★★★★★ 0/5

Underbelly: Razor

Razor serves up a a stylised, often theatrical, look at Sydney vice in the 1920s as Nine and Screentime take a leap of faith with their brand of urban myths.

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I’m not sure whether Australia’s fascination with crims and the underworld harks back to our convict past, the Kelly Gang, Mad Dog Morgan, Squizzy Taylor or something else altogether. I suppose it it a trait of many ‘civilised’ societies. But we certainly seem to be drawn to them.

We’re also drawn to the Underbelly brand. There’s something about its mix of storytelling, star turns, media magnet and urban myth that piques our interest. The first season’s court banning elevated the Nine series above its (very good) content. In Victoria audiences watching it via bit torrent, buying bootleg DVDs in car parks, and pubs were screening it from signals from interstate. Nine may have been denied the ratings it deserved, but it unwittingly gained infamy, longevity and “event TV” status.

Now that we’ve peeled back the veneer of Melbourne in the 1990s, Sydney in the 1970s and 1980s, we stretch all the way back to the 1920s for Underbelly: Razor. Having also had three stand-alone telemovies, it’s now pretty clear that just about any crime story is ripe for the Underbelly treatment (although the ones that tell it from a crim perspective rather than a cop’s work best).

So despite being set amid Darlinghurst’s roaring back alleys, cheap brothels, two-up rooms and a distant, incomplete Harbour Bridge, the brand’s unmistakable style is all over this tale. And it works.

Based on Larry Writer’s book Razor, the focus of the fourth series are infamous vice queens Kate Leigh (Danielle Cormack) and Tilly Devine (Chelsie Preston Crayford). Leigh ran a sly grog shop while Devine was a brothel madam. Sydney’s famed feud was almost ignited by the petty ownership of a spoiled dog. But it was to grow far worse.

They would become surrounded by thugs in dapper attire who would inflict pain at their beckoning, all without attracting conviction from the law.

In the two-hour season premiere original Underbelly location, Melbourne, makes an appearance when Squizzy Taylor (Justin Rosniak) banishes standover man Norman Bruhn (Jeremy Lindsay Taylor) to Sydney. Bruhn takes his young family north to build a new life and quickly asserts himself within the underworld -and in between Leigh and Devine.

Although Razor will become dominated by its female matriarchs, the opener is still strong in its male protagonists. Jeremy Lindsay Taylor is a standout as Bruhn with a swagger and menace fitting with the Underbelly marquee. Felix Williamson makes a sinister gangster, Phil “The Jew” Jeffs, and Khan Chittenden impresses as a baby-faced Frank “The Little Gunman” Green.

In the central roles of the feuding women are two New Zealand actresses. Underbelly‘s taste for sex and glamour depicts them as young and attractive, rather than opting for character actresses. Danielle Cormack brings dark glamour to her role as the defiant Kate Leigh. Chelsie Preston Crayford, as the British-born Tilly Devine, affects an extreme Cockney accent that risks caricature.

Razor does tinker with dramatic license, serving up a stylised, often theatrical, take for primetime television. But then, did Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ sexed-up Henry VIII ever stop us from enjoying The Tudors? So what if Andy Whitfield’s Spartacus was a semi-porn lesson in Roman history? Similarly, Razor is no documentary. Taking a 1990s song such as “The Nips Are Getting Bigger” and singing it in a cabaret bar may not be historically accurate, but it absolutely works.

Screentime, which achieved visual triumphs in Cloudstreet, turns it on again in Razor. The use of locations, the production design and lighting are outstanding. The costumes are excellent, although a few too many look like they have just walked off the rack rather than being lived in.

All the Underbelly hallmarks are here: Caroline Craig’s narration (thankfully they pull back on it with each season), story montages (ditto), sex (Underbelly is always biased to the girls getting buff), violence -and more violence.

Some Underbellys have begun with a big bang but not kept the quality across the series. This premiere feels like it is just warming up, keeping plenty in reserve. Compared to previous seasons there is more for the eye too, sometimes resembling a graphic novel on the small screen.

Taking us back to post World War I Sydney was a leap of faith by Nine and Screentime. But in a year of period dramas they have timed this very well. There may well be blood on the streets and blood on the box too.

Underbelly: Razor airs 8:30pm Sundays on Nine.

49 Responses

  1. I would have watched the next installment of Razor,if it wasn’t for the crazy move they made to include a 1090’s song in the first.
    Totally inaccurate!
    What other things will be/have been/are going to be skewed in a story about part of Sydney’s history.
    Sorry, but that just destroyed the whole thing for me, and I will not bother with Underbelly again.

  2. I’m not sure I saw the same show as you guys. Thought the dialogue / narration was, characteristically, hamfisted in some places, but that otherwise it was well made, well performed, well mounted, and I didn’t have the usual accent problem with Underbelly.

    Not sure why people have taken such a strong set against Nine on this site, but it’s getting silly. IMHO.

  4. I found myself losing interest about 10 minutes into the second episode but i’ll stick with it next week to see if it gets better. It was weird seeing the guy who played ‘Warnie’ in PTTR playing ‘Squizzy Taylor’ in this.

  5. Atrocious attempt at television. I didn’t last beyond the first half hour.
    Was it slapstick comedy with a jangly Charleston soundtrack?
    Was it a serious insight into Darlinghurst gangs in the 1920s?
    Was it a tale of the beginning of a city’s moral decay?
    Was it yet more one-dimensional caricatures rather than real flaws-and-all characters?
    I don’t think even it knew. It was all of them, and none of them.
    Costumes and production values were ok, but Caroline whats-her-name’s narration cheapened it and made it very difficult to take seriously.
    And good lord, that woman’s horrible Cockney accent. Make it stop!

  6. Pathetic attempt, for anyone who knows that era and knows what the real Tilly Devine looked like it’s looks like a local company doing a play!

    Then there is the NZ Underbelly which has just started too, it’s set in the late 60’s early 70’s and looks far better.
    It’s “Underbelly NZ Land Of The Long Green Cloud” for anyone wanting to go look for it.

  8. Is there an encore presentation? I missed it on Sunday and despite never having had the patience for any of the other underbelly productions, this one has intriguied me.

  10. This series has already shown itself to be a joke. Was it just Me or where there overhead electric train power lines running over the tracks. Pretty shure they wouldnt be there in the 1920’s. When it comes to glamorising crime, after working in the security sector for a few years I would like them to show what realy happens in this world, Not the artsy fartsy socialist tripe.

  11. Filter tipped cigerettes?? hmmm, and I thought it was odd using the Mental as Anything song. They go to all that trouble to do their research and then stuff it up with such simple mistakes? Take a look at what the real Tilly and Kate looked like, they weren’t pretty.

  13. Just watched Frank Green belt Tilly Devine and I’m out. Thoroughly unpleasant. Jo Horsburgh and Michael Healy should resign after serving this up as appropriate Sunday night viewing. Nine are lost in the wilderness.

  16. I never finished with the first series, even though I ended up buying the DVD, speaking of which. They have released the DVDs the day after the series have ended which could harm viewer numbers. Some might not bother with it on TV and just watch it on DVD later, without any ads.

  18. Have not had my attention held by any of the Underbelly’s so far!
    By the way, the real girls this one is about apparently looked like old hags, not like these glamourpusses!

  19. I enjoyed the first, watched 1½ eps of the 2nd before I couldn’t take any more ham, and didn’t even bother with the 3rd or the stand-alones. However, despite the glamming up of the deuteragonists (new word for the day) and other likely inaccuracies, this looks like it might be a bit if fun. I’ll have to catch Everest on iView.

  22. Kaye Leigh and Tilley Devine were very ordinary looking women..Kate Leigh looked like an ugly drag queen without makeup..it is a pity the male actors look like the real characters and the women are made to look glamorous, when they tough and unglamorous,,(except for the clothes and jewellery they wore)

  23. Yeah I will give this a go, like others, I think S1 was great, but 2&3 were average. I always get a bit concerned when something is described as stylised as it can often translate to unintelligble crap. I do like to see some girly flesh, but not to the extent that it distracts from the storyline (if I want a free titty show, there are plenty of websites that provide this) The review seems positive, but also rightly cautious about future episodes….fingers crossed

  24. Always look forward to Underbelly. I really hope this one is good. The first series was awesome but I was really disappointed in the next two. I watched every week thinking they were going to get better but they just didn’t. Hopefully this one will be as good as the first.

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