TL;DR – While it gets messy in the middle, it starts and ends strong, and has a fundamentally entertaining cast.

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

Population 11 Review –

If there is one thing that Australia can do 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. Where we will get into the red dust and possibly tangle with some aliens or people in alien suits … probably the last one.  

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. Nor may it be the only thing going down in this small town. Now from here, we will be looking at the season as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

Before you get into the story, you have to champion just what an excellent choice this was, setting it in a small town in northern Western Australia. Just placing yourself in this would create a character before the first person speaks. This could be from the natural environment, like the termite mounds or the boab trees. Or just the way the town comes together with its layers of history fading into the background. You just can’t replace the feeling of a road train coming down the road with the plumes of red dust in its wake. Even if I think most of the characters would have had heat stroke at some point in this film.  

Take the setting and then fill the world with as many of the wildest characters as you can find. You have people like Noel Pinkus (Stephen Curry), who knows everything that is happening in the town and is trying to create Bidgeegud into its own micro-state. The police officer (Katrina Milosevic) is in a compromising relationship with her partner (Ethan Gosatti). Or the German recluse (William Zappa) who spends more time in his bunker than is recommended. To be fair, not every character in this town gets the same sort of character development, but they are always entertaining, especially when things start falling apart.  

One of the things Population 11 does very well is present plausible reasons why everyone could have killed Hugo or at least been complicit in his disappearance. Did Audrey (Emily Taheny), the white lady running the local Chinese shop, chop him up and serve him in her pies, Sweeney Todd style? Did the local priest Jimmy James (Tony Briggs), who was not really a priest, get caught with something in confession? Did the dirty money Andy and Dom (Christopher Kirby) send Hugo’s way get him whacked? Or was it a lover’s spat with local publican Val (Genevieve Lemon)? I mean, did the aliens actually do it? This makes the fact that Hugo is alive a bit of a downer, but it was still a fun ride to that point.

Where the show is a bit of hit-and-miss comes with its narrative that does get heavily bogged down in the middle of the series. Thankfully, each of the episodes is only about half an hour long, so they never outstay their welcome. But you can really feel that the show got stretched in places, and the progression of Andy’s character does not help it. The fish-out-of-water character only has so many legs, and he becomes very unpleasant during the runtime. I liked the introduction of Cassie (Perry Mooney), who gets to have one of the biggest reveals in the show. But there were social dynamics that never quite came together.

While the show is strongest at its start and end, even when it is feeling a bit stretched, it is still filled with hilarious moments. There are police interrogations, awkward parties, and a trivia night that almost turned into a lynching. While I generally enjoyed my time here, you could also see some missed opportunities or when the budget just didn’t quite stretch. Some of the special effects, including one nasty crocodile, were quite noticeable, if thankfully brief. Also, I think it could have been nice to play around with the title a bit more, given the number of people in the town does not stay at 11.

In the end, do we recommend Population 11? Well, watching it, you can see the ways in which it didn’t quite come together. However, the firm setting and entertaining cast make up for any of the shortfalls.   

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, Ben Young, Helena Brooks,  
Written by – Phil Lloyd, Steve Toltz, Michael Bond, Julia Moriarty, Sarinah Masukor, Zoe Pepper,  
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, Perry Mooney, Katrina Milosevic, Darren Gilshenan, Stephen Curry, Rick Donald, Chai Hanson, William Zappa, Tony Briggs, Genevieve Lemon, Emily Taheny, Fiona Choi, Karis Oka, Pippa Grandison, Steve Le Marquand, Ethan Gosatti, Alastair Bradman, Phill Lloyd, Chris Kirby, Sachin Joab, Madeleine Jones, Oliver Wenn, Virginie Laverdure, Chloe Goraya & Mark Commetti  
Episodes Covered – Outback UFO Tours, Stray Dogs, Who’s Jeff, Sweet ‘N’ Sour Dingo, Confession, The Bunker, Earth Room, The Sea, Trivia Night, Like Father Like Son, Desert Pearls & The Scorpion And The Frog