Barons (Sunday on ABC) is the new Aussie drama I have been waiting for all year. Finally, an all-Aussie cast, with no international actors, and an original story that’s not about true crime.
There is illegal activity in Barons, but it’s only a subplot in a much bigger story. The surfing saga opens in 1971, and marijuana and heroin are quietly in the background, threatening to derail friendships and burgeoning businesses.
Barons is set all over the world, and that’s done with varying results. A high society scenario with rich parents in Newport (America, not the Northern Beaches) is unconvincing, but a trip into the Bali jungle is electrifying, with a scene-stealing performance from Kick Gurry as a paranoid dealer.
The surf photography from Taylor Steele is as stunning as the cast, which includes Sean Keenan, Ben O’Toole, Jillian Nguyen, Hunter Page-Lockhard, George Pullar, Lincoln Younes and Sophia Forrest who is outstanding as a “tomboy” surfer. Big thumbs up.
Two TV series about scandals are the talk of two streaming services.
Anatomy of a Scandal
Anatomy of a Scandal (Netflix, 6 episodes), starring Sienna Miller and Michelle Dockery, is getting mixed reviews. The Guardian describes it as the latest in David E. Kelley’s “malicious plan to churn out more obnoxious hour-long dramas about objectively awful rich people than anyone else in history”. Ouch, and yeah.
Meanwhile, A Very British Scandal (Amazon Prime, 3 episodes) tells its story in half the time, but it’s twice as good. It is a follow-up to the excellent A Very English Scandal, but this time with Paul Bettany and Claire Foy. They play The Duke and Duchess of Argyll, who are involved in a messy divorce in the early 1960s.
A Very British Scandal
Claire Foy is superb as Margaret Campbell, the Duchess who was slut-shamed by the court and the press. Despite a litany of evidence that the Duke was a violent drunk and pill-popping womaniser, she was the “immoral” one.
It’s good to see Julia Davis in A Very British Scandal. The outrageous star of comedies like Nighty Night and Sally4Eva plays the haughty Maureen Guinness, Marchioness of Dufferin, and her final scene is a corker.
Julia Davis is doing something sillier for Stan’s new movie, Nude Tuesday (July 7). Starring Damon Herriman, Jackie van Beek and Jermaine Clement, this absurdist comedy is filmed in a made-up language. That means multiple versions with different subtitles, with one for Stan featuring Celia Pacquola and Ronny Cheng, and a UK cinema version by Julia Davis. Can’t wait.