Barracuda

This little mini-series has remained relatively unseen and unheard of outside of its native Australia...why?

Great story, Rachel Griffiths, nubile young men running around in their budgie-smugglers! What's there not to like?!?

Erm...Danny! An uncharismatic performance by Elias Anton gives his single-minded character no redeeming features whatsoever! In all fairness, he's really rather horrible...and, to be fair, all the boys are really rather horrible!

This is a story about conflict and determination, about success and failure, about the haves and the have-nots, about a burgeoning sexuality in a truly homoerotic sport! This is rich boy versus poor boy...one minute they hate each other...the next, chummy best buds! The writers' leaps of faith [throughout] are really rather hard tasks to swallow and follow...

That burgeoning sexuality...well, it kinda gets lost in all the splashing around. As for homoeroticism...there's practically none! The director obviously had no eye for the male physique and no idea about the power and beauty of youth...if he had...then, this would have been a far more powerful film! We binge-watched it...so it felt like a film!

It does sound as if we absolutely hated this...we didn't! It does manage to keep you watching...will they, won't they? Will he, won't he? Well, if Danny had been a [more] likeable young man...the audience may have cared a little more - ensuring that this would have been seen by more people! The only warmth comes fron Danny's mother, Victoria Haralabidou shines in every scene she inhabits!

Definitely watchable...however, it does install the need to go and read the source material...to bridge those gigantic leaps and fill in those gaping holes! And, perhaps, here's hoping...to make Danny more pleasant to our senses!

Trailer...