UNDERBELLY: A TALE OF TWO CITIES

[indianasmith]

I happened across an episode of this Aussie druglord drama on DirecTV's 101 channel a while back and got hooked.  It tells the true story of the rise and fall of Terry Clark and Bob Trimbole, two criminals, one from Australia and one from New Zealand, who in the late 70's and early 80's controlled most of Australia's heroin trade.  It's not the kind of show I normally enjoy, but I'll admit after one or two episodes I got completely sucked into the drama and now catch it every Wednesday night.  The two main characters are both evil and strangely compelling; Clark is particularly well portrayed as a charming, womanizing psychopath who ruthlessly guns down anyone who threatens his criminal empire.  Oh, and most episodes have copious female nudity.  Of course, I switch over to FOX News during those scenes.

Anybody else watching this one?

[dean]

Funny story about this series:  it's all based on fact and has caused quite a stir here.

The first series so far has been the best [Two cities being the second series] and was actually banned in my state.  It's based on the recent [and still somewhat ongoing] gangland wars that were big in the 90s.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/nine-to-appeal-as-judge-bans-underbelly/story-e6frf7kx-1111115532913

The reason for the ban being that there were some court cases still outstanding, and the judge didn't want the jury to be biased because of the TV show, which was immensely popular.

Funnily enough the popularity of the show was probably responsible for people in my state becoming more aware of piracy [and by people, I mean those of the older generation who generally didn't know much about that stuff]

To those who don't know it's basically as if the Sopranos was about real life people.  It's of course not as well written but considering the scale of other Australian dramas, it stacked up very well and was quite entertaining.

I watched a bit of but not a lot of Two Cities, and it's not too bad; I'd probably even enjoy it quite a lot if I had the time to sit and watch it each week.

The third series is currently playing as we speak and I'm pretty sure they've upped the sex in this one too [likely since it's based on some infamous strip club in the 80s].  They sure know their market...  It's all quite interesting though since they're all still based on factual events and characters, which is probably why it's light on plot and heavy on those musical montage numbers.

Funny fact: In the first series, one of the main 'characters' Carl Williams was recently killed whilst in Jail, beaten with an exercise bike when apparently no-one was looking.  I bet that's going to be fodder for series Four...