TL;DR – This weird and wonderful first episode hooked me in to see what wild ride we are about to go on.

Disclosure – I paid for the STAN service that viewed this series

Population 11 Review –

If there is one thing that Australia does very well, it is the mystery set in the Outback. Indeed, some of my earliest TV memories are of the wild and wonderful Jeopardy, which, if you are Australian or British of my age, you will know well. But in the world of Scrublands and Deadloch, we get a new entry today with Population 11.

So to set the scene, on a quiet night in the Outback surrounded by stars and termite mounds, a man stands alone, looking at a giant tree. That is, until a light appears from the heavens shining down on him, and while he runs, he is not quick enough. Sometime later, a strange American man from Cincinnati, Ohio, arrives in the town of Bidgeegud, which is so tiny that the pub and the church are in the same building. The man Andy (Ben Feldman) is here for the UFO tour led by Hugo (Darren Gilshenan), but maybe that is not the only reason he is there. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

Population 11 goes from zero to awkward so fast, right at the start, with one of the most inappropriate police interviews I have seen in a while. This is such an odd moment to start the show on, but then it is perfect in setting the mood before he arrives in a town of 12, sorry, 11 people who all have their peculiarities. They are all very unique in their quirks, and honestly, it does feel like a couple of small towns that I have been in but then taken to the extreme. I mean, nothing entirely locates you in a time and place like seeing a VCR tape out in the wild in 2024.

What it does pretty well is hook you in with the mystery of what is going on in town. Why does Andy need the money? What happened to Hugo? Whose foot was that? What is the car? And who or what are they burying? That was enough to hook me for this first half-hour episode. While I am not sure if that will be enough for the entire season as it stands now. However, the setting and location make this an exciting world to explore, and the cast is a delight.

Ben Feldman does give a good ‘fish out of water’ performance here, arriving in a world that is probably foreign even to many Australians, let alone those from across the pond. I am a bit concerned that his by-the-book character might get lost in this sea or quirky Australiana-type characters, but this first episode made those interactions work. I did like the technique where they did a crash course interview with all 11 members of the town as a way of introducing them all.  

In the end, do we recommend Population 11: Outback UFO Tours? For an opening pilot, it does everything it needs to do. It introduces the mystery, all the characters from the town, and the weird world we will be staying in. The next question is: can they keep the momentum going?    

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen Population 11 yet ?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.    

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Population 11
Directed by – Trent O’Donnell
Written by – Phil Lloyd
Created by – Phil Lloyd
Production/Distribution Companies – Screenwest, Lotterywest, The West Australian Screen Fund, Screen NSW, Lionsgate Television, Factor 30 Films, Jungle Entertainment & STAN
Starring – Ben Feldman, Katrina Milosevic, Darren Gilshenan, Stephen Curry, Rick Donald, William Zappa, Tony Briggs, Genevieve Lemon, Emily Taheny, Pippa Grandison, Steve le Marquand, Fiona Choi, Karis Oka & Ethan Gosatti with Alastair Bradman