McLeod's Daughters - just wondering
 

I usually post my questions in the Europe threads but I think this one can better be answered here.

I have been watching McLeod’s daughters the past few months. I think it is an interesting program that generally has good stories. The good-looking actors are also pleasing to the eyes. My family thinks this is just a chick’s flick and will not watch it.

I’d like to know what aussie’s think about it. Is this a hit series?

Don't know what the Aussies think about it, but it's fairly popular in NZ, possibly because about half the actors are kiwis.

The plot is a bit thin, and if you've ever worked, or been on, an Aussie or NZ Station (farm, ranch) you will laugh yourself silly, but my wife loves it, and because of that I watch it with her, doing my loving spouse thing.

I have only had the misfortune to see the promos but if its Australian it will be underacted, over-accented, badly scripted and just plain bloody aweful. It is set in South Australia.

I live in rural Australia and although I don't watch it myself, I know it has a huge following in our local community, and is certainly a hit series throughout Australia.

Thanks for your thoughts. I find it to be a lighthearted but interesting series. It is definitely better than so many reality shows that bombard us here in the US.

I am a little bit disappointed that it is not as close to the Australian reality. I was hoping that it would be showing me a little glance of your way of life.

Hi Simone, I actually live very close to where McCleod's daughters is filmed in South Australia. Despite that, I am not a regular viewer, but have watched it on occasion so think that I can offer some comment here. No, it probably does not accurately represent life on an Australian station necessarily but the starkly beautiful scenery is 'all for real' and generally the storylines have more than a grain of truth - probably more accurate than many so called 'true to life programs' in both Oz and the US. It certainly is very popular in Australia and I have to say that several of the actors live locally at least part of the time and are just as good looking in the supermarket!!

Nope don't watch it and never will, same as most Aussie shows they are all too glossy to be real. I know a few people who live on stations but that is not how they live their lives.

Blue Gum,
I don't think it is so much that people living on stations would not live that way - more that what would take us a lifetime to achieve or have happen - all takes place at least once a week in the course of 60 minutes!!

Simone, I once stumbled across the show briefly and it looked like just another soap, populated by good-looking, impossibly well-groomed models seemingly devoted to advertising the R. M. Williams brand of "bush" clothing. They look like they've never been within a country mile of a real sheep station, although I guess they must get flown in for the shoot.

Sorry to be a wet blanket, but we're possibly the most urbanised people on earth (in fact, always have been) - even though, buried somewhere in the national psyche, is a romantic myth of Australians as a rugged pioneer people. Even this is diminishing, though - about one in three Australians, or their parents, were born overseas and don't much connect with these traditions.

The fact is that life even on a real sheep station is utterly and incomprehensibly alien to the vast majority of Australians, so even the reality has little to do with most of us, and I'm pretty sure that "McLeod's Daughters" is a fair way from the reality.

But yes, there are Australians who live and work on sheep and cattle stations, and if you ever decide to visit, you certainly have the opportunity to meet them. Generally, though, I suspect that they work too hard to have much time for relationship issues.

PS - the show gets respectable ratings in Australia, but "Desperate Housewives" does better.

Neil...Desperate Housewives is seen in Australia? Oh goodness, I am sorry! LOL.

LoveItaly, I haven't seen Desperate Housewives, but I noticed that it's been getting good reviews.

Unfortunately, Australian TV drama production is not what it used to be, because the government has been progressively cutting back the funding of the main source of quality drama, the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), which it thinks is full of leftist agitators. So we're left with cheaper material like soaps, and lousy "reality" shows - travel, home makeovers and the usual dross.

We also get a lot of US and British productions, good and bad. And SBS-TV, which is also government-funded, screens both English-language and European subtitled material - including the hilariously bad Eurovision Song Contest, which has to be seen to be believed. Unlike the ABC, though, SBS is allowed to screen commercials.

Got to take you to task Neil about money being spent on Australian drama by Governments - whatever their persuasion. I personally am very, very glad that there has been a cut back in funding because I was getting very sick to death of Australian so called drama which would have had grade 3 school play actors cringe. The word "acting" was a word that was used in very loose terms and never even got close to the "professionalism" of the likes of Bold and the Beautiful or whatever the soaps are. I do admit that I have seen worse but they have usually been films made in places like Turkistan and Outer Mongolia with dialogue that some 12 year old wrote or perhaps Bollywood too comes pretty close to the mark. Stay with what you are good at is my motto and making good films/drama aint one of our better traits.

Liz, I agree that the good productions have been greatly outnumbered by the crap, but isn't that the case everywhere? For every excellent US movie there are 10 or 20 brainless turkeys, and the British record has been pretty patchy too.

When the Brits do it well they're close to (if not quite) unbeatable, but the ABC's "Phoenix" (and its sequel), and "Blue Murder" could hold their own anywhere and were certainly much superior to "The Bill" and the dreary parade of English murder mysteries, to say nothing of most US product. The fact that it's been a while since we saw drama of that quality is directly related to budget -soaps are cheaper.

You didn't see "I Can Jump Puddles" and "My Brother Jack", two extremely good adaptations of Alan Marshall's and George Johnston's novels?

There's been a drought of good movies in recent years, probably due to the fact that most of our top actors, scriptwriters, directors and cinematographers now work in LA, but the occasional "Shine", "The Year My Voice Broke", "Looking for Alibrandi" "Lantana" or "Rabbit Proof Fence" shows that Australians are capable of making superior films. (Don't mention "Japanese Story" though - arty, pretentious and boring.)

I'm not an unqualified supporter of government funding myself, but the fact is that a small English-speaking country would be totally instead of just largely swamped by foreign product without it and become even more of a cultural colony that we are.

The French make excellent films with international appeal, something they couldn't do without active government support. I suspect they have more effective ways of targeting the money, though.

Hi LizF,
I'm intrested in your comments on Australian film & TV productions. May I ask where you live & what you would regard as good film & TV drama?

What do I like: Last night I watched Beetleguice (spelling) because I love it as a fun movie. Others in that category are, True Lies, Arthur, Anger Management etc. For drama though, older films that have stuck in my mind are "Z", " The Devils", "How Green was My Valley" anything made by Franco Zefferelli, many of the Dicken's stories that have been made into movies, Upstairs Downstairs, The Dutchess of Duke Street, The Forsyte Saga ( not the recent one ). I enjoyed Steel Magnolias, Cape Fear and City of Joy. I think that when it comes to type casting the English have it down to a fine art although the US can really do it well at times but not every time i.e. having read all the Robert Ludlum novels I was surprised to see whoever it was who played the lead in one of the latest films - The Bourne Identity I think.
So there you are - now you can type cast me!

Looked like an open-and-shut case of culture cringe to me - until I saw the author was Liz.

Australian comedy movies are usually a bit too self-consciously quirky for my taste, although there have been a few little gems on TV on occasion. Among them: "Frontline" (a hilarious and deadly accurate skewering of prime-time "current affairs" programs on commercial TV), "The Games" (about the machinations and skullduggery preceding the 2000 Olympic Games) and "Kath and Kim" (which not everyone seems to "get", but which has developed a cult following in the UK as well as Australia and I think is now being shown in the US).

Yes, and David Wenham's done a couple of v.clever films (whose names excape me at the moment). I enjoyed Japanese Story and the others that Neil mentions. There was a gritty ABC drama that for some reason didn't fly.
I don't agree that that the cost cuts at the ABC are a good thing - I think we need to encourage our film & TV productions, not starve them.

As for McLeods: I grew up on a sheep & cattle station and never managed that degree of grooming when I was mustering & dipping! We wore rather more clothing & less mascara as I recall .... and that was just the girls (LOL). However, I do quite like it - apart from the couple of "eye candy" guys, it's quite a novelty to see green grass (LOL). Of course it's overwrought - it's a drama for 7.30 - 8.30 timeslot & made for urban consumption. If we'd had half the histrionics they do, we'd all have been valium junkies! We did once have a cook who used to get sloshed (drunk) on lemon essence & a groom straight off the boat from England who couldn't kill & dress a sheep althought he'd onvinced the stock & station agent in Sydney that he'd been a butcher in Essex, though.

It amuses me to watch for the actors who can actually ride. Other riders will also recognize the occasional good seat; most of them wouldn't know a stirrup from a martingale!

I liked "Wire in the Blood", Inspector Linsley, "Morse" and a lot of those Brit series. Used to like the Bill but think it's gone to pot over the last few years & don't watch now.

"Looked like an open-and-shut case of culture cringe to me - until I saw the author was Liz".
AND WHAT "EXACTLY" IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN NEIL????????? Don't go off now and hide under your box of noodles - fess up! Oh and by the way Neil I am an authoress not author and I don't care too hoots if the political correctness police say I can't be sexist. Also its actresses and actors otherwise with the latest haircuts and flat chests ( except those who can afford the implants) how could we tell the sexes from each other - they wear the same clothes!

It means that a personess of your perspicacity would never be guilty of such a crime, Liz.

Sorry Liz, I have to disagree on this one ... I think Government sponsorship funding for the Arts should be doubled! Just reduce the pollies perks by 50% and hey presto, there be funds, and us g'day viewers can at least see some Aussie content that's not cheap reality/quizz shows. We have the talent, the know-how and the creativity and although some will be duds, at least more funding will allow the gems to float to the top.

I remember the entire Swedish population being glued to their sets on Wednesday nights for "All The Rivers Run" and later, "Flying Doctors" :) so there's a bigger audience for our Aussie-produced stuff than just the US 'n UK.

I just loved the recent Aussie-award winning animation short film with Harvey - crikey, loved it so much I've forgotten the title :-o