FILMENATOR - My Candid Take on Movies from Around the Globe

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UNDERBELLY

November 6th 2008 08:37

WILL THERE BE A SECOND SERIES?

Cast from the first series

A second series of Underbelly is said to be in the works. First rumours were very strong on it being a prequel and then came reports that it was to be set around the time and place - Griffith, NSW - of Donald Mackay’s murder. Donald Mackay was a family man who disappeared after he publicly aired his grievances about local underworld connections. * The first series re-told certain events which took place in 1995-2004 in Melbourne and came to be known as the gangland wars. A Supreme Court injunction prevented screening in Victoria and engendered a thriving under-the-counter business in pirated DVDs. The injunction was said to protect certain accused. Apparently, ordinary people who sit on a jury and decide another’s fate are deemed so impressionable that a television show could impinge on their good sense. Poor Carl Williams! He got his face in the news, got famous, went to prison for a long, long time and they made a show about his exploits. He must have been thinking his chance for immortality had come. Too bad for him that he got played by Gyton Grantley. * When the injunction was partly lifted and some episodes were screened most Victorians had already seen illegal versions of the series. We love to witness transgressions of our moral code; one that most of us fear to break - though some would like to and many do, every day, by entirely legal means. * Of course we wanted the bad guys to win! And a steady stream of dangerous sex, as a counterpoint to all the bloody violence? The main cop was kind of cute but it was the gangsters that everyone was interested in. And they were mostly so believable that it was hard to remember that they were just actors - pretending. Which is why Carl and Roberta Williams leaped off the screen like looney-tunes characters. Gyton Grantley’s Carl had a permanent stupid sneer and Kat Stewart played Roberta with two reactions - shrieking and swearing. No wonder Roberta Williams wanted to punch her. These two aside, it was an excellent production and I’m looking forward to the sequel. Or prequel.

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