dfadcock This is a poorly disguised apology for the treatment of aborigines aired by the Australian Broadcasting Company. Not much subtlety here at all. The ABC is yet again attempting to denigrate Australia's achievements. By calling the aborigines hairies and setting it in a not too distant dystopian future it hopes to attract interest amongst the science fiction followers out there. But it is not a science fiction series, the genre is more political and cultural, and not very good drama at that.

sjensenstrad I am only 20 minutes in and I think these 20 minutes of "tv show" I have seen is utterly crap.Never seen a TV show from Australia before and now I know why1. Just the accent is annoying to listen to 2. The filming looks so low budget 3. The cut between the scenes reminds me of really bad TV shows from the 80-90ies, you know the ones that run for decades. Try to keep a clip for more than 3 seconds before switching. 4. The dialog is horrible "for 5 minutes all I heard was "jera Jera" 5. I have no interest in any of the characters, and it has been switching so much between the scenes that I doubd there is a lead character in there somewhere. Don't waste your time here!5 minutes has past and now there is a fight scene. Awesome sound effects hahahaha

sandowl Wow! Finally a show that has a great number of Aboriginals in it!!!!!!YaY!! Doing my happy dance!!!It's about time the Australian media landscape had something which showed the original landowners of the continent in an interesting, entertaining and mainstream show.Aborigines are a complete one off in development as a people. With magnificent Dreamtime Stories, beliefs and artistic expression.They're a beautiful people, inside as well as out and I am so incredibly happy to see them in greater numbers on Australian television. It's about time!!!I wouldn't actually care if the show was any good I'm just so happy to see them, yet the show is good and I would highly recommend giving it a go.The acting is okay and the mention of Dreamtime Beings is awesome.Yay!!!! Can't believe it. How wonderful!!Oh.. and if you have issues with the bigotry being represented in this series - welcome to the real world.

orangutansRcool I've never written a review on IMDb before, but I felt compelled to write one for Cleverman since so many people have rated this show so low, unfairly low in my opinion. I'm sure many people watching this show who are not familiar with Australia's past treatment of our Indigenous peoples, will want to call Bullsh**t on the way the treatment of the Hairies is portrayed in this drama. One other reviewer stated that they didn't understand the, "overt discrimination and prejudice shown" seeing as, "The Hairies are not particularly dangerous nor do they seem very detrimental to society as a whole yet are treated as slaves". And there in lies the point of the entire show. Cleverman is drawing parallels (and successfully so)between the government's treatment of the Hairy's and the past treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. So for those who still think that the prejudice and discrimination in the show is baseless, here's a quick fact check for the times the show parallels the treatment of Indigenous Australians. When the Hairy family is separated and the children are forcibly removed from their parents - that happened to our Indigenous Australians. When the Hairies are restricted to a compound and can't move in and out - that happened to them too. When the Hairies are seen as animals and the government's laws reflects that and treats them as sub-human - yep, that happened. When the media keeps citizens ignorant and misinformed by pushing their own agenda - that sure happened and sadly still does. I could go on and on, and that's only a handful of examples found in the first 2 episodes alone.For some, the fantasy elements may be a turn-off, but I think putting the fantasy twist on Cleverman was an ingenious idea by the creators. It softens the amount of prejudice and discrimination the audience can swallow by allowing them to oh-so-slightly distance themselves from the realistic atrocities committed against Indigenous Australians by placing the story in a non-realistic setting. Which I know, sounds hypocritical of my above points, but I think it allows people to access this show at a level which isn't so confronting that they are put off from watching it and can thereby experience the messages at the show's core. That being said, obviously it's still not subtle enough for many of the first episode's viewers! Look, I get it, in terms of production value, yes it is lacking in some areas like CGI and set design. But that can mostly be put down to the small budget. This show definitely does not deserve the 1 star rating that some reviewers have given. I can only assume that they're unable to look past Australia's uncomfortable history (or perhaps their ignorance of this history?) and enjoy this show for its clever premise and it's subtle execution.In summary: At the end of episode 2, the story line of this show has definitely caught my interest. The main character's acting is spot on as 'the dude you kinda hate', and I look forward to seeing how the show develops his character. There are so many individual stories that have been set up, ready to be woven together. That I'm waiting in excited anticipation to see how all of the characters interact and affect one another. Do yourself a favour and go into Cleverman with a willingness to see beyond the small budget and to enjoy the story line as it slowly builds. Who knows, it might even prompt you to learn a bit about Australian history.It's a solid 8.5/ 10 from me so far.