Review – The Straits – Episode 5
The Straits – ABC1 – 8:30pm Thursday – AUS
Episode 5: Epiphanies
We’ve reached the halfway point in The Strait’s ten episode series. Over these next few episodes is when The Straits needs to put its money where its mouth is and deliver some stellar drama. One of the great things about television is that all shows are able to redeem themselves no matter how shaky their early episodes may be. The Straits has a had a couple of flat episodes in a row, this one included, but if it brings things home in a thrilling way then most faults will be forgiven because the ride will have been worth it. At the moment though The Straits is still struggling to find itself, like the Montebello family themselves The Straits doesn’t seem to know what direction it wants to head.
The Straits seems to have three modes of storytelling – there’s the incredibly serious side filled with earnest conversations where the characters speak all of their motivations out loud and everybody always seems to be frowning, a side we’ll call The Sissi Approach. There’s the over-the-top, violent side where machine gun fire signals the end of a scene, we’ll call this The Noel Method. Then there’s the larrikin side of things where the show doesn’t take anything terribly seriously and prefers to let the characters have some fun, usually on Zey Island whilst sampling the local culture, this is of course The Gary System.
There are, naturally, other elements to this series that don’t fit into these boxes, but these are the three styles of storytelling that seem to stick out the most. The Straits can, of course, pick and choose from any of these styles and still tell a interesting and compelling drama series, but what I’ve found is that it seems to get stuck in a particular mode of storytelling rather than mixing them up. Ideally, The Straits would be a show that could be serious, over-the-top and laidback within the course of the episode and have all of those elements feel like part of the same show but for me those elements aren’t gelling and are often just undercutting each other.
Take the goofiest sequence from last night’s episode: the crocodile encounter. Lola was working late at the croc farm packaging up some birds to smuggle out of the country (side note: I’d love it if the show delved more into the intricate details of how the business does what it does because all of their dealings feel kind of vague at the moment), as she walked back along the path to her car she had a run in with a crocodile that had somehow escaped. The show could have played this any of those three ways; it could have gone over-the-top, it could have turned the scene into a bit of a joke but instead it took it oddly seriously (which inadvertently turned it into a joke). It didn’t help that the sequence itself was poorly shot and that the croc was so damned slow moving that Lola’s panic run to the car could only look silly as the crocodile barely moved behind her.
As the family all sat around the dinner table promising to catch the bastards who released the crocodile I couldn’t help by wonder why none of them were joking about it. This could have been a sequence where the show mixed all of its elements together by having the croc attack be over-the-top, Lola’s distraught reaction be serious and the family’s response be laid back and comical but for whatever reason it chose not to do that. My ideal scenario for that sequence would have been for Lola to be eaten but sadly that probably wasn’t ever going to happen.
Where these mixing of elements work for me is on Zey Island, which at the moment is an enjoyable holiday away from dreary Cairns where Noel, Marou and Sissi put on their serious faces and discuss their various plans for the family business. Meanwhile Gary gets to head home to Zey Island to transport some sex workers back to Australia for Noel. Gary is the character on the show I like the most, and not just because of Firass Dirina’s fun performance but because he actually feels like a person. The show gives Gary an interesting world to play in filled with fun characters, like Eddie and Joseph who are both really growing on me. The Straits is at its best when it’s dealing with the minor problems on Zey Island. For me Zey Island is the only time the show comes alive as the stuff back on Cairns is increasingly beginning to feel like a tired Underbelly knock-off.
On Zey Island we get to see a world that doesn’t exist in other television shows. This is where the heart of the show is, this is where the show sets itself apart from other crime family sagas, but The Straits seems reluctant to do more with Zey Island than just have Gary go there occasionally. Deals with bikies, Harry lying in his hospital bed while his children jockey for position, evil mothers, evil wives, it’s all so been there done that – but Gary’s time on Zey Island and then in PNG is a good mix of all of the elements that make up The Straits. There’s the laidback joking with Eddie and Joseph and their quest to get his wheels back, the seriousness of Gary standing up to his brother by not taking the girls and the over-the-top gunplay that follows that scene. This is the Straits that I enjoy; the rest of it is become a bit of a bore.
While I’ve mentioned in previous reviews that I have a problem with Lola as a character the show now has a bigger problem in Noel. Aaron Fa’aoso has a strong screen presence but he has a limited acting range, with this episode The Straits has turned Noel into an irredeemable asshole and Fa’aoso lacks the chops to make it interesting. Noel’s been on a slippery slope as a character as he makes rash decisions (like firing a rocket launcher into the bikie’s club house) but he hasn’t done anything as awful as traffic children for sex slavery. It’s hard to see how The Straits gets out of this one – unless, of course this was all some plan of Noel’s where he bought the girls to save them or something or other.
If there isn’t some twist in this story that shows Noel’s intentions weren’t simply to sell underage girls into sex slavery then the show has created a character who they can’t do anything with anymore. There are anti-heroes who do dark things and then there are guys who trade children into sex slavery. I’m not saying that a show COULDN’T follow a character this awful but I am saying that I don’t think The Straits is the show to do it. If you look at a character like Walter White from Breaking Bad, his decision to make meth in the first place was for his family and it’s how he justifies to himself all of the increasingly awful things he does. Noel doesn’t have clear motivations and unless this is some ruse on his part, there is nothing the show can do with him to justify this development.
One of the reasons I was so excited for this show in the first place is because it looked like it was going to explore a world we hadn’t seen on our screens before. Why I’m disappointed by the show is that it hasn’t really done anything new with the world. The show feels like an Underbelly instalment at times because a lot of the characters are poorly sketched out and just say their every intention out loud. This isn’t true of the entire show but it’s the part of show that’s holding the rest back from being all that good. The Straits isn’t a lost cause by any means because as I mentioned earlier everything can change if The Straits can string a couple of good episodes together on the way to the finale.
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’ve enjoyed your reviews of “The Straits” and posted on Episode 3, a little late.
Just one little correction – its Zey Island not Fey. Small I know but important to some.
What really shines through to me is the contempt the producers and ABC TV decision makers have for their audience. IMO, too many people have had a ‘say’ in the decision making of this show, to many ego’s. The scatter gun approach to storytelling to attract a wide audience or what you call the ‘Three modes’ also belies a lack of self belief and vision.
Sadly, to get around this the producers think an exotic location can camouflage these flaws. I realise the dollars available to Australian producer’s is a lot less than their US counterparts, but the road to substance means finding creators outside the well worn and familiar. It’s harder and takes longer but in the end is worth it, IMO. This TV show is like all McDonald’s hamburgers – supposedly full of all the right ingredients to make a great burger but in the end so bland it blends into one, soon to be forgotten.
Thanks for the heads up Geo – I’ve fixed to Zey. I must have just absentmindedly convinced myself it was Fey.
I felt the episode was an improvement on the previous two or three, but still problems with the way the program gels together. Again, the attempts at comedy were so weak – the scene of the bird-smuggling tube and Lola/Gary attempted sex scene was pretty weird! Was it meant to be funny, in-your-face, or something else?
Message to all Australian scriptwriters and producers: “You might be good at serious drama, or comedy, but cease and desist your attempts to combine the two immediately! IT’S JUST NOT WORKING!”
Not a big issue, but bird-smuggling is a pretty boring criminal activity – I guess it shows that the Montebello’s have got a broad business model, including smuggling 12-year-old sex slaves in from PNG (or attempting to). Didn’t understand Gary’s aversion to smuggling the apparently underage sex-slaves, given his penchant for sexual interests in Lola and Bridget – both look like they are about 15 years old.
Anyhow, an improvement on previous episodes, but not by much.
i’m absolutely enthralled by this show! remember though, I’m in the states, have never seen any episodes of any Underbelly franchise and have never travelled to Australia or New Guinea.
Of all the scenes, I too, like the ones on Zey, because I think the person (firass?) who plays Gary is hands down the best actor on this show. He makes the comedy funnier and the serious moments believable. The fact that he can make me stomach Lola nominates him for actor-of-the-year in my book!
On the subject of Lola: why? that’s all…just why??!! terrible role in general and unless I missed some key background info, I don’t understand the entire “religious ferver” element that’s written into the show.
As for Noel and the human trafficking storyline…weren’t the girls rescued when the authorities arrested the boat owner/smuggler? Since Noel orchestrated that bust by dropping a dime, I assumed he’d redeemed himself. I haven’t seen ep 6 yet ( been having trouble finding a copy that actually plays through/works) soI may be way off base by thinking Noel’s off the hook.
I’m curious…is there any talk of a series 2 for this show?
will check back in after i find/watch ep 6
No talk of a second series just yet. The ratings are fairly low, so it could really go either way.
My bad – I must have read that rescue completely wrong – if Noel did organize the rescue (and you’re probably right, and I’m just an idiot who missed it) then I guess it redeems him. Still, why didn’t he mention any of that to his family?
The religious fervour thing is a Torres Strait thing – like everything else the reviewer considers unbelievable or annoying. Crocs on land are pretty passive, so the fact it didn’t chase after her was totally normal. When I saw it my reaction was “just walk around it you idiot”.
That’s fair enough but the show treated it like it was a serious attack. Lola freaked out (and she works on a croc farm and probably should have known better) and nobody said at any point “Lola, you know crocs aren’t dangerous on land – you should have just walked around it.” The show treated the slow moving crocodile like it was in full on attack mode and that’s what I had a problem with.