Tag Archives: Australian Television

TV Review – Cleverman: Muya

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TL;DR – Relationships and repaired and torn, and for some blackmail is the least of their worries

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Cleverman Muya

Review –

So at the end of last week’s episode Dark Clouds (review) we find that Aunty Linda (Deborah Mailman) didn’t just cause Koen’s (Hunter Page-Lochard) parents deaths through negligence, but she was actively trying to kill them, and then Waruu (Rob Collins) just slit Koen’s throat and slapped on some red kryptonite sap from a Melaleuca to stop him from regenerating. Oh boy, was that a lot to take in, and we have had a week to learn what everyone’s fate will be, and tonight’s episode Muya packs all the same punches and more, as we continue our drive to the end of the season. Just a warning, there will be some [SPOILERS] going forward so be careful.
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TV Review – Cleverman: Bindawu & Dark Clouds

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TL;DR – As Season Two continues we start to see where the lines in the sand will be drawn, and characters are starting to take a stand against the coming storm

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Cleverman Bindawu & Dark Clouds Banner

Review –

So we continue our look at Cleverman’s second season, and after the carnage of Revival (review), we get a couple of episodes to hold our breath … nope, we continue steam rolling through the season with carnage in our wake. So today we will be discussing both Bindawu & Dark Clouds so there may be some spoilers going forward, however, if you want to be careful and have not watched these episodes, then I would suggest avoiding the paragraph on openings and cliff-hangers towards the bottom.

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TV Review – Cleverman: Revival

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TL;DR – Season 2 opens with a bang, leaves you wanting more, and fearing the worst.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Cleverman

Review –

Wow what an opener, I mean we loved Season One of Cleverman, but I don’t think anything prepared us for how this first episode of Season Two was going to play out. So to remind everyone of where we left off last season, Koen (Hunter Page-Lochard) had rallied all the remaining residents of The Zone to fight the coming Containment Authority. His brother Waruu (Rob Collins) rejected his family and his people to stand with Jarrod Slade (Iain Glen) who is trying to unlock Hairy DNA and the power it possesses and that creep probably did something to his wife Charlotte’s (Frances O’Connor) pregnancy. Finally, Araluen (Tasma Walton) was able to escape the brothel she had been imprisoned in after killing the minister in charge. All through the season we were building up to the conflict, Koen was understanding and accepting his role as the Cleverman, and then bang season two opens and Koen is dead in a body bag, and you know nothing is safe anymore. So in our review today we are going to be covering all the aspects of the first episode of Season Two, so there will be [SPOILERS] for those who have not seen it yet. If you have not seen Revival yet, you can watch it easily on ABC IView, or SundanceTV, and you should go do that right now.
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Streaming Round Up – Trip for Biscuits, Ultimate Beastmaster, & White Rabbit Project

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Trip for Biscuits

TL;DR – This was a lovely bunch of fun zany episodes, which are wisely only 10 minutes long each, so they never really outstay their welcome

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Trip for Biscuits

Review –

So what would you do if when you were young your parents left in the back of a burrito track in mysterious circumstances abandoning you in a playground … and they didn’t even like burritos, well it might be searching for them your whole life until you decide to find a detective agency to help you, a detective agency that deals with aliens and one of its members has their brain in a jar.

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TV Review – Cleverman Season 1

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TL;DR –  Cleverman is revolutionary TV show in many ways, its freshman season was a powerful work of cinema, though not a perfect one.

Score – 4 out of 5 Stars

Review –

For those who have not seen the show yet, and you should go fix that, Cleverman is the story of Australia in the not too distant future. Where we lock people up just because they are different or because it is politically convenient for the government to shift the blame on to them, where people have to shed aspects of their cultural identity to try and protect themselves from harm just because they are perceived as being different, and where the government can use the catch-all excuse of ‘national security’ to hide things from the population and to deflect condemnation of the international system. So you know it’s clear that this is fiction because that would never happen in modern Australia…  To do my overview of the first season of the series I am probably going to spoil a couple of things, so you have been warned now to only proceed if you have watched the show.

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TV Review – Cleverman ‘A Free Ranger’

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TL;DR –  ‘A Free Ranger’ is a quieter episode than last week, but in doing so it lulls us into a false sense of security so when the feels hit, they hit hard.

Score – 4/5 Stars

Cleverman. Image Credit: ABC TV.

Review –

We have reached the half way point in the first season of Cleverman, and while ‘A Free Ranger’ is not as action packed as last week’s ‘Containment’, it deftly moves all the major players into position for the coming confrontation. People make choices that will no doubt come back to haunt them, players pick sides, people are being pushed aside, alliances are being sought, and double crossing is afoot.

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TV Review – Cleverman ‘Containment’

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TL;DR –  ‘Containment’ continues ‘First Contacts’ strong start, with one of the most confronting scenes on Australian TV, whilst also dropping hint as to some of the mysteries that we will be uncovering this season.

Score – 4/5 Stars

Cleverman. Image Credit: ABC TV.

Review –

“The past is the past, you can’t change it. All you can do is try to do better“

Last week heralded the start of one of the most important shows that has graced Australian TV in a long time. While it wasn’t flawless, it showed you can have a cast that flips the norm and not only can it work, but people will tune in and jump on board. This week if you thought the creators would give you a rest from last week’s revelations, well then you are going to be sadly mistaken, as Cleverman ratchets up the tension and delivers on the powerful ending to the pilot episode.

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TV Review – Cleverman ‘First Contact’

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TL;DR – A good pilot with an interesting story and characters, but needs to work a little more on world building to give the story context

Score – 3.5/5 Stars

Cleverman. Image Credit: ABC TV.

Review – First Contact is the first episode of an interesting new Australian TV show Cleverman, a show that blends a future dystopic Australia, with its mythological past, whilst taking a megaphone to its present. The main thrust of the show is the story of two brothers Koen (Hunter Page-Lochard) and Waruu (Rob Collins) who grew up in a walled off part of future Sydney called The Zone. Koen escaped his life and family, and runs a bar outside The Zone, as well as other less than legal business activities, while Waruu has become a pillar of the community in The Zone.

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