Scrublands: Silver

Another awkwardly titled TV series because viewer are dumb and need continuity between series. Inappropriate since there wasn’t much scrubland to be found in the fairly lush coastal resort of Port Silver (although the Hummingbird retreat really doesn’t look that inviting…)

We find Martin Scarsden receiving a strange phone call and becoming mixed up in a current property and tax evasion scheme tied up with a mysterious disappearance and his own past.

So this is another faithful adaptation of the novel, pretty well done, with even some moments of humanity for Doug the low-life TV host. There is a lot of back story for Martin as he returns to the town he grew up in and left under something of a cloud. He really should have told Mandy a lot of this, it isn’t like Mandy is a stranger to questionable decisions herself…

Sadly, I do have a few gripes. I’ve got to say that the Hummingbird Retreat really does not look that inviting (a few yoga mats and a table on a tatty stretch of beach) but more importantly the proposed development on that same site is hugely out of scale with what was there - the architectural model we get to see is just stupidly unrealistic with its vast harbour and dozens of sky-scrapers. It would be way beyond the reach of all but the largest developers and not something remotely feasible for a local estate estate agent and a business owner.

Most other things were going well until the big climax. We go from daylight to full darkness in a single shot (this also happened at the end of season one as well - is there something wrong with Antipodean sunsets?)

And the rest of the timing goes to pot as well. The cops are supposed to be waiting at the site of the planned rendezvous and can Mandy get the phone call over the (presumably short-range) hidden mic that she is wearing but can’t catch up with her for a good 10 minutes despite the sirens and flashing lights. Martin in contrast is just seconds away yet goes straight into the factory and doesn’t see (or even appear to check) the car park out front where poor Mandy is laid out cold. Then he takes no precautions whatsoever and goes in shouting his head off.

A good try, but let down by the writing at the end. I still want to see the next one though…