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Utopia (I) (2014– )
7/10
Another Australian gem
25 August 2014
This is yet another masterpiece from the team of Santo (Snatto), Gliesner and Sitch, the people who brought you the brilliant political satire "The Hollowmen".

Those who don't work within the Public Service of Australia will likely look at this and wonder what is going on, but for those of us on the "inside", the humour can be found.

The basic premise revolves around a Government office (Nat. Building Authority), with its incompetent low-grade staff, it's time-wasting managers, pushy marketing department, and the piles of red tape our "hero" (Sitch) has to wade through to get even the most simple things done.

Like 'Hollowmen', the humour here is very dry, and while there are still the sight gags and silliness we expected from a show like that, there's a lot of subtlety that will be lost on those not familiar with what it's like working in the APS.

To those who enjoyed 'Hollowmen', I would highly recommend this show. It's not quite as good as that show in my opinion, as the 'lead' characters aren't as fully developed (Tony, Nat and Hugh are marvellous though), and at times some of the characters irritate me to no end (Rhonda, oh how I hate you). Although thinking about it, that's probably the whole idea, because aside from the moronic PA, these people would not seem out of place at all in any government department.

The acting (c'mon, it's a small Aussie show, we're not expecting A-listers) for the most part is very good. Sitch, Pacquola, McGregor, Wilson and yes, even Kitty Flanagan do a wonderful job of portraying "Pubes". The small-part characters are also quite memorable, particularly the guy from the iSelect ads. Sadly, some like Lawson, Truslove and even Lehman, just seem to be phoning it in (Lawson's character Scott also feels entirely pointless).

Kudos to these guys for producing yet another Australian gem. The first episode is a little slow (and seemed like it needed an "Intro"), but by episode 2, everything was looking great. Except Rhonda...
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Rake (2014)
2/10
Yet another US remake
23 January 2014
Once again the USA is remaking another brilliant show, this time from Australia. Why they'd feel the need to remake a show in English, and replace the cast with B-listers (at best) is beyond me, however being a massive fan of the original series, I figured I would give this a shot.

The overlying plot is basically the same - a smarmy lawyer getting up to shenanigans, and getting himself into situations that are borderline criminal.

However, with shows like this it is impossible NOT to compare them to the original, and this version falls far, far short. The jokes are delivered in a more sitcom fashion, and rather than having little funny bits amongst the drama, they are forced upon and delivered like one-liners. The characters are hard to relate to, and become dislikeable very quickly, especially Cleaver (sorry, I mean Keegan) who has a likability in the Australian version.

I, in all good conscience, cannot recommend this to anyone. If you want a gritty drama with occasional humour, I highly suggest you watch the original series, which is in its 3rd season currently.

This, I suspect will go the way of so many remakes, and end up failing miserably.
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