Fat Tony and Co.
Channel 9, 8.40pm, Sunday
WHY, Channel 9. Just why?
When a network’s treasure has been poured into the (failed) Schapelle Corby tale, and the more successful Love Child, then naught but the dregs are left.
Cue from stage left, Fat Tony and Co.
The viewing public is at a loss to understand why the events of the first Underbelly have been revisited in this shoddy, sloppy re-telling.
Basically, the same series of events – but this time with a focus on Tony Mokbel, the “Fat Tony” of the title – are being revisited.
It seems like a lot of the same actors are reprising the same roles from last time – or maybe it just seems that way.
This sub-standard effort completes the long, slow decline of the franchise.
The script is very average, the production values a bit less than average, the cinematography standard, and the acting – well, to put it mildly, some of the acting is pretty rough.
Leading the way here is the poor soul cast as Roberta Williams.
You might have thought it impossible for that character ever to become a caricature of herself – but the over-acting here achieves that previously unreachable goal.
One benefit of the generally low standard of the show is that it in no way glamorises the criminal element in the way that the first Underbelly did.
You’d have to wonder, too, if some of the loss of relevance is caused by the time that’s elapsed since the events depicted then.
The one scant advantage held by the show is that it hasn’t been hampered by the legal problems that destroyed the screening of the first Underbelly – in Victoria, anyway.
The difference is, in this case, there’s absolutely no urge to slip across the border to pick up a copy.
– Jason Beck
