FAO: Aussies - "Underbelly"

Johnno

(Except Victorians because you're not allowed to watch it even though it's about Melbourne, ha ha ha!)

Aussie television in general is shite, admittedly coming from a man who grew up in England so therefore has another example to compare to.
Year after year I have seen TV bombarded with utter wank such as Two and a Half Men and any sitcom with David Spade in it. The bottomless American drivel is only supplemented by a few decent English shows such as Life on Mars or old Parkinson re-runs; showing ridiculously dated efforts such as The Antiques Roadshow, Heartbeat and Inspector Frost in primetime slots shows how poorly researched the programmers are studying the market.
Any Aussie effort in recent years like Headland, White Collar Blue and other short-lived bags of plop show just why American-Anglo imports are the main ingredient of our visionary diets.
Yet, with this series Underbelly, a new definition has been set in regards to Australian drama; I am a big fan of this show for many reasons. It has plenty of tit and minge and birds getting a good knobbing with lots of people getting shot and plenty of swearing.
The dialogue is cheesy and the actors portraying the characters are snide as fuck and would piss their pants in fear if they even got close to the real person they mimic in reality, but that's okay but at the end of the day, it is only a TV show.
But the fact this is based on real-life events is the best aspect of this show to me, and just goes to show that life can sometimes be more interesting and stranger than fiction.
The last episode is on tomorrow night with the box-set DVD out on Thursday.

Christofaux

The box set is sold out.


Two and a half men is funny, as is david spade.

Good News Week is currently the best show on Aussie TV IMO.

Johnno

Two and a Half Men is the biggest bag of shit that's ever been on telly, and that chubby little kid in the show is the faggiest little ugly fat-fuck around; the worst is when they sing the opening titles. It is bizarrely queer.
The best thing on Aussie telly at the moment, aside from underbelly of course, is Gordon fucking Ramsay! Says a lot really.

Yianni

Shame they killed off Vince Colosimo. I was going to get into this show but heard he died in the first episode or something like that. He's a decent actor imo.

I might get into still; people seem to talk about it all the time.

Aussie TV has always been terrible, I only ever turn it for the sports, and I’m sure the majority do the same. If Foxtel isn’t good enough, which it isn’t because it’s still behind American TV, then download your shows. That’s what I do.

Big Mouth

I love Underbelly, I'm currently reading the book as well. It's a bit of a juggling act not reading too far ahead and spoiling the next episode on the TV.
It's also a good game spotting the mistakes, like a fridge full of Coke Zero in the servo about 4 years before it was released. Some of the cars were wrong too in the early episodes, late model Commodores driving along in the mid 90s.

Matt23v2

Awesome show...apparently there planning a second series, this time a prequel.

Johnno

they killed off Vince Colosimo because the guy he played died in real life mate! He did a good job playing him though, they are thinking of brining the character into it more for the planned prequel series.

Yianni

I heard about this prequel, so I'm hoping it's centered around Vince's character which is another reason why I'm probably now going to get into this show.

yaka8

The funny thing is, it was banned in Victoria before the first episode was shown yet everyone i know has seen it!

We had copies from people driving round in vans around shopping centres, building sites, ect, ect.

it is a great show and shows the characters very well...

some of the characters are shit, but some are so close to the real people its scary!

Loved the show and will definately be buying the DVD box set,

Saw the boxset at a Music and DVD confrence i went to and when you open up the boxset it has a map of Melbourne and has hotspots of where the shootings occured..looks really good

Big Mouth

How do you know? How many of the Carlton Crew have you met, for example. How would any of us know what these people are really like.

Melbourne Red

Yaka is Tony Mokbel.

yaka8

I used to "Sell things" to one of the higer profile members haha, I work as a salesman and she used to come into the shop regularly and the resembelence was uncanny...
Ive only met 1 of them, but someone else i know was pretty close to another one of the members.

Melbourne Red

You looked fucking silly with that wig on, to be fair.

Big Mouth

I can't work out how a bloke goes from being Harold's son in Neighbours to the patriach of a crime gang. Worst bit of casting ever.

Wibble

I have no idea what you are talking about in either case.