New Gold Mountain

A story of loyalties and lust, how both can be turned against you, and how each can betray the other. Loyalty to family, brotherhood or regime, and lust for sex, riches, or fame. The series is slow to start but the intrigue builds from one episode to the next and the final episodes are gripping. I have some misgivings about the direction of Leonie Whyman in her role as the character Hettie, a woman of indigenous heritage who speaks in truncated sentences as though she is not well-versed in the language, yet Whyman delivers Hettie's script with a well-spoken accent - the words and the accent don't match. There is also the predictable, mollifying finale.

Was to be expected I suppose with all the hype in promotions.

After recording and binge watching in one sitting.

Within minutes I was feeling disappointment, the acting was lacking and although a lot of work was done with sets. Authenticity was seriously lacking with many out of period props, not to mention the poor choice of locations with many scenes shot in area not typical of the bush in that era.

The plot and story line being a muddling of believable, unbelievable and the totally didn't happen in that era. The script was written in the same manner very lacking.

Kudos for cinematography which was of exceptional quality and shot in a manner I very much appreciate.

Over all with better casting, directing this could have been something I would recommend and wanted to watch again but not this one, 5 Stars only and and that's low for something out of Oz for me.

I'm not sure why so many of the reviews for this show are so negative. It explored a point in Australian history from some interesting perspectives, the lead actor played the part of the man caught in the middle of everything well, and it had a plot with a few twists and turns. I enjoyed it.

Enjoying the show and like seeing Australian history from a non white man point of view. It's a slow burn but keeping us intrigued. Acting is good and beautiful landscape.

Was looking forward to watching this series and stuck with it, but only just.

The script, and subsequently the spoken language, feels like it was written for high school students. In fact, it could easily have been developed to supplement the Australian history component of the Australian Curriculum.

Not enough mystery and not enough explanation of the Chinese culture of the time. Although it was interesting that the PC brigade hadn't put their stamp all over it with the language used to describe the different cultures in the story. Some of the Australians were far too over the top and much of the swearing felt like a 15yo was at the core of the written dialog.

Knowing the series was filmed at Sovereign Hill should have meant authenticity. Unfortunately being filmed somewhere that is basically a theme park of sorts, visited by many Australians, made the series feel like it was filmed "at Sovereign Hill", meaning it felt like it was on a film set rather than natural.

Hopefully Australian productions will continue but with a bit more thought about the intended audience.