More Whimper than Bang

I'm not sure what to make of The Hollowmen. I want to like it; and obviously it's too early to make any definitive statements.

But the first episode was ok; the second less so.

A few things irk me: the Rob Sitch character (you know "Mike Moore in the PM's office", does he actually have a name? Everyone I know just calls him Mike Moore) is too dumb, and not opinionated enough. Guys in his position didn't get there by being self-effacing.

Murph is excellent, and Lachy Hulme is acting everyone else under the table.

The Secretary of PM&C and his underling are too bumbling - this guy is the top bureaucrat in Australia; give him a bit of gravitas - Murph needs to seem to at least be challenged by him. In tonight's episode it was hard to believe that the PM's advisers wouldn't just tell this guy to bugger off. He looks as powerful as a Coles night manager.

And I'm sorry, but Merrick Watts needs to do more than have the worst haircut in TV history before he can call himself an actor..

Despite all this, I'll keep watching, shows like this often improve - the early episodes of Frontline are not a patch on the later ones; heck even the first few Yes Minister episodes are a bit patchy (though it didn't take long to hit it's stride).

I'll write a longer review in a few weeks. For now it suffers coming after The Gruen Transfer, which is getting better each week and seems the more likely of the two shows to push boundaries and make you feel like you've gotten some insight into how the world works.