Load of rubbish!!

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

This is an interesting Australian produced series that details the lives and struggles of working class indigenous people. The first season was better than the second, and after the first couple of episodes, patterns started to emerge, and a certain amount of "sameness" crept in. It's as if the writing had become lazy. In a few of the episodes, the casting is really off e.g in the episode with the daughter confronting the death of her father, it would have been far more believable to have another actress play the age specific role. Having this played by someone in their 40s, wearing pigtails just doesn't cut it. It may have had something to do with the film's budget, who knows. In a couple of the episodes, there was no suitable end. The story just ended abruptly, leaving the viewer in limbo.I was not surprised by the fact that there were only 2 seasons as I feel the story of the community had been told, and there was no more to share. Others have commented on the slowness of the episodes, the long pauses, extreme close ups of lips, eyes, noses etc, and I would also say that each story could have been told in 25-minute episodes. They just felt dragged out at almost 1 hour. It's a good series to watch but not one that lends itself to "binge-watching"!

For me, this film brings to consciousness and display why people seek to be individuals. One might call it "walking your talk", Or, not taking a passive voice. The film's theme takes on an active voice as we watch the words and behaviors of the young student and his support groups. IE, being black means "having sufficient character and self-esteem" not to sing the National Anthem. Both groups point out ...well, it is only a song. But, to the young black student, singing it, equals subjectification. A big word for meaning ... being less than someone or something else.Philosophically, is this not the definition of "individual" and having your own voice. At first look, it was dispiriting to witness the passive voices of the school's "aboriginal liaison" and the white male who is also part of the governing board. Yet, in a subtle manner, this is a realistic view of our societie4s.More passive voices And riding right beneath the main topic is ...what and how are we teaching our youth. To just follow the crowd or to think through life and societal issues? For me, the film invites, even guides, me to examine the definitive question = what am I willing to stand up for even in the face of alienation and expulsion. How do I teach my kids and grand kids to be "real?"How about you?

Just watched this on Netflix. It was a really interesting show. I really love seeing movies or TV shows about different ethnicities living normal lives rather than as stereotypes. Indigenous Australians have always fascinated me. They rarely get seen on TV here in the US and I can't count the number of times I've seen aborigines portrayed as regular people on one hand. What always springs to mind is the David Bowie video "Let's Dance", that featured the young aborigine teens. I'd also seen Rabbit Proof Fence and a few other movies. There were some great episodes and it's a pity the show didn't last longer than twelve episodes. As an American, my impression of indigenous Aussies has been of the dark-skinned aborigine bushmen tribes and peoples, so I expected to see more of people with a darker skin tone. While I recognize that like African Americans, there are many indigenous Aussies who are also a mix of Europeans and other races, what I see in the series is mostly mixed raced indigenous and island people. So of course my impression is that this cast is chosen for their appealing looks to interest white viewers rather than authenticity or true aboriginal culture. Forgive me for being ignorant but I've seen other Australian movies that featured aborigines who weren't light-skinned with European features yet this series has maybe one episode with a real blackfella with dark skin and his role is relegated to 10-15 seconds of screen time and four lines. I'm not saying the actors here shouldn't be included or recognized as great indigenous artists, quite the contrary. Many of the performances there are top notch. Deborah Mailman, Wayne Blair, Lisa Flanagan and Rarriwuy Hick especially stand out for great acting and beauty. I just would have preferred that the casting had been more inclusive of the full diaspora of the culture. The few other instances of dark- skinned aborigines in the series amount to background figures cast as homeless people or drunks with no dialogue.

Badlandz didn't know what he was talking about. If he knew it's actually worse because oh yea we need another American to comment on the intricate and complicated societal Australian problems that were brilliantly reflected and acted in the series. I love the dialog, the emotional weight between the silences, the pauses, which is distinctly Australian; while some might prefer a 50 min drama filled with clever non- clichéd witty dialogue with Tom-Cruise-facial-contortion-style of acting, normally people don't act this way and I think it's the show's purpose to honestly and realistically portray the multi-facets of contemporary Aboriginal lives in Australia.