Nice effects though.

It is a performances centric movie

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Saw this while living in Australia. It's a great shame it has never been shown in the U.K., whereas cr*p like Blue Heelers has! Yes this is up there with the best in Aussie TV - I loved Grass Roots (also loved the whimsical Sea Change). I watched this with a big grin plastered all over my face - the heady, swirling, jazz soundtrack is delicious, as are the performances of all concerned.Basically the storyline is about the Machiavellian machinations of the purveyors of local government, somewhere in NSW. Plot, counter-plot, blatant ambition, amoral and self-serving councillors and staff...just superb! Toe-curlingly realistic (probably!) and very well written. Sophie Heathcote (as Biddy Marchant) is especially worthy of mention as she just drips malevolence. I am so sorry to read that she died earlier this year.Why do programs of this quality not reach a global audience and Neighbours, Home and Away etc do??? Grass Roots is as far from Lowest Common Denominator TV as you can get - I recommend it to you.

This was a top-class Australian series about the machinations of local government councils.I loved the comic tone, along with the serous dramatization and the character romance. Seeing the way the main protagonists played off each other and tried to outwit each other was excellent.Usually I am very critical of Australian serio-comedy for it's fairly poor sense of timing. But this series had good pacing, and was very witty. My particular favorites were Geoff Morrell, Rhonda Findleton, Chris Hayward (who I still associate with SNOWY RIVER), and Rhys Muldoon.Definitely a must see for anyone who can "get it".

With the third series now complete one can only congratulate Geoff Atherden for some truly outstanding scripts. Great plotting and some excellent characters, including the addition of Mary Coustas as local newspaper editor Ava Strick, really made the third series sing. And Jody Dry, as the new Biddy Marchant, was very good following in the big footsteps of Sophie Heathcote. The final episode tied together many threads, Col and Karin getting together, Biddy becoming mayor and Greg getting sacked, but it also opened several new threads for what will almost certainly be a fourth series with, I suspect, Col running for State Parliament and Biddy trying to run the council, have a baby and save her marriage. Can't wait!

Really innovative (esp. with the already mentioned simultaneous plots) and genuinely funny series without any of the bloody canned laughter that is so prevalent in American comedies. Successful enough for us to get a second season on ABC soon, thank god.