Heat

This is quite good for a binge watch. The story develops quite well as various secrets of the family members are revealed and their real personalites become visible. Most come out of it badly, as their superficial niceness is pared away to reveal an array of personality faults. The only real exception is the young man who comes in as a badboy but justifies himself to become the saviour.

The narrative is far-fetched beyond belief at times, with many unrealistic scenes.

The setting - in the Australian outback - is stunning.

The acting is patchy.

Nice to see Richie Morris (ex-Neighbours) showing off his impeccable pecs and abs again!

Steve and Sarah travel to the outback to spend holiday time with their friends Brad and Louise. It isn't long before secrets and lies ruin the break, but worse for them, a wildfire threatens their very lives.

It's better than you may think, and come on, why are people reviewing a series based on 20 minutes of one episode, that's unfair.

Channel five advertised this very heavily, clearly a bigger budget than the usual C5 dramas, and of course notable for being Danny Dyer's first series post EastEnders.

If I'm being honest, I'd say it's a decent watch, I was expecting something big and bold, and it has its moments, but you have to wait for things to kick off. Episodes one, two and three are all solid, but all are fairly restrained, you have to wait until the concluding episode for things to kick off.

It's very well shot, it looks great, the filming crew made perfect use of the stunning location, some scenes are incredible.

Talk about relevant for the current time, record temperatures, bush fires proving to be a massive threat. I'm unsure if they used historical footage or CGI, but the disaster scenes looked realistic.

I like Danny Dyer, and I think that he does a pretty good job, I don't think you'd say he's centre stage here, Darren McMullen is essentially the main player, he stood out for me.

It's not brilliant, but compared to a lot of what's out there, it wasn't bad.

6/10.

I watched this entire series on New Year's Day and at four episodes it's the perfect length. I like stories where a group of people find themselves in a situation they can't get out of which is the entire premise of the show, in this case an oncoming bushfire. Danny dyer gets top billing but it's an ensemble piece and he's not the strongest of leads given his habit of playing the same cockney type in everything he does. The real stand out is Darren McMullen who seems like a nice guy but turns out to be the opposite. I thought it had good twists and turns and it all builds to the final episode which is when the fire arrives and everything goes up in flames metaphorically.

I didn't know anything about this show before watching it but found myself hooked after the first episode. The title makes it sound like it's going to be about having sex or a fire and it turns out to be about both, but really it's about two families and the dynamics between them. It doesn't reinvent the wheel but the secrets and lies have some decent twists and turns with things not turning out the way they initially seem. The cinematography around the river is quite breathtaking though the music choices were a bit grating. The sound in general was a bit loud at times so a point lost for that but otherwise a great binge watch.

It seems like every second drama shot in Australia now features a lead British or American actor. In the case of Heat it's two Brits, though one (Darren McMullen) has a local career while the other (Danny Dyer) is imported. It makes sense to have them play two expats who married Aussie women and had kids. The problem is Danny feels like he just arrived from the London EastEnd a week earlier - which evidently the actor did, fresh from EastEnders.

If you can get past this you will find an enjoyable drama. It's a familiar scenario - friends trapped in a situation,with ensuing secrets unfolding - but the nasty secret lurking beneath all the pleasantries turns out to be darker than you'd expect.

Performances are good (well maybe less so the cockney guy) and the final episode is gripping to watch. A solid 7 out of 10.