First Review: Canal Road

Nine is enjoying an embarrassment of riches in its drama department lately. Underbelly is a hit holding on to its audience week in, week out. Sea Patrol is back with a bigger boat. McLeod’s Daughters has its final season in the can. On the development board are The Strip, Scorched and Young Doctors.

And here comes its mystery drama, Canal Road, handsomely shot at the edge of the Yarra River.

Produced under the hand of Susan Bowers (formerly with McLeod’s Daughters and now steering Neighbours), it is significantly produced in-house by Nine. Seven has lead the way with successful in-house dramas Home and Away, All Saints and City Homicide, a formula that is surely a profitable venture in the long term, should they prove successful –Last Man Standing, HeadLand proving two expensive failures.

Canal Road is set in a medical / legal centre, smartly covering two of the three biggest story generators in adult drama (police is the other). The staff at this centre are entirely youthful, none looking older than 35. If it feels skewed towards a younger audience, the net result is also at the risk of credibility. Does Canal Road retrench everyone over the age of 36?

The premise of the show dictates that episodes focus on different characters in the ensemble, with an on-going thread featuring Aussie expat actor Paul Leydon (As the World Turns, LAX) as psychiatrist Spence McKay. McKay’s wife and child were killed in a car accident by a man who has been given early release from prison. Much of the first ep follows him seeking retribution but he unveils a bigger conspiracy theory which will unfold across the series. As with sub-plots in both series of Sea Patrol, this device also allows Nine to achieve mini-series funding from the Film Finance Corporation.

Other episodes dabble with stalking, sex, patient dependence, sex, staff management conflict, drug overdoses and… more sex.

The series revels in its location, using the adjacent city backdrop to great effect. Melbourne looks inviting, contemporary and bustling. The Canal Road centre is housed under a railway overpass like something out of Brooklyn, accessible by car, tram and riverboat. Indeed night-shots of the city give the drama something of a noir-look.

But this is ultimately a muddled collection of ideas likely to challenge viewers. It is marketed as a mystery without sufficient adherence to the genre. The thriller subplot ebbs and flows as other dramatic plots come to the fore. The publicity suggests Canal Road tells Paul Leydon’s point-of-view, and although he looks very much the matinee idol, the storytelling has many shifts. Ensemble dramas are risky without a clear leader, which in this case could have been centre administrator Olivia Bates (Diana Glenn). That said, Underbelly has succeeded with its baton-handing storylines.

Sybilla Budd is again given a flirtatious role (surely she’s better than this?) hitting on her psychiatrist. Brooke Satchwell cynically plays a nurse-by-day, party-girl-by-night. Others in the cast include Peta Sergeant, Charlie Clausen with support roles by Grant Bowler, Sullivan Stapleton and Madeleine West (that’s four cast from Satisfaction, actually).

Following from Underbelly, Canal Road will have a lot to live up to, but while the latter is male-skewed, this is female-skewed. As a first attempt at in-house drama it isn’t without merit, but don’t hold your breath for a second series.

Canal Road premieres 9:30pm Wednesday (Melbourne: 8:30pm) on Nine.