City Homicide

Four seasons on, I get the feeling City Homicide has painted itself into a corner.

Its title defines its premise: the metropolis, murder, post-mortem detective work. If we are staring down the barrel of another season of whodunnits, the show will have its work cut out to give it a point of difference, particularly as there are several other players on the landscape since 2007, which enjoy a broader crime agenda.

This is not to say the Seven drama is lacking. The first and second seasons pulled huge numbers for the network, but by season three fatigue was beginning to set in, which denied some viewers the chance to watch some sparkling performances by cast members including Noni Hazlehurst as a bereaved Det. Superintendent Bernice Waverley.
Indeed many of the cast members regularly turn in formidable performances: Shane Bourne, Nadine Garner, David Field, plus supporting cast members such as Genevieve Morris (the show’s resident coroner, better known for her comedic Bank commercials).

In the first episode this season the drama tackles violence against international students, a topic which has been in the headlines, especially in the city of its location: Melbourne.

These State Police are a lot more designer than those on TEN’s edgy rival Rush, also populating the same backdrop.

Supporting roles in the first episode include Damien Bodie, Nicholas Brown and Phillip Hayden. Guest stars are frequently an appealing aspect of this show. As the “A” Plot of the week there is a violent group, with links to white supremacists, terrorising students. The brutal opening scene, a hallmark of the series, results in the first murder.

But it is the “B” Plot in which our central characters are tested. DSC Simon Joyner (Daniel MacPherson) is under investigation from Ethical Standards Department, headed up by Susan Blake (Georgie Parker). Joyner is accused of pushing an unarmed man off a balcony. With MacPherson leaving the series this isn’t likely to end well…

Wading through the facts of the “A” plot is a perfunctory exercise. Indeed, there’s not much room for subtext, let alone use of silence, in commercial procedurals. While film affords us a lot more room to breathe, television keeps up the pace with facts, figures, photos, and turning points, often to its own detriment. A little more faith in the skills of some fine actors wouldn’t go astray.

Added to this is the Scooby Doo nature of the storytelling that dominates the genre, a challenge not just distinctive to City Homicide.

This episode is written by creators John Hugginson and John Banas, whose capacity to turn out script after script is exemplary.

But there’s an awful lot of Aussie drama around the corner.

For viewers to be suckered into another season of “who-killed-who?” City Homicide will need to lean on its ensemble characters -which it has ably proven it can do before.

Source:- www.tvtonight.com.au