbreadth escape: one of the leads is cornered, in an impossible situation, with a bad guy's gun pointed directly at her head, and poof! something intervenes just when all looks hopeless. This happens too many times to be believed; I'm willing to suspend disbelief but not hang it from the rafters. The second is the partners-almost-split-up scene: "That's it, you need to go on without me," yet every single time, they stick together. And finally, I think the writers went to the MacGuffin shelf too often: the pair are searching for a pile of cash, no, a stash of drugs, no, the car containing both, no, a safe deposit box key... I can see why something like this would have seemed like a handy way to keep the story line going, but it started to get tiresome for me.

Yes, the South Koreans make the best mini-series these days, but the Aussies are pushing for a respectable 2nd place. Wanted is a great entry, in the 'innocent chicks on the run' genre, said chicks being Chelsea and Lola. Chelsea is young, tall & pretty, but awkward from a monied family. Lola is older & streetwise, with a murky past. Both end up at a murder scene at a bus stop (of all places) & get chased by bad guys and cops, with a bagful of money in tow.

Chief bad guy is a crooked cop who must track the girls down & get the money to its intended recipient, a mysterious bad dude. This covers all of season 1 (6 episodes) and part of season 2, where the setting switches from the Australian outback to New Zealand. Scenery & acting is excellent. Our heroes experience several close calls (maybe a few too many), but those of us who grew up watching the old Buck Rogers space serials can forgive that.

Finally, a watchable Aussie show! I was on the lookout for very salty language or explicit content (or discovering that the 2 protagonists have fallen in love... yech... kissing... underwear)... but nope... A few uncouth words here & there...but very little up towards, thank goodness. And... no: the story didn't suffer one bit.

Compelling. Addictive. Start it on a weekend when you have time to binge. Season 3 to follow... I think.

There's many shows try and make this formula work (comedy-crime-drama).. but it is really so..so hard to do well. For multiple reasons, this series is as good as it truly gets.. and the main cause is Geraldine Hakewill. She is the straw that subtly stirs the whole drink. I was led to this production by following the work of Rebecca Gibney (who's also fabulous in this series..as is the entire cast). And that's what good actors and their work are all about.. just keep following their efforts, and more times than not you will be justly rewarded. Few are anywhere near as good as this production.. let's all just keep hoping they continue on from here. By nature of the story-line this one could continue, but oh what a great ride it was for the time we were privileged to be viewing should it be decided to be the end.