Mystery Road: Origin

Having just watched the movie and both seasons of the show I was very skeptical about how Mark would portray a young Jay Swan but I have to say he does absolute wonders as an actor, his mannerisms and approach to the character are phenomenal and remind me so much of Pedersen's Swan. It really does feel like we've take a step back in time with this show and character, highly recommend!

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.

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.

Contrary to all the glowing reviews, I thought the action was so slow that I could barely keep track of the plot line from week to week. Despite that, I loved the actor playing young Jay Swan. He is quite believable as an earlier vision of the brilliant older Swan. He was the only reason I persevered through all 6 episodes.

If this series had had a tighter plot line or fewer episodes to concentrate the flow of the story, it would have been greatly enhanced. I truly appreciate the Australian and New Zealand programmingon on acorn and especially those involving Aboriginal plot lines. It's an insight into challenging world, not unlike our US tribal nations struggles. I just wish this series' writing was half as good as Mystery Road.