Miriam Margolyes: Almost Australian

Miriam Margolyes: Almost Australian is a charming series about connection, culture, and country. Miriam is a delightfully no-nonsense woman who does not shy away from sharing her opinions. This personality type is understandably not universally-appealing but I find her authenticity extremely refreshing. Miriam has the moxie of a New Yorker and the refined speech of a Proper British Lady. In short, I was charmed. The stories of the people Miriam connects with on her travels are the heart of this docu-travel series. The audience travels with her as she forges meaningful bonds with various communities. She interviews many people from many different walks of life and always keeps and open mind and kind heart. The message is simple, maybe even at times reductive. However, this is an easy bump to navigate through the 3 episodes because of the level of genuine connection and engagement Miriam is engaging with the real people she meets along her journey. Finally, I was having a bad day today and watching this series helped make it just a little bit better. Overall score 8/10, highly recommend.

Almost Australian

Miriam does a really good job but the whole thing does seem overly contrived. Seeming hellbent on knocking down the country that has made such strides forward in recent years.

The outdated stereotyping of Australian men, the plight of aboriginals and dwelling on the hard cases and the scoffing at a wholesome women's club I found distasteful.

We all know lovies should never stray into politics because their very professions require them to adopt a victim mentality to be effected actors. Usually they are all left of Marx without the insight that the capitalist market produces the income for the welfare state and they work outside any market, and communism is a busted flush.

Miriam needs to stick to observational comedy and not investigative journalism.

This was certainly not her finest hour but I still enjoyed it.

This show is much more about the self-important opinions of the presenter than it is about Australia. She spends much of the time interviewing indigenous people in Australia about wrongs of the past, but she doesn't happen to mention that she has accepted the "honor" of Officer of the British Empire (OBE). What hypocrisy! I invite you to look up the much more talented and famous people from the last century who REJECTED that so-called honor. She lectures a kid on a drought-stricken farm about global warming and decries the mine that produced the materials that built her house. She seems feel privileged to portray her opinions and values as superior to what presumably is the "typical" Australian. I'm disappointed that I didn't learn more about Australia.

Remarkably dull, shallow series of a narrow minded woman demonstrating her prejudices scene after scene as she tries to force her uninformed generalizations and insensitivities on real-life hard working humans who have generously agreed to interact with her on camera.

I continued watching as I hoped for her to show some redemption or at the very least some inkling of humour, alas it wasn't forthcoming. Her self-proclaimed insights were not. Remarkable that this series was aired let alone filmed.

The side characters were of course the stars of the show, more educated worldly and informed than the narrow minded dullard narrator who seems to not have stepped outside her home/tv studio in three decades.

Why they would have a female curmudgeon such as this woman take an amazing adventure across Australia I will never understand !?! This is an incredibly bitter woman who seems to take little pleasure in anything much outside her own comfort and this is possibly the worst travel documentary I could think of watching. There are many sad parts of any culture which need light shed on them, but this is a woman actively seeking the bitterness and contempt that seems to excite her very being. Shame on you Netflix for wasting your money on this series. I never paid this actor much attention in Harry Potter, but now I am just irritated that a woman of professed detest of children made money in a movie aimed at children...well, I think says a lot for her credibility....if I could give a minus review I would. -5.