“Some bunny’s got to win – why not us, Jack?”
Jack Irish (Guy Pearce) is a lawyer rebuilding his life after tragedy, though not very quickly. He’s mainly dabbling in conveyancing, a little private investigation and debt-collecting – though there’s still time to hit the track with Harry (Roy Billing) and Cam (Aaron Pedersen), hoping the bookies won’t know what hit them.
Independent though connected stories, both Bad Debts and Black Tide offer Irish, the son of a celebrated Fitzroy AFL player, as a self-effacing and incredibly intelligent bloke trying to reconnect with a life he doesn’t entirely understand. He turned to carpentry under the mentorship of Charlie (Vadim Glowna) and their relationship is a distinct peace in the hero’s life in juxtaposition to what can and does whirl around him. As does his life in the Prince of Prussia (featuring a very charming and Fitzroy-devoted elderly Three Stooges).
The individual stories translate well to TV and carry through all the ‘wonderfully, quintessentially Australian’ moments of the novels. In Bad Debts, Irish is contacted by an ex-client who turns up dead and as he digs deeper into why he was being contacted he starts to uncover connections to dodgy cops and a cover up, and the information Jack, working with reporter Linda, uncovers puts them both in the firing line. Black Tide follows Jack as he seeks to help his Dad’s old team-mate Des write up his will. In the process he uncovers a government conspiracy involving Des’s son Gary and some pretty nasty people with connections all the way to the top.
“No, I will not sing another musical number for you, no matter how many times you ask…”
The telemovies suffer from an embarrassment of riches in the guest cast across the who’s who of Australian actors – Colin Friels, Don Hany, Bob Franklin, Steve Bisley, Damien Garvey, Colin Hay, Ron Jacobsen, Rhys Muldoon, Lachy Hulme, Nicholas Coghlan (just for starters) – with each of their performances slotting perfectly into an already perfect mix. Additionally Andrew Knight (Rake) & Matt Cameron (Crashburn, SeaChange) are to be applauded for their adaptations of the novels to the small screen.
As Harry offers at the track one day: “Some bunny’s gotta win – why not us, Jack?” Why not indeed – with these two episodes the viewing public wins hands down. The Jack Irish telemovies are the kind of drama you can watch over and over again and never get sick of; the performances are so genuinely nuanced that, on first viewing, they wash over you as naturally as you watching your friends discuss their luck at the races on Saturday. Spectacularly easy to enjoy.
Jack Irish is stunning, must watch television and the ABC and Essential Media should be applauded for bringing it to vivid life (more, please in 2013 Mark Scott!). Do. Not. Miss. Both. Episodes.
Jack Irish: Bad Debts – Sun 14/10 8:30pm, ABC1.
Jack Irish: Black Tide – Sun 21/10 8:30pm, ABC1.
It was a pleasure to watch those 2 episodes. I hadn’t read the books, or seen any reviews but I was committed to watching because it had Guy Pearce in it, and it was on ABC1. Guy, Roy, Aaron and Shane were terrific. Much better by a long way than our standard Aussie dramas. And it was contemporary fiction. which brings me to my only criticism of the Jack Irish stories. The characters are obviously skilfully drawn – they are interesting, and the interaction between them is great. But its the acting that brings them to life. And after watching both episodes, all I can say is I loved the acting, but beyond some race course shenanigans, I really can’t recall what the plot was for either episode.
Its not often that we see great acting and a great story on tv. But Jack Irish came close.