This is classic Aussie black humour and I don't think it could be sold overseas. They just wouldn't get it.
Dead set funny as a hat full of aresholes.
Check it out here iview.abc.net.au
I missed most of the first series because when I gave it alook, I took it all seriously and I found Cleaver Green such a destestable little thurd that i turned it off.
Towards the end I watched a few episodes mostly by mistake and then realised it was not something to take too seriously.
I then found it really entertaining and I liked it.
It is an 'aquired taste' though and I think lots wont like it straight off.
Second series also seems to be highly amusing. I only watched the first episode though. I'll have to catch the second on i-view.
Select to expand quotepweedas said..
I found Cleaver Green such a destestable little thurd that i turned it off.
Cleaver Green is such an ingenuous prick and so emotionally self interested but does not intentionally ever hurt anybody, that it is hard not to like him.
Richard Roxburgh carries it off so well as do the rest of the cast. I think there is a little bit of each of the characters in all of us.
What I like is the preciseness of the language in the dialogue mixed with the Aussie dry humour.
Certainly as humorous and entertaining as any Tom Sharpe or Robert G. Barrett books. Sardonic humour is my favorite kind.
I think Henry Lawson and Banjo Patterson would approve.
Probably the tightest, funniest script seen on TV for some time, & as Cisco says very Australian in its humour & language, mixed with the conciseness of the legal industry.
Superb casting & acting. 
While the US Rake hasn’t been quite the critical flop that the misguided US remake of Kath and Kim was, it certainly hasn’t been met with the same kind of enthusiasm that the local series received, and ratings have been dropping fairly sharply since its premiere. The problem is that when Rake made the leap to a commercial US network, it had its edges sanded off, which makes it feel like, as many US critics have already noted, any number of other legal procedurals. It’s essentially Boston Legal, focused on just one character. The legal and political plot points of the Australian Rake have always been intriguing (who could forget Hugo Weaving’s cannibalistic character in the pilot, or Toni Collette as NSW Premier?), but it was always Greene’s world and his relationships (particularly his relationships with women) that were the source of the best drama. In the US version, those relationships are developing a little too slowly (although Aussies Miranda Otto as Greene’s ex-wife and Bojana Novakovic as prostitute and love interest Melissa are both turning in fine performances) and there’s, arguably, too greater focus on the cases. On the basis of the first three episodes, it’s hard to imagine that the US version could ever go into the territory that the original did in last night’s episode. It’s just too light, too risk-averse and too homogenously “neat”. It’s not as if last night’s episode on ABC1 was revolutionary, by any stretch of the imagination, but that the creators behind the original Rake are willing to take any risk at all in the current TV environment is worthy of praise. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Rake creator Peter Duncan said that the major difference between making TV in Australia and in the US was that there are many more voices in the US. Do too many cooks spoil the broth? Well there’s a safeness so far that suggests this might be the case. If Fox is willing to take risks with their version of Rake, they might be able to develop an audience. If not, it will slowly morph into something audiences have seen time and again. And you can catch Boston Legal re-runs for that.
Love the series. Cleaver Green is based on a true character, Charles Waterstreet. The entire series would be a worthy dvd purchase I reckon.
Select to expand quotecisco said..
This is classic Aussie black humour and I don't think it could be sold overseas. They just wouldn't get it.
Dead set funny as a hat full of aresholes.
I would have thought that saying, spelling aside, meant that something was not funny at all.
You have different hats up there in Queensland?
While the US Rake hasn?t been quite the critical flop that the misguided US remake of Kath and Kim was, it certainly hasn?t been met with the same kind of enthusiasm that the local series received, and ratings have been dropping fairly sharply since its premiere. The problem is that when Rake made the leap to a commercial US network, it had its edges sanded off, which makes it feel like, as many US critics have already noted, any number of other legal procedurals. It?s essentially Boston Legal, focused on just one character. The legal and political plot points of the Australian Rake have always been intriguing (who could forget Hugo Weaving?s cannibalistic character in the pilot, or Toni Collette as NSW Premier?), but it was always Greene?s world and his relationships (particularly his relationships with women) that were the source of the best drama. In the US version, those relationships are developing a little too slowly (although Aussies Miranda Otto as Greene?s ex-wife and Bojana Novakovic as prostitute and love interest Melissa are both turning in fine performances) and there?s, arguably, too greater focus on the cases. On the basis of the first three episodes, it?s hard to imagine that the US version could ever go into the territory that the original did in last night?s episode. It?s just too light, too risk-averse and too homogenously ?neat?. It?s not as if last night?s episode on ABC1 was revolutionary, by any stretch of the imagination, but that the creators behind the original Rake are willing to take any risk at all in the current TV environment is worthy of praise. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Rake creator Peter Duncan said that the major difference between making TV in Australia and in the US was that there are many more voices in the US. Do too many cooks spoil the broth? Well there?s a safeness so far that suggests this might be the case. If Fox is willing to take risks with their version of Rake, they might be able to develop an audience. If not, it will slowly morph into something audiences have seen time and again. And you can catch Boston Legal re-runs for that.
One of the best pieces of TV and one of the only shows I go out of my way to watch.Select to expand quoteFormulaNova said..cisco said..
This is classic Aussie black humour and I don't think it could be sold overseas. They just wouldn't get it.
Dead set funny as a hat full of aresholes.
I would have thought that saying, spelling aside, meant that something was not funny at all.
You have different hats up there in Queensland?
I always thought the Australian saying was "Ugly as a hat full of arseholes"
