Monday, November 19, 2012

TV review - "Devil's Dust" (2012) (mini series) ***1/2

ABC TV drama is on a roll at the moment - amazing the difference a little bit of money and care makes - and this is an excellent look at the famous asbestos case. It's all too believable how it happened - union leadership in bed with management, management dragging their feet, workers who smoke like chimneys and drink like fish and therefore are prone to die of cancer anyway, Barney the flawed grumpy hero who loves the limelight and is prone to pinching cab charges (this felt really true).

It is very kind to ABC journo Matt Peacock, Drew Forsythe should not (repeat not) have played Bob Carr, and I felt it cheated a bit with the fictional Don Hany character (especially when his wife gets cancer - that felt vaguely insulting somehow to the real victims). The female characters do mostly fall into the "why are you never home" category (they never seem to be able to fix this problem with true stories) but there is some excellent acting: Tony Hayes, Alex Schepisi, Josef Ber, Hany, etc. I also really loved the period detail and the complexity. Gripping, powerful stuff.

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