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Savage River is a new Australian drama centred around Miki Anderson (Katherine Langford – Cursed), who goes back to her hometown after a decade in prison. Can she rebuild her life? Well, if it was going to be easy, would they make a 6-part series about it?
In fact, as soon as she drifts into town, people soon feel uneasy in her presence, which makes me wonder what she did…
On arrival, she stays her brother Terry (Cooper van Grootel), and his daughter, Ocean (who comes up with these names). Also in this is Romper Stomper‘s Jacqueline McKenzie, as Colleen Lang, who’ll be sure to have her say, although when she says she forgives Miki, this leaves the young returner wondering why.
Meanwhile, as a sideplot, Deborah Cochrane (Leah Vandenberg) wants to run for local election, but will face competition from Max Englert (Richard Piper – Spreadsheet). Plus, one character tells her “How dare you take breath into your lungs when she can’t!”
Of course, she’ll need a job, so gets a prime position at the, er… slaughterhouse… which has a gory killing floor… nice. And for a boss, she has Kevin Pattison, who runs the business with zero rights for the workers, ignoring the basic conditions to which they’re entitled. But you can’t be too mad at him, surely, because he’s played by Daniel Henshall who was superb in 2011’s Snowtown.
And as for Hugh (Andrew S Gilbert), like an actor from Home and Away, why does he look like an older Bobby Ewing?
Some, all or none of these questions will be answered in the six episodes… although I’ve only seen the opener so far.
And as the billing states, another murder is about to take place as soon as she arrives, so no doubt she’ll get the blame, even though to think that is to rather jump to conclusions.
Overall, the first episode was decent and I will try a second to see where this goes.
Note that the trailer does state who Miki had bumped off which led to her prison term, but I won’t state that here. I didn’t see the trailer prior to this, so it’s best not knowing, now that I know… if you follow.
Savage River is not available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but is on Paramount+ from today.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 45-50 minutes per episode (6 episodes)
Release date: September 22nd 2022
Studio: Paramount+
Format: 1.78:1
Series Director: Jocelyn Moorhouse
Producers: Angie Fielder, Polly Staniford
Creators: Belinda Bradley, Franz Docherty, Franz Docherty
Writers: Belinda Bradley, Franz Docherty, Franz Docherty, Polly Staniford, Giula Sandler
Music: Bryony Marks
Cast:
Miki Anderson: Katherine Langford
Terry Anderson: Cooper van Grootel
Joel Thorpe: Mark Coles Smith
Senior Sgt Bill Kirby: Robert Grubb
Colleen Lang: Jacqueline McKenzie
Lynne Anderson: Nadine Garner
Kevin Pattison: Daniel Henshall
Simon Englert: James Mackay
Connor Kirby: Bernard Curry
Salim Bayati: Osamah Sami
Adam Lang: Jack Kenny
Deborah Cochrane: Leah Vandenberg
Jamila Bayati: Maia Abbas
Chandra Pattison: Miranda Anwar
Ranil Perera: Amesh Edireweera
Sujan Nadesan: Rajan Velu
Nick Healey: Julian Weeks
Ivy Pattison: Hattie Hook
Dale O’Neill: Sally-Anne Upton
Young Miki Anderson: Ruby Proy
Rachel Kennedy: Virginia Gay
Max Englert: Richard Piper
Tim Li: Bill Zeng
Kaji Perera: Yashith Fernando
Ocean Anderson: Hannah Bickerton
Wayan Pattison: Benjamin Moore
Brenda May: Bev Killick
Laila Bayati: Haya Abbas
Taylah Russell: Ayesha Gibson
Jasmine Lang: Molly Grace
Bryan Thomas: Cam Faull
Hugh Lang: Andrew S Gilbert
Hank Bailey: Amir Rahimzadeh
Jasmine Lang: Molly Grace
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.