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Sunday, November 3, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Whatever it takes to protect the outback throne

Michael Dorman as Graham Lawson, left, and Robert Taylor as his father Colin in Territory.

It’s Succession meets Yellowstone down under. That’s how Netflix’s new blockbuster series Territory has been described, writes streaming columnist NICK OVERALL.

Created and filmed in Australia, Territory is a new six-part series that takes place on the world’s largest cattle station.

Nick Overall.

For decades it’s belonged to the Lawson family, generational livestock farmers willing to do whatever it takes to protect their land.

But when the family is left without an heir, the most powerful factions in the outback begin to circle.

Rival cattle farmers, mining magnates and ruthless gangsters all have their eyes on the station, setting in motion a brutal and bloody battle to claim it as their own.

Amongst the cast is star of The Newsreader Robert Taylor, complete with cowboy hat, who plays the Lawson family patriarch Colin. 

For his son Graham (Michael Dorman) and his wife Emily (Anna Torv) the weight is heavy on their shoulders as the battle for this outback throne heats up.

“I feel ultimately all the great dramas are family stories, whether it’s Shakespeare or Succession or Game of Thrones,” director Greg McLean told The Sydney Morning Herald.

The show’s stunning vistas are thanks to filming locations such as the Kakadu National Park and Tipperary Station, both in the NT.

It’s exciting to see a Netflix production of this scale filmed in Australia. Let’s hope it can make a mark to inspire more.

ALSO up in the Netflix charts for its third consecutive week is the wildly popular rom-com Nobody Wants This.

This series asks an obscure and oddly specific question: what if an agnostic sex podcaster and a newly single rabbi fell in love?

Well, it’s a question that’s hooked audiences. 

Over the show’s 10 episodes, this peculiar mismatch played by Kristen Bell and Adam Brody try to make their very different lives connect, navigating opposing beliefs and contrasting families.

In its first week of streaming alone, the series secured 15.9 million viewers, even topping out Netflix’s hit crime drama series Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.

So what is it that makes this will-they-won’t-they tale stand out? 

Even as someone who might not consider themselves a rom-com aficionado, the chemistry between the two leads in Nobody Wants This is undeniable.

Bell and Brody bring effortless charisma to this on-screen couple. It’s not unusual for characters in the genre to feel vapid and only there to tick boxes for the romance at hand, but Joanne and Noah feel refreshingly substantive, often like real people even amongst all the corny dialogue.

It worked like a charm though. 

The writers of the show are already working on season two.

As opposed to its title, it seems this is a show that everybody wants.

THERE’S no shortage of psychopaths in the world of television, but Rhiannon Lewis in Binge’s new show Sweetpea is out there.

A seemingly ordinary admin assistant at a local newspaper, nobody takes notice of Rhiannon (played by Fallout star Ella Purnell).

Her colleagues bump into her as if she’s all but invisible, her boss treats her as a doormat. It seems the only person who does notice Rhiannon’s existence is her sick father who she lives with and cares for.

It’s only the rotten cherry on top of a life of being horribly bullied but as viewers learn Rhiannon is soon to finally snap and when she does it’s a murderous lease on life she seeks.

Ella Purnell’s performance is what makes this six-episode series tick, somehow crafting a character both small and downtrodden yet massive in her sinister machinations. 

The conceit here is simple yet brilliant and makes one wonder how another show hasn’t come up with the idea of this character before.

It’s early days, but with time Rhiannon Lewis might have a shot at going toe-to-toe with the likes of Hannibal or Dexter.

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Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

Nick Overall

Nick Overall

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