Review – The Straits – Episode 3
The Straits – ABC1 – 8:30pm Thursday – AUS
Episode 3: Yawor My Lovely
If you read through all of the reviews for The Straits that popped up around its debut you could be forgiven for thinking David Chase had taken up residence in Northern Queensland and was busy writing ‘The Sopranos in thongs’. Of the ten reviews I found six of them made reference to that classic gangster series and of the four that didn’t two of them mentioned how The Straits appeared to be emulating the HBO-style. Personally, I think the Sopranos comparisons are surface level and silly especially considering that even a classy production like Boardwalk Empire which is written by an ex-Sopranos writer hasn’t lived up to that legacy so what hope does an Aussie series with a penchant for having characters be shot through the face with arrows have.
If you have to compare The Straits to any series it would make more sense to sit it alongside Sons Of Anarchy because they both share a love for pulpy soap opera with spatterings of cartoonish violence thrown in for fun. There are loads of crossover points between the series (Kitty Montebello as Gemma Tellar of the Top End, the hard patriarch of the family not being a blood relative to the son that’s next in line for the throne, they even share a love drug and gun running) but that’s all rather beside the point this week. Instead, I did actually want to follow the HBO-style thinking for a moment but only to ask the question: like a few notable HBO series of late will The Straits kill its big star Brian Cox?
As we saw at the end of this episode Cox’s Harry has been shot up pretty badly so the question has to be asked: will he pull through? I had my suspicions that Harry was always a long shot to survive the season as Cox’s appearance on this show felt like a one-off appearance rather than an ongoing multiple season commitment, but if he does drop dead in the next couple of weeks The Straits basically kills the number one reason to watch this show and that in itself is a massive problem. Not that The Straits wasn’t without its fair share of problems this week, but if this show loses Cox’s magnetic performance half way through the season it’s hard to see how it fills that gap.
Rather than reinforce what worked about the first two episodes this third episode instead just highlighted some of the problems with the series. Now, this isn’t to say that the episode itself wasn’t a reasonably entertaining hour of television, because it still was, it’s just there were more warning bells going off this week than there were last week. Of the stuff that worked the most noteworthy was Rena Owen’s performance as Kitty, she didn’t get to do all that much in episodes one and two but this week she really got a chance to show that Kitty can be just as manipulative as her husband. This episode also had a better handle on Gary’s refugee friend Joseph who wasn’t a wacky punchline this week, even if Joe and the screw-up Eddie seem to be starring in their own sitcom at times.
The Straits biggest problem is that the show has a tendency to overplay its hand. Let’s call this problem the ‘explosion in the background’ problem. Now not all of these instances where The Straits chose to reiterate a point it had just made by smashing us over the head included an explosion in the background, but at least two of them did and I think it makes an apt description for these particular storytelling tendencies.
The most obvious example from the episode was the fishing scene – Harry had taken Paddy out on the boat to go “fishing” because Sissi told Harry that Paddy had stolen 3.5 million dollars from him. The scene on the boat should have worked a lot better than it did but for some reason it didn’t quite pop despite Cox doing his best. Either way the scene ends the way we know it must end with Harry stabbing Paddy. This part works. Then the show goes into slow motion as Harry throws Paddy overboard and then covers the boat with gasoline to the sound of a heavenly choir singing over the soundtrack. He climbs into his dingy and rows away as his boat explodes in the background. Now, this will look swell in all sorts of promos for the show but it doesn’t really make any sense why he’d do that. Not only is Paddy now missing (which Harry wants to explain away as Paddy going on a trip) but his boat is also missing, and wouldn’t a massive explosion on the ocean cause an unwanted amount of attention? It’s not as though the boat would instantly sink, there would be smoke rising from it. The Straits made its point (Paddy is dead because you shouldn’t cross Harry) and then added an ‘explosion in the background’ because it couldn’t help itself.
The second case involved the sniper who is hunting down Harry and who actually shot him at the end of the episode. At one point our sniper friend is camping in some farmer’s field. The farmer comes across him, they have a chat about his rifle, and the sniper offers the farmer some tea. The next time we see them the farmer is dead – again, as you would expect – but instead of just being dead, the sniper fills his mouth with shotgun shells and pushes him into the fire. The sniper then gets in his car and as he drives off there’s an ‘explosion in the background’. Again – why? The show makes its point (this sniper is a dangerous man who will even kill helpless farmers) but then it adds ‘by exploding their face in a fire!!’ to the mix because it can be an unusually immature series.
The other instance of The Straits going over-the-top when it should underplay a scene mostly revolves around Sissi who comes across fairly daft in this episode. She should be one of the more interesting characters but Suzannah Bayes-Morton plays her with a permanent scowl on her face. Sissi tells her dad about Paddy and the 3.5 million he’s stolen but when she figures out Harry killed him she acts all horrified. We know Sissi’s aware of how dirty the family business can be, she helped Noel hide those drugs in the first episode, and she had to have to known that her father might do something to Paddy – surely it would have crossed her mind that he’d kill him, especially as it was 3.5 million dollars. So Sissi reacting the way she did makes her seem unbelievably naive.
Still, the scene where Harry told her that Paddy had gone on vacation and she should choose the destination and do up an itinerary worked, right up until the moment when Sissi ran out of the house to vomit in the fountain out the front. A solid moment of storytelling followed by an over-the-top moment of storytelling; she didn’t need to run that far to throw up. It didn’t help that ‘Sissi running away from her dad like a child’ happened twice in the episode and made it even sillier.
The final moment from the episode where The Straits couldn’t help but overplay things was back on Zey Island where Gary was driving Joseph to his boat when a branch fell on his car and he drove off the road into a tree. Fine; a bit random that a tree suddenly falls on his car, but that’s fine. Then Gary is bitten by a snake – which, come on. He’s either bitten by a snake OR his car is hit by a tree. That the show then had Gary hallucinate and call his dad to tell him he’d slept with Marou’s wife Lola only added to the stupidity of the situation. Harry threatening Lola is okay but it came about only because Gary was bitten by a snake after a tree fell on his car and that’s too many conveniently random events for that to work.
All of these complaints aren’t to say that The Straits doesn’t offer up an enjoyable hour of television because it does, these are just to say that there are some serious issues with the show that will become crippling over time if they aren’t rectified. There is one other problem with the show and that is the Lola problem but I’m sure there will be ample opportunities to talk about that in the coming weeks so I’ll wrap this up here. The Straits is still figuring out what it’s good at and what it doesn’t do so well. If the show wants to go over-the-top, as the jellyfish from last week would suggest that it does, it needs for the craziness to still make sense. Explosions for the sake of explosions get tiring after a while; explosions for the sake of telling a more interesting story that’s what The Straits needs to work on because if it does lose Brian Cox and continues to be this juvenile it’ll become hard to recommend.
Good, Alright, Bad Or Ugly?
Alright
This review is part of Change The Channel’s episode by episode coverage of The Straits. The full list of episode reviews can be found under Series.
I think you are going to hard on this TV series.
You seem unable to really give yourself over and let it be a bit fun and crazy. Instead of just going with the craziness and letting some things be silly, funny and over the top, you seem to mark everything down and pick pick pick. Common get a grip, this is just an entertaining piece of TV! I think The Straits is damn brave for going that bit further and pushing that bit wider than the usual Australian soapy crap.
You remind me of my little 10 year old son saying ‘nah, nah, thats not real… you cant do that… as if’
Its make-believe. Not real. FOR TV.
The Straits won me over with its unusual style and its brave script, action and actors. You gotta give them something!
I did give them something, I mentioned several times that it was an entertaining hour of television. And I gave the first two episodes a good review.
I think you misunderstand my picking at the show – I want this show to be as entertaining as possible and I only nitpick at the areas where the show troubles me.
It is going that bit further and pushing that bit wider than the usual Australian soapy crap, but that’s no reason to just let it get away with dopey story development or crappy character choices. I don’t care if the show does crazy things (I loved the jellyfish scene from last week) but those crazy things still need to make sense within the context of the universe that the show has created.
Oh dear. After three episodes, the series has really fallen into a really big hole, and I can’t see a way for it to get out. I find it hard to watch a series where a lot of things don’t make sense (I’m not saying that everything needs to be presented on a platter, but a lot of scenes in last night’s episode were just stupid).
Sorry ‘Blah’, but I think pdjones was actually being too kind in his analysis. I understand that TV is not real, and it’s the way that we all interpret the 25 frames per second that appear in front of our eyes that really matters. But last night’s episode was horrendous.
I don’t like watching television or any drama that treats me like a fuckwit, or assumes that I haven’t got a brain – or if writers/producers are so slack that they can’t go the extra yards to sort out some obvious flaws in a script. Yes, it’s great that’s it a local drama, set in FNQ and something a bit different, but why should we refrain from critiquing something or pointing out some really obvious flaws, just because something might be locally made, or people are being ‘brave’ (whatever that means)?
Wow Eddy, and here I was thinking maybe my analysis was a little too harsh – what didn’t work the most for you in this episode?
Hi pdjones, what didn’t work for me? Pretty much all the comments that you mentioned in your review and then some.
The sniper appeared out of nowhere, no context for his appearance (perhaps that will become evident later). Of course, we assume that he’s gunning for Harry, but why?
The sniper driving around in an EH Holden – not very conspicuous.
If Harry survives the gun attack, the show will lose all credibility for me – ie, one shoulder shot, and then two point blank shots – either the sniper is blind, an incredibley lousy shot, or had peas in the gun barrel. He had two clean shots from about three feet away, and this was before he was disturbed by the woman coming out onto the porch.
Lola – a poorly directed actor, weak lines, and feels like this is her first acting gig.
Yawn… another sex scene, other than to show a bit of screwing on screen. The warning at the beginning should mention “Warning to viewers: The program includes gratutious sex scenes”
Harry – $3.5 million is a lot of money, so why didn’t Harry get Paddy to sign over the stolen houses, and then kill him?
Missi – yes, you’re right. If she has a brain (and her character suggests that she has), she would have probably realised that Paddy would get whacked over his misdemeanours.
Paddy – he’s a good actor and got some screen gravitas, but now he’s gone. If Harry is gone (and I can’t believe that he will survive that attack), who else is there to support the show?
Gary is a good actor, but that accident-in-the-coconut-tree scene and the hallucination scene lost me. Anyway, he might be out anyway, but I bet Eddie will arrive at the last second with the anti-venom).
There’s no overiding control over the story or story running – things just appear for no reason, just to add another action scene or a bomb blast.
I’m not suggesting that these things need to be spelled out, but that writers think through their scenarios a bit better, and if things are not going to work, to try out a different angle. I can appreciate the difficulties of shooting on location and that scripts have to change pretty quickly to suit the circumstances, but near enough ain’t good enough.
The Gary hallucination scene was just outright silly (why wasn’t he at the family party? Everyone else was). Why would he tell his father that he slept with Lola, when he’s on the verge of dying? Why was he walking around after being bitten by a snake, when everyone knows that this increases the chances of poison circulating through the bloodstream?
As mentioned in my previous posting, TV is not real, but you want to have some level of plausibility in what you are seeing on screen. It can’t just be swept aside as justing being ‘make-believe’, so we can put up any rubbish on screen.
If that’s the case, you may as well have dragons and witches appearing when there’s a problem in the script, just like a deus ex machine at the end of Greek play (hey, that gives me an idea – The Straits concept, but with dragons, witches, zombies, and extra-terrestrial action! Maybe the ABC will buy the idea, because it seems that they are buying everything else at the moment).
Expectations also play a part as well. I’ll expect a certain level of entertainment or ‘make-believe’ from watching The Wiggles, or Outrageous Fortune, or Law and Order, or True Blood, or The Sopranos. They all play to their strengths and are competent in what they are trying to create. The Straits is not competent, in the same way that The Crownies was not, and it points to yet another failure of the ABC Drama Unit (how many more chances are these people going to get before someone realises that they are not up to the job?).
Sure, The Straits looks good (great opening credits) and some amazing visual scenes but, yet again, has been let down by poor acting, and some woeful storylines. Sorry if I’m offending all the people that like the show, and I’d like to succeed, but it’s just not hitting the mark.
With most of the things you mention it just comes down to lazy storytelling. The writers need to get from A to B and take the quickest route by skipping over logic.
Gary slept with Lola (and seriously, I have like a couple of thousand words on why she is a completely awful and sexist character who is little more than emotionless china doll, who exists simply so the show can put her in sex scenes – there have been three episodes and three sex scenes featuring Lola. Her character is an manipulative, nasty, non-human void – and yeah, you’re right, the lousy acting doesn’t help at all) and while Gary sleeping with Lola was already a pretty stupid development they needed that information to get to Harry. So how do they get there? Through lazy writing. Trees falling on cars. Snake bites. Hallucinations. Random phone calls so Gary can confess his sins.
I’m willing to give the show the benefit of the doubt far more than I was Crownies (mostly because this show has a higher level of difficulty than a legal drama/soap opera does) and it is still only episode three – but yeah, I am already aware of where the show can completely fall apart if it doesn’t fix itself.
The sniper who came out of nowhere doesn’t bother me at all, but I agree with the statement about Harry needing to die after that attack. No hitman stands that close and makes the ‘head shot’ the third shot – or for that matter, runs off before making the kill shot. Oddly, I’m not sure which is worst. Like you said, the show loses credibility if Harry lives, but it loses Brian Cox if he dies – and I’m not sure which is worse.
Wow, to be honest with you, EddyJ and Pdjones, you sound like a pair of embittered writers. Is it that your Smart, Infallible and Flawless scripts have been passed up too many times your only recourse is to write snippy critiques?
This is a new, interesting and, yes, BRAVE piece of Australian television. I agree there are some extraneous explosions, I agree there are flaws in some of the plot construction, but no more than in any other action drama series out there. It’s fictional television AND it’s only in ep 3! Would you rather we languish in the formulaic blandness of Sea Patrol and Packed to the Rafters?
Picking on something as minor as how far someone should walk before they throw up convincingly, is just petty. On the character of Sissy, I think she reacted exactly how someone would when finally witnessing first hand the monster living inside her father; especially when her actions were the direct catalyst for this emergence. I for one, think Bayes Morton is playing this character with a refreshing minimal quality, hard to find amongst the generic ‘over acting’ oozing through the cracks on Australian screens.
Also, how can you judge a characters overall use when their development has only had 3 episodes to gestate? Who knows what motivations characters such as Lola have and where their actions may take them?
Sounds like you might as well stop watching and start writing your own FanFic if you think you can do better.
I don’t actually think you enjoy television, I think you enjoy looking down your noses at it. How about you get behind something new? Suspend some of that self righteousness and stop crouching in anticipation to take such petty swipes at something that is a breath of fresh (free to) air for Australian television.
Here we go – the classic ‘if you don’t like it you must be bitter writers, I’d like to see you do better’ defense. Come on Evan, I’m happy to debate the merits of the show with you (and again, as I stated twice in the review I said this was an enjoyable hour of television AND I mentioned that it was only the third episode) but if you’re going to resort to lame defenses like “you might as well stop watching and start writing your own FanFic”, what’s the point?
This is a show that the creators compared to The Sopranos, The Wire and Deadwood – the creators, not just the critics; so it is obvious that they want to be held to a higher standard than simply ‘oh it’s better than Sea Patrol therefore it is infallible’.
You’re right that we don’t know what motivations characters such as Lola have and our opinion of her may change over time but at the moment her actions have no motivation beyond ‘she is a pretty, emotionless sex object’. If this changes I will write that it changes, but I’m not going to ignore it until then.
Too right! Let’s see how the drama unfolds next Thursday.
OK, I get it guys.
You both are incredibly intelligent and have astutely noticed every little detail that may halt your disbelief suspending. Good on you. A+.
At least the rest of us can just enjoy it.
PS after reading a few more of your reviews, I will now call you a Hater and box you in tight with Jim Schembri from The Age.
I just hope you know that wasn’t all for your benefit. That was just a discussion between two people who enjoy television and enjoy talking about television.
Okay, I’m glad you have labeled me as a Hater with a capital H after reading a few of my reviews, this is obviously a label which holds incredible weight seeing as you’ve established a complete inability to accept nuance.
Hello ‘Blah’,
Thank you for the compliments and the A+ – how did you know that I am so smart!
Let’s make a deal – you enjoy the show, I’ll keep pointing out the errors in their ways, and may our universes collide and sparks continue to fly. It will keep us both happy.
It’s great that the ABC is trying to explore a different landscapes and stories but it is done with such a lack of intelligence that it is just insulting. When are they going to learn there is actually an astute television audience out there that likes some kind of sense and quality in their story telling. I don’t which is worse the acting or the writing. Rena Owen with her tight – I’m being a manipulative bitch voice or Lola’s moronic sexuality. Why did the hired killer have to kill the farmer? it wasn’t like he needed to cover his tracks when he was miles away from his hit. Is this guy meant to be a professional or just an out of control psychopath. Violence and sex should add energy to a story but the violence and sex in The Straits is so completely random and over the top that it just leaves you gasping at its stupidity. Incoherent, juvenile and insulting. I don’t think it should be compared to Sons of Anarchy which is great entertaining, high energy television. Even on its worse days Sons never the lost the plot so completely.
The Sons Of Anarchy comparison was more there to point out how silly the Sopranos comparisons were. Why compare it to one of the most critically acclaimed television shows of the last decade when a show that it shares far more in common with exists in the world? The Straits and Sons Of Anarchy are both in the same genre of pulp action series so if you need to compare it to an American series (and a lot of critics seem to have that need) then why not do it to a show that it actually shares some traits with. I should have been more clear about that point, I think.
PDJones and EddyJ, I think it’s really interesting that reviewers like yourselves are happy to pick apart something that has taken some risks, but completely ignore the fact that television like this just isn’t getting made in Australia at the moment. Sure, it has some flaws, but it’s the nit-pickiness of your reviews that really doesn’t sit well with me. You have clearly worked yourselves up into such a state about this series that the moment something doesn’t feel entirely realistic to you, you are furiously writing it down in your notepad for further belittling later.
It worries me that we as Australians can’t just sit and fall into the fantasy of an Australian-made series without picking it completely apart.
I understand where you’re coming from and I get it but it bothers me more when we give a show a free pass simply because it’s trying something a little different. We can’t just will away the problems with this program simply because it is not Sea Patrol or Packed To The Rafters. I want to see Australian television series that can go toe-to-toe with American and British TV series, and we don’t get that by just patting a show on the head because it does something slightly different. Just because it’s better than most Australian shows (and this is something I’m happy to admit) doesn’t mean that it’s a good TV show.
For Australian TV to be as good as it can be we HAVE to compare it to the best television has to offer. This is not a great example of a television show, this is a flawed television show and pointing out those flaws isn’t a bad thing.
pdjones, EddyJ & cameos. I got more entertainment out of reading this page than one second from ‘The Straits’.
Australian attempt at HBO drama – how stupid do the producers/ABC think we are?
The writing is poor. The direction is bland and the acting is appalling. The blame IMO should rest with the producers who have little regard for the culture and community they are exploiting for their own egos and bank accounts. Of all the storys TSI and PNG can offer up the producers choose this?
e.g. Why is Kitty speaking in a Kiwi accent? Why is she appalling at speaking Creole?
I know why, but why not make it part of the story? Why assume we are stupid? Fudge, fudge, fudge!
Why does Harry’s stalker kill the friendly farmer in cold blood but runs away like a school boy when the woman comes to the door to check on the commotion outside? Fudge, fudge, fudge!
There are so many it’s just unbelievable.
Please ABC nurture Torres Strait Producers to let them tell their own storys. Not more ‘missionaries’ on their own ego trip.
I’m not a hater, I’m just been spoilt with great stories, eg The Wire, Hung, Bored to Death, etc. You cannot serve this drivel up and expect much of a following. Lazy, lazy, Lazy!
Geo do your research before you post something like that.
The idea for The Straits came from Aaron Fa’aoso, who plays Noel. He is a Torres Strait Islander. He is one of the executive producers of this show. He approached the others to get it made, and they backed him. Read any article where he is mentioned. Most of the stories come from him.
Exploiting their own egos and bank accounts? Do you have any f*$%ing idea how close producing is to taking your money out into your backyard and setting it on fire? If you’re so quick to judge these people, why don’t you go and make a series huh? Let’s see how that one works out for you. Seriously, let me know when you’re making it. I can’t wait to watch it.
And “Missionaries on their own ego trip?” Where did you get this info from? Proof, please. This series is ripe with Torres Straits Islander faces and I know at least 6 Torres Strait Islanders who were hired as crew, not counting the number of Cairns locals who were hired to work on the show. If the producers were on their own ego trip, don’t you think they would have just hired white people to do the show? Brought all their own crew from Sydney?
If you want people to pay attention to what you are saying and not immediately disregard it as un-researched tripe (which it clearly is) start by finding out more about a show before you accuse it of a whole heap of rubbish.
And pdjones I do get your point, I just don’t see this series as being as bad as you make it out to be. I and a lot of people I know really like it.
Look it’s a fine line. We can’t give shit shows a leave pass for being crap just because they are Australian. But this is a good show, and not enough people are watching it – funding for Aussie television dramas is already pitiful, but if we don’t get behind shows like this, that have some flaws but are at least entertaining, then I fear that our screens will just be drowning in American waters.
I also want Australians to make great dramas – it’s part of the reason I started doing these episode by episode reviews in the first place because there’s not a lot of discussion about Australian shows after they premiere – but I think that if we don’t encourage the writers in this country to do better there’s the risk that they will simply make shows that are ‘good enough’ rather than great.
I also believe The Straits has had a pretty easy run of it in regards to generating good press (all of those Sopranos comparisons) but I also think it’s led to some pretty unreasonable expectations for the show. This isn’t a HBO-calibre drama series, this is a reasonably solid crime series that has some problems. I don’t feel like there’s any benefit to this show, or to any future Australian shows, in not acknowledging those flaws. I also appreciate that not everybody will feel this way about the show, but I also feel as though I’ve been pretty positive towards the show seeing as I’ve yet to give the series a “Bad” review.
I am only three shows in and don’t want to read any further than this for spoilers. I am in two minds about the show so far. It has definitely been entertaining so far and I pretty much hate locally made shows for their lack of quality and thought put into them.
I can live with the comedy parts and also forgive most of the bad acting. There isn’t a lot of chances for Islanders or North Queenslander’s in general to try their hand at acting so can understand that they might not have master subtleties of heavy drama tv acting.
This is most definitely not brave tv. With the popularity of HBO styled shows in recent years (Boardwalk Empire, Breaking Bad, Soparrno’s and everything else) and also the ongoing success of Underbelly, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the ABC has finally gotten around to having a go at emulating this.
The concept worked really well on paper as well. Not set in Melbourne or Sydney (tick), Indigenous actors/storyline used without resorting to political statements or using them as a anthropological case study in face paint using clapping sticks (tick), throw in the general bat shit craziness that only north qld can provide the back drop for and I was actually sort of excited to watch this.
This would have been brave tv if they didn’t chicken out half way through and settle for near enough is good enough. This won’t do well outside of Australia at all which is a crying shame as the elements of the storyline are so uniquely Australian and could have been so entertaining. Instead we get explosions and saxophone sound tracked sex scenes. They aren’t nitpicking at all it is genuine disappointment as this the closest anyone has come to getting it right so far and yet they have still squandered the chance to make something special.