Review: Jack Irish, Series 1
Posted by Anura Samara, 9 February 2016
We’re used to the ragged hero who sets out to make the world a better place, but what about the ragged hero who doesn’t care and just wants the world to leave him alone?
We meet Jack Irish at rock bottom. Early scenes show him as a successful suburban lawyer when his wife is murdered by a disgruntled client. Straight after that, we see him after a few years of wallowing in his misery – drinking, unkempt, keeping company with crooks and shady characters. The beauty of Jack Irish is that he never really changes – this isn’t some journey where he sets out to achieve redemption, he’s perfectly happy to stay wallowing in misery and resists all attempts by others to get him to improve.
Series 1 is really a set of linked telemovies ie. longer than a normal TV show. Of course, we were able to binge on them and watch the whole series in a single go – definitely easier to follow along with the complicated subplots.
One of the great contrasts with Jack and his mates is that they aren’t out to prove anything, so there’s an easygoing nature to the characters which makes them easy to like regardless of what they are actually doing.
I was initially surprised to see Guy Pearce in the main role – he’s been in some big movies and you don’t expect to see him turn up in a such an ‘unsexy’ role. But very quickly it becomes hard to imagine anyone else in the role. He does the dishevelled look so well, right down to the old cardigan he wears and the look of bewilderment he carries everywhere.
Apart from Pearce, my favourite character is Jack’s mate Cam, played by Aaron Pederson. Cam provides the harder edge to the action and plays the role of Jack’s ‘white knight’, always coming to the rescue with a gun, some muscle or a getaway car.
There’s a bunch of loveable characters in Jack’s orbit, including three old guys who permanently prop up the bar in his local pub, the publican himself with his harebrained schemes for business and love and Roy Billing as the bookie he seems to be Jack’s most common source of employment and Shane Jacobsen as his friendly cop on the inside.
Of course, there has to be a love interest but at least initially love for Jack is like everything else in life – something to be generally ignored and avoided. Together with the murder of his wife in the first episode and his general downward spiral, this means that love doesn’t run smoothly for him either.
So there we have it – the dishevelled and disinterested hero, a ragtag bunch of loveable rogues, a villainous plot that goes to the top of Government, a bumpy love life and violence or threats of violence. When I put it that way, it sounds like just about any other detective drama but I assure you it’s not – it all works so smoothly that you keep coming back for more.
Categories: Shows
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