As a former firefighter I was very curious in the portrayal of the 2019-20 'black summer' in this ABC mini series. I will state my bias at the beginning in that I love to support Australian film and I am not a fancy critic. I can however offer some insight on the firefighting side.
Cons
-Melodramatic. Very melodramatic, but then it's not a documentary, it's a mini series and that's why we're watching it-a form of dark entertainment, to learn, see things from a different perspective.
-Range of acting abilities and some great cast members but also some developing ones.
-A couple of the episodes drag on with the thriller aspect.
-Some one dimensional character portrayal in a handful of characters.
Pros
-This mini series gives a good idea of so many perspectives of the people. From the firefighters, to those who decided to stay back and fight, to the recovering addict waiting on his methadone to those who were down the coast for a holiday thinking the fires would burn themselves out.
-It gives good insight to the many competing priorities during emergencies, on the ground and in the emergency command offices. The stress (while at times overblown and magnified by the dramatic aspect) goes part of the way into conveying some of the fear felt by everyone involved.
-While it is melodramatic, some people in the review section have stated how ridiculous it is that some of the firefighters stopped and had a swim at the end of the day. I can state from experience that whether or not it's ridiculous, it happened at the start (some water points are too good to ignore and the end of the day does come). No one could predict the seriousness of the situation as the summer progressed.
-Young love does sometimes blossom like that shown in Mott and Tash (I'm living proof).
-Once you've witnessed a pyrocumulus in action, you know how totally out of control and minuscule we are to stop it. This mini series gives some insight to the bushfires of that horrendous year. Whether or not people accept the science, scenarios like this are becoming more frequent and more extreme.
I would love to see more film come out capturing the Australian spirit like that found in this show.
