High Country

A police sergeant ups her urban family and moves to the Aussie high country to run a local station. A murder case and a few run-in's with the locals keeps Sergeant Whitford on edge, and it only gets complicated when she involves a psychic with a dubious past.

It's a run-of-the-mill story of police officer moving to an inhospitable country and challenged every step of the way. What makes it interesting is the indigenous heritage of the sergeant, and the relationship with her partner, Helen. These elements will no doubt weigh in heavily as the series progresses, and hopefully improve it.

Leah Purcell does the best with the material on offer, that lacks an edge, or even any conviction. It is a mystery series with a few thrills that has moments, but no real creative tone or structure until the last part of episode two. Worth staying for further episodes to see in what direction it points.

High Country: Australian Noir which morphs into Folk Horror in a similar manner as Dark Winds did. Sergeant Andrea 'Andie' Whitford Leah Purcell) is transferred to the town of Brokenridge in the Victorian High Country, accompanied by her partner Helen and stepdaughter Kirra. She immediately encounters a doctor running naked through the woods. He's just killed his family and commits suicide. There are also five people missing in the area. Brokenridge is an odd place, a local psychic is suspected of murdering a boy years before and the sergeant (Ian McElhinney.) who Andie replaced is obsessed with the case. A survivalist is terrifying hikers in the woods and Andie has a few other murder cases on her hands. Oh! I forgot to mention the Yowie and the weird Rose who runs an artists colony on a farm. The woods and mountains are literally characters in this drama as they keep many secrets. There are far darker conspiracies at play here along with Ando's domestic traumas which are soapy enough for Neighbours and some interesting plot twists. It's a good series with fine acting especially from Leah Purcell and Ian McElhinney. Created by Marcia Gardner and John Ridley who Co-Write the series, Directed by Kevin Carlin and Beck Cole. Eight episodes on the BBC iPlayer. 8/10.

The actors are excellent, the story on paper may have made sense, however, it had far too much busywork and pointless conversations, some of the characters were thrown in to keep us guessing, was it going to be a supernatural series, which is what it was looking like up to number four, when it did a 180 and went for a rather mundane practical and rather poorly delineated mystery. It seems like inexperienced writers threw in everything they could think of to make it interesting, and it was just confusing, too many directions and not tightly controlled, or focussed. It was, as an Aussie, great to see an unusual story, however, by the finish I didnt know who the crap one of the main characters was, and the actors credits on here dont even give the person a credit. I really hope it will be renewed, for all its missed opportunities, it was an intriguing watch. Tugged at the heartstrings, which is always necessary in a mini series.

Nothing could even prepare me to watch so far the first couple of episodes that have aired, because it was written by the team who were behind Wentworth and then you just knew it had to be good.

Leah Purcell being given the reigns of her first lead in a series and it is off to a magnificent start and how good are the shots of the country? We have some of the best bushlands in Australia and this show is showcasing it perfectly.

My only wish is what would Brian have said when he seen this one come to life, afterall it was his last commission as head of foxtel/binge, this one is for you Brian

Stick with it, you might just like it. I know I do.

I have delayed writing this review while I sort out my conflicting thoughts about this series.

On the one hand the eponymous high country is an impressive backdrop to the story, there is an interesting sub-text regarding the aboriginal heritage of the police sergeant and the plot is complex and the ending contains surprises.

On the other I did struggle to follow the plot, which is not usually a problem for me. Worse, the main characters were too often required to behave nonsensically in order to create the next moment of drama.

So this series has its merits and I did watch it through to the end. But it could have been better.