Mystery Road: Origin

Amazing. I was dreading this being a bad prequel with sub standard acting compared to the original Mystery Road with the amazing Arron Pederson. But...wow. This is stunning. Phenomenal acting, brilliant cinematography and photography that just stuns you. Have you ever seen the outback? Yeah I have. I live here and this is it - bang on accurate: feel the dust.

This is the outback writ large on film. Seriously congratulations to everyone involved in this, it's a creative credit to the original, and a new and impressive addition to the Mystery Road series and movies. 10/10.

Look me up, see my reviews, I hate almost everything. I bloody loved this. Gold star folks. If you haven't watched the original series, do yourself a favour and get into that. Then, watch this and thank me. I can't recommend this highly enough. Aussie TV at its best:

Having seen all the other Mystery Roads and Goldstone with the great Aaron, I was anxious about how his younger self would act, he has achieved total mind-meld with Aaron and put his own stamp to perfection on the character, if you like the series you will be amazed at how good this mini series is, brilliant and totally Australian in every way, just awesome.

I've been a big admirer of this set of films and series since the start and have avidly kept an eye out for it future series. However I was very surprised to find this side step with an origins series, so losing us our main lead. These prequel shows can be just milking the original, but I'm happy to say this is not the case here.

We have here our main man heading home to see you his father in the cutoff town in the Aussie desert lands. He is taking up his first steps as a detective and finds himself caught up in the dark arts of life. Racism, bribery, corruption and corporate greed are still the same ingredients as in the other series.

Truthfully there is no genuine drop in quality! It amazed me, and our lead is just perfect. He's a fine actor and is brilliantly assisted by a variety of characters in this dark series.

If you've watched the other series and wondering if this is worth a viewing, then I can assure you that this is still great. Beautifully shot, dark and intriguing storylines and captivating at its very best. Highly recommended and I look forward to the next season whether it is back to the present day or sticking to the origins timeline.

It would be hard to step into the shoes of the brilliant Aaron Pedersen, but as we enjoyed all the Mystery Road's, including Goldstone, before were prepared to take the risk. We were worried about the character development and if an authentic young version of Jay Swan would come across but no matter bc Mark Coles Smith didn't disappoint. You can see the likeness in the brooding temperament, the thinking man's scowl and then once or twice, that dazzling smile breaks through. The series delivered complexity and depth and our lead was matched with an equally strong cast.

Didn't see that twist though.

We hope ABC continues to write this series eventually linking the stories of young Jay to the older version.

Fan service writ large for the target audience. Two things set MR apart from almost every other police show on TV. The locale. And the pacing. If the pacing were any slower, viewers would be able to paint the garage between scenes. But with that slow pacing comes a constant unflinching sense of perpetual dread, and that is what makes MR a standout.