Too much of everything

That was an excellent one.

Purely Joyful Movie!

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

How could anyone not like this. It is one of the most gut wrenching and unflinching period dramas I have ever seen. In almost all respects it reveals the hardships experienced by convicts and the sheer desperation of the soldiers and convicts alike. Following the excellent The Village and 37 Days the BBC has once again done itself proud. The climax although I will not go into detail is one of the most nerve shredding that I have ever seen in possibly any television drama or film for that matter. It's this kind of raw take on life that gives Banished and The Village their edge and given the emphasis in the past few years has started to move towards accuracy with regards to entertainment, it is almost refreshing that one of the UK's most respected institutions. I would recommend this to anyone.

A TV-land version of the harsh reality of the first Australian penal colony. The women look like middle class housewives who have just stepped out of a fancy-dress shop. The governor is the model of care and democracy, afraid to venture inland while the reality is far from the truth. Everyone worries about the lack of food, yet nobody thinks of killing any of the wildlife. It is a pity that more research wasn't done regarding the actual historical characters. As usual, the criminals are portrayed as moral, upstanding citizens while the guards are deceitful and corrupt. The acting is OK and as a fictional drama it is passable. But will I worry if there isn't a second series - probably not.

This isn't a documentary and cries of 'she has perfect teeth, she shouldn't have' are laughable. What should the producer do then ? Get the teeth remodeled to show how bad dentistry was in that period ? if you view it as a drama set in a period and location which isn't strictly accurate then you may well enjoy it. The characters are not fully developed yet as it's early in the series. However, the acting is OK and the storyline is entertaining. I enjoyed it as I watched it in the spirit in which it was intended (as entertainment).Don't watch it if you want to see signs of realistic brutal rapes, scabies and actors and actresses that are rather liked walking skeletons. I don't think the BBC can expect that from their cast.btw the uniforms all look rather too clean too :)

This sounded promising and so I began watching the first episode. I say 'began' because 15 minutes later, I'd switched off. Its truly one of the worst things I've seen aired. The characterization is hollow and, whilst Jimmy is a good earthy writer, his style of prosaic musings doesn't work here. The dialogue is stilted and the acting truly bad. Its miscast as one can see when a 20 something with highlights drifts past in her gown as though getting ready for a commercial for shampoo. The flogging scene was utter tosh. Badly scripted and offering no realism. Actually, its almost an insult to the intelligence of the viewer to air nonsense like this. Lets leave the historical accounts of this episode of history to those who know something about casting, filming, direction et cetera. The script is not worthy of a first year creative writing student ( they'd get a D...) its contrived and sheer unadulterated hogwash of the most boring kind.