In Our Blood

"In Our Blood" covers, in a semi-fictional way, how Australia addressed AIDS in the 1980s. From the first day of the Hawke government, Health Minister Dr. Neal Blewett gathered a team about him that tackled the issues in a pragmatic way.

In the night that the first part was shown, ABC repeated a documentary from 2007 which featured interviews with some of the characters portrayed in the new series. Bill Bowtell was prominent in the fight to contain Covid-19, having been an adviser to Dr. Blewett when AIDS was emerging.

The series shows the lack of understanding of the disease in the early days. It demonstrates how Australia's response was so much more practical than the measures taken in other countries where right-wing evangelists ensured that the action taken by government was restricted (did someone mention USA?). I remember people saying that AIDS was God's myxomatosis punishing gay people for their lifestyle. Then the Grim Reaper campaign stressed that it would become a threat to everyone if not defeated.

Some of the personal stories are fictional but some are true. It all seems like yesterday but it was 40 years ago. How time flies!

This is a bait and switch - the first few minutes suggest a journey into the flamboyant though ultimately tragic world of gay men in Sydney in the 1980s. I was hoping for gay clubs, seedy back-lane adventures, inter-personal drama between hot young guys and some cool on-location shots paying homage to Sydney. Unfortunately the show very quickly switches focus to the inter-personal drama between bureaucratic grey-people in Canberra. Boring and disappointing. Other things that don't help include the blatant pro-Labor propaganda and anti-Christian vibes - once you notice propaganda it ceases to be effective and it takes away from the believability of the actual storyline and personalities.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. There's little doubt that everyone connected to In Our Blood had only the best intentions, but that doesn't excuse this being a cheap, misguided and very poorly executed account of the AIDS crisis in Australia. The weirdness starts with the drama's approach to history. Events and characters are "fictionalised" - except they're not really. Matt Day's Minister of Health is clearly Neal Blewett, and couldn't really be anyone else. The saintly Caroline, who heads the public health campaign, is clearly Ita Buttrose, and couldn't be anyone else. Stranger still, Matt Day appears to be doing a rough impersonation of Blewett, while Caroline is dressed and coiffured like a mean parody of Buttrose. Fictionalising doesn't fool anyone; it only does a disservice to those extremely well-known real life figures. But it's with the fiction that In Our Blood comes really unstuck. There are no characters, just cliched archetypes. And for the most part they mouth dialogue that sounds like it's lifted directly from news articles, government reports and AIDS pamphlets of the day. We're treated to whole scenes of ludicrously stilted dialogue that has all the finesse of an industrial health and safety video. Production values are rock bottom, with Brisbane doing a pretty poor job of trying to pass for Sydney. And there are historical clunkers throughout. Uniformed police officers have long hair (very long hair) in one scene. And the writers clearly have no clue about the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, who did not don habits as a lifestyle choice, but to make some serious political points. The musical numbers are High School Musical level (your local high school, not the TV show). And the lipsticked chorus anachronistically imposes 2020s notions of gender diversity on the 1980s in a way that completely misrepresents the gay community of that time. In the few moments where In Our Blood comes close to being dramatically effective, it is painfully obvious that it is also borrowing shamelessly from Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart. Entire scenes were clearly "inspired" by Kramer's infinitely superior work. Aside from Tim Draxl, who struggles manfully to inject some real human emotion into his scenes, the performances are consistently well below the standard you'd expect of a program produced by our national broadcaster. And that's putting it as kindly as possible. Yes, it's important that the lessons of the AIDs years are not forgotten. But there are more than a few landmark dramas on the subject, from Kramer's aforementioned work to Tony Kushner's magnificent Angels In America. In Our Blood really has nothing especially worthwhile to add, and I can't help wishing those responsible hadn't bothered.

My Review - In Our Blood Complete series on ABC I view

My Rating 9/10

In Our Blood is a very clever concept to present a vital part of Queer History with a combination of fact and fiction in a four part series.

The characters are fictitious but the events that propelled Australia into leading the rest of the World by its example of progressive and responsible Community involvement in fighting the battle to minimise deaths in the AIDS HIV Pandemic are fact.

Thousands of lives were spared because of our prompt and sometimes controversial and radical approaches.

Another very clever technique in this production are the story tellers in the style of a Greek Chorus taking the viewer through the timeline of the early to late 1980's with music humour and dance which I think makes In Our Blood an entertainment as well as a thoughtful docu drama .

It's a very impressive ensemble of fine Australian actors including Tim Draxyl cast as David a researcher and Political assistant to the Federal Labour Minister for Health . His career takes David away from his Sydney home and Colombian partner and lover Gabe played so well by Oscar Leal .

When these boys are together they enjoy all the excitement music and colour of Sydney's Oxford Street bar scene revelling with friends and just living for today.

David's boss the Federal Health Minister played by Matt Day shares his concern in the continuing health updates from America that document a so called Gay Plague that is responsible for multiple deaths and spreading rapidly .

Unfortunately the White House Administration is practically ignoring the epidemic with then President Ronald Reagan not even delivering a major address on AIDS till May 31st 1987 even though it has been written up in The Medical Journals in 1981.

It was perceived by many to be just a disease affecting the Gay community or IV drug users .

Some even going as far as saying it was God reeking vengeance on their hedonistic life style however red alerts sounded when reports of women and baby's who had blood transfusions began to filter down .

In Our Blood details a lesser-known section of that history: the Australian response to Aids, which saw an unprecedented collaboration between gay activist groups and both state and federal governments.

The great thing about our local film and television industry now is that fine actors like Tim Draxyl and most of this cast can experience excellent career success without having to venture abroad .

The series is a credit to the ABC and Screen Australia in producing this excellent series with great skill and great talent.

This activism depicted in this series was responsible for the effective grim reaper add campaigns plus the public funding of Community groups like ACON and the Bobby Goldsmith organisation named after the Australian athlete and Gay Olympic swimmer who died in June 1984 of (AIDS) acquired immune deficiency syndrome .

Both these charities are still working tirelessly 40 years on assisting people living with HIV in a very different environment to the 1980's when AIDS was a death sentence.

There are many impressive performances in In Our Blood it was obviously a labour of love for script writers and storytellers Jane Allen, Adriano Cappelletta and Jonathan Gavin who all have many impressive screen credits to these names.

Directors John Sheedy and Nicholas Verso have steered a very steady course that is a tribute to a generation who left us far too early.

Of course In Our Blood is emotional and confronting it bought back some sad unhappy memories for us from that era when we said goodbye to many dea4 friends but there is optimism also in this very compelling and provocative series.

It's a rare portrayal of Government working with Community to improve the life of its citizens hopefully the same spirit will occur when we vote on our upcoming referendum,.

I have to give this a high rating cas it is Aussie drama at its best. The way it was set in a period of so much uncertainty. I won't spoil this as it needs to be watched! The story line used, the way it was created into a musical and the way one tv ad that gave shock value to everyone who watched it back in the 80's!

This tv show needs to be watched by the new generation of kids not just for education purposes but also to respect the people who started organisations and worked extremely hard for love and acceptance!

Well done to the cast, crew, creators and anyone who is involved in this production on this awesome Aussie drama!!