TV Review - Fires
Images courtesy of ABC iView.
Rarely does the Australian Television industry produce something that feels so real. However, Fires is also a fascinating case study of how easy it is for good television to become bad.
At the time of this review, four parts of the six-episode miniseries have aired and they've varied wildly in terms of quality. The first three entries were strong contenders for the best Australian drama in years. They have weak moments that don’t quite hit the mark, but they are a blip in what is a robust and compelling depiction of the 2019-2020 bushfire season. Fires is harrowing, gut-punching and extremely well made.
The fourth episode, starring Sam Worthington, is a disappointing departure in quality. The series as a whole is light on plot - functioning more as a 'day in the life' anthology of the various fires that covered the east coast of Australia last year. Up until last week’s episode, this worked well, with the focus of the stories being the characters and a dramatic question that went with them. The latest entry has nothing of the sort.
It is completely devoid of focus with only the last moments providing drama of any kind. It is a fascinating case of squandered potential with unlikeable characters and performances that are average at best. The only shining light amongst all this is Sam Worthington. It's not a stand-out performance when compared to the likes of Miranda Otto and Eliza Scanlon earlier in the series, but his experience as an actor is evident. The rest of the cast fall into the same bucket of bad that Australian audiences have come to expect from any home-grown drama.
What worked so well for the earlier episodes was their capacity to delve into problems that could only have been faced by those impacted by a bushfire. They show in visceral detail the experience of going into a 'burn over', where firefighters have no choice but to hunker down in their fire truck as they are completely engulfed. The series gives Australia an intimate look at something most have only seen on the news.
Despite the overall strength of Fires,ultimately, the only addition that the latest and weakest entry has for the series is its ability to make the rest of the show look even more impressive. It should be stressed as well, that at this time, the last two episodes are yet to be released. This could merely be a brief low-point for what is otherwise a must-watch piece of Australian television.
4/5
Fires airs Sundays at 8:40pm on the ABC and iView.
This review was written Monday 18th of October, 2021.