travelbug_2001 Now firstly I can't help but to roll my eyes at reviewers slating the series having not watched the whole series! I can think of plenty of series that didn't grip me with the first episodes but I gave it a go & it was splendid.I moved to Australia 9 months ago so I didn't know any of the history of the gangland wars beyond seeing on the news here that they were extraditing Tony Mokbel for murder after his dramatic escape to Greece (series 2 perhaps?).I've watched the whole series & it was bloody excellent. I live in Melbourne & it was interesting to see the locations I recognised. Now what really made this great imo is that I've met people who were exactly like the characters portrayed, they were believable everyday people - therefore it felt realistic.Perhaps it's not as slickly produced as the Sopranos but I'd imagine the budget is rather different. "Underbelly" - being set in Australia had an entirely feel - a real Aussie vibe compared to US vibe which made it interesting. Both series are excellent in their own different ways.Highly recommended viewing!

lennyandcarl Solid Aussie drama. All actors in good form, but top marks go to to Kat, who plays Roberta - hilarious. Vince Colosimo as the Black Prince was also a standout.The direction and editing may upset the purists, I reckon its edgy and appropriate.There are some cheesy moments, like at the end when the Purana mob are all walking over the hill in slow mo to arrest Carl (scene saved however by an angry Roberta mouthing a slow mo "f*** off"!). Much has be written about the "reality" of the show and the gratuitous sex scenes - but all in all its crackin' good tele!Comparisons to Blue Murder and the Sopranos (and Scorsese?) are a given, but Underbelly stands up fine on its own.PS - Loved the soundtrack.

droambi As a rule although I love many an Australian actor I usually hate the writing/production. Underbelly has changed all of that for me and I'll be revisiting some other Aussie dramas that previously I've written off. The acting is great, the soundtrack is really great, the writing makes the whole story easy to follow. I'm seriously impressed and can't wait to see the last few episodes. I've got the book and the mini series is fairly accurate, but it's important to remember that this is a dramatization and not a doco so some differences are to be expected. roberta is a crack up. alex dimitriades as Mr T, hooooooooot. Dino Dibra, wasn't until I looked on here and saw he was on h&a that I figured out who on H&A and why he was so familiar, very impressive. you *SHOULD* watch it.

MrSyntax Only mild spoilers ---- I was looking forward to Underbelly for many weeks. The advertising campaign was fantastic and the banning in Victoria definitely helped this. With all respect to the parties involved in the current litigation, I am only commenting on the artistry of this project more than anything related to the events it represents.Underbelly is correctly based on a true story about the gangland battlegrounds of Melbourne Victoria. This is quite a powerful story and quite possibly something that will be marked for the crime library of Australian history.This is only a comment on the pilot episode, so I'm unsure of how the rest of the series is going to be. I understand that it is wrong in some cases to even begin to comment on an entire series just on the strength of a pilot so I will only comment for the pilot.The opening of this series felt weak. So weak that it was almost embarrassing. It was only thanks to Vince Collosimo's performance, that it held together. Even so, with dialog that was undoubtedly written by a soap opera professional, it was amazing to see that all of this almost worked. The violence was not that violent considering the camp "Terminator SCC" was on immediately afterwords and left it for dead. The sexual content is about as sexy as a bad hand-job. I don't know what the tabloids are trying to enforce because the Direction on these areas were mild. Doesn't matter much on this point though, we know that this kind of thing doesn't make up for a good story. Now, a lot of the introductions to these characters were almost comical, like a lock stock and 2 smoking barrels kind of slating for gang members. This felt cheap, it looked cheap and it was unintimidating in any way. If this was an attempt to make us aware of a possible "coolness" to come from these characters, then it just wasn't right.One begs to wonder whether this series needs or now needed a better Director and a better cinematographer or should I say a videographer. (Well, it felt like that anyway) Maybe even a better writer, because a lot of our actors here deserve way better than this. I think some of the most unfortunate and lifeless work was lingering around the gang meeting scenes at the sports arena (or was it a racecourse?) But apart from this, there are definite believable and smooth moments. I hope more of these moments occur and I must say I am somewhat interested in seeing more of Gyton Grantley who looks exactly like Carl Williams in real life. There are more episodes to come and I look forward to eating my own words. For a TV mini series, it's not over till the fat lady sings - but so far, I'm hearing a scratchy record loop.