★★★★★ 0/5

Janet King

ABC1's Janet King is the phoenix rising from the ashes of Crownies, thanks to putting Marta Dusseldorp front and centre.

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2014-02-23_2328Here’s a rarity: a failed television show gets another chance to go back to the drawing board and comes up trumps.

Janet King is the phoenix rising from the ashes of Crownies.

Anyone who stuck with the 2012 ABC series knows too well that the more Crownies progressed the better it got. Its clumsy double-episode premiere, dominated by sexed-up young prosecutors, was a shallow attempt to try and win over a younger audience for the network. The balance between soapie storylines and legal cases was largely an ill-fit, despite the talents of cast members.

But to ABC’s credit they have revisited some of the key attributes and built upon these as bedrock foundation for a darker, maturer series in Janet King.

Central to all of this is Marta Dusseldorp, as the DPP’s star prosecutor Janet King. Cleverly, the writers see her re-enter the workforce after a year on maternity leave. In that time she has given birth to twins with her partner Ashleigh (Aimee Pedersen) ….Is House Husbands the only other TV drama with a same-sex parented family?

Stepping back into the office there are some familiar touchstones, but subtle change. Tony Gillies (Peter Kowitz) is now Director of the Public Prosecutions (previously a position held by Lewis Fitz-Gerald). Also returning are Erin O’Shaughnessy (Ella Scott Lynch), Lina Badir (Andrea Demetriades) and consummate young lawyer Richard Sterling (Hamish Michael). Meticulous office manager Tracey Samuels (Jeanette Cronin) is back to keep them all on point.

Tatum Novak (Indiana Evans) and Det. Andy Campbell (Christopher Morris) also return.

They are now joined by former detective turned Crown Prosecutor Owen Mitchell (Damian Walshe-Howling) and, in a pivotal role, Chief Superintendent Jack Rizzoli (Vince Colosimo).

Another key change is to abandon a case-of-the-week format, replaced with a complex series arc which promises twists and turns as the 8 episodes progress.

The story begins when a Police Assistant Commissioner (John Howard) stands accused of the mercy killing of his terminally ill wife. Janet King, whose first case back on the job involves a photographer (Darren Gilshenan) accused of grooming a young girl over the internet, is tasked with the prosecution of the high-ranking officer. Chief Superintendent Rizzoli tries his best to influence the DPP, but King is faced with the question of whether to push for a manslaughter charge.

While King is pushed and pulled from all sides, it’s not hard to presume she will be faced with a string of moral dilemmas across this series. Dusseldorp is razor-sharp but measured in her resolve as Janet King, rising to the occasion as a force to be reckoned with, but showing a vulnerability for the human side of such cases. It’s rather fabulous that she has been planted as the centre of this new universe.

While the question of assisted-suicide will comprise a major theme of Janet King, it allows for political, legal, personal and ethical issues to be explored. These are facilitated by a more sombre tone than the flashy Crownies, that hints to former ABC dramas such as MDA, GP and Janus. There are hints of other story threads, including one with Deborah Kennedy, that will doubtless rise and fall as the plot develops.

The look is also darker and richer, with more elegant transitions. Conflict is wrapped in subtext and it’s easy to see there are actors poised for some juicy scenes. That said, I’m hoping Colosimo’s role has some vulnerability to it -how many times can we watch him swagger around on screen?

One hopes that the success of Dusseldorp in Seven’s melodrama A Place to Call Home, now brings a broader audience to Janet King. She will not let them down.

This reinvention of Crownies (it’s hard to call it a spin-off) has discarded its weaknesses and put is best on show. There’s no need for the jury to be out this time round.

Janet King premieres 8:30pm Thursday ABC1.

30 Responses

  1. I disagree with some of the harsh critiques of Janet King. Janet King, herself, is in a same-sex relationship, further her strong friendship with erin O’Shaugnessy is integral to her professional and personal life. I believe this series of excellent Australian drama, and I don’t feel the show is creeping back into old habits. The shows will obviously have a few other storylines such as the bikie murder, etc. but the true story of Mr Blakeley is not forgotten. 9/10 for superb drama and hope the ratings and reviews continue to succeed!

  2. Unfortunately in episode 2 the cold dead hands of Crownies reached out and strangled the life out of Janet King. The soapy side stories from the unlamented previous series keep coming back like frickin’ zombies to drag it all down into the depths.

    They needed to get rid of almost all the minor characters from Crownies, not put them on life support and insert constant references to their previous roles. Get rid of Erin O’Shaughnessy, Lina Badir, Richard Sterling and Tracey Samuels, they are all awful characters who helped make Crownies so bad, and in their new incantations they’re not much better. Making Tony Gillies the new DPP was crazy, totally unbelievable given his background in Crownies. Former DPP was one of the few really good characters in Crownies, moving him was foolish.

    JK’s not a keeper alas, it’s just a slightly tweaked version of the junk that was Crownies.

  3. Too many of the old and awful Crownies characters keep popping up again, they really needed to make a cleaner break with the failed past. But the storyline is certainly more focussed and involving without all the soapy side-tales and minor characters lives being pulled out and examined.

    I’ll watch ep. 2 and see if it’s a keeper or not.

  7. Wow, what a show, so fast paced, great storylines, and brilliantly cast, right down to the Judges. I was a little bit disappointed with Vince Colosimo at first, as I thought he played his character a bit too much like Alfonz Gangiatano. I think his character acting from MDA would have been more suited to this role.

  9. I am one of those who actually didn’t mind the original “Crownies” too much, and I am glad that the ABC took the best bits out of that and put them into “Janet King”.
    The previews anyway look good, Marta Dusseldorp is of course a very versatile actress, and it is great too that Hamish Michael returns as Richard Sterling(a quality actor)

  10. It is so refreshing to see such a solid lesbian character portrayed on tv, i can’t recall we have had many of those on Australian tv. Probably the only one i remember was that of Helen Blakemore in Water Rats & that was over a decade ago.

    In the few lesbian roles we’ve had, they tend to either be the villians, mentally unstable, or it turns out they decide they’re not really gay at all & after having a short lived affair with a women they run into the arms of the nearest bloke. That and/or the character has mainly been designed for titilation purposes.

    But here we have a woman who is a lawyer & a mother, & happens to be lesbian, an encouraging
    role model for female viewers of all sexual orientations.

    Having said that, i haven’t seen the show yet, i only watched a few episodes of Crownies on its original run so just hoping the writers haven’t weakened the character to Home & Away type standards!

  11. I’d rather they screened Rake in this timeslot. Not so interested in Janet King but I’ll give it a go. Maybe it should have been a 9.30 show after Rake.

  12. Sorry to disappoint you David but Vince Colosimo can’t do much more than swagger. Janet King is the patch up rising from the ashes of Crownies which the ABC wasted $11 million on and was intended as a continuing series for the Thursday night drama slot. I hope it works but it looks a little too earnest and pc for me. The Good Wife and Silk have set the bar very high for legal dramas with female leads.

  13. Crownies was commissioned as a 22 episode season of a drama about the personal and professional lives of sexy young intercity professionals working for the CPS. That’s what the ABC ordered from Screentime, that’s what they got and that’s how they promoted it.

    Dusseldorp’s performance as a supporting character, (playing a mysterious wise matriarch to the sexy young things in the office), stole the show. The ABC has taken that character and spent three years creating a serious 8 part legal drama in mould of Silk.

    Hamish Micheal (comic relief) is retained and there are some guest spots for Indiana Evans (4 eps) and Andrea Demetriades (1st ep).

  14. I’m just going to admit the ads look really impressive. So it doesn’t surprise me that this show was rated so high. Thank you David for this review. I’m going to admit that it looks like one of the best Australian shows set in a contemporary era I’ve seen for a long time. At least based on the ads. I hope it lives up to it. I have a feeling it will.

    I’ll add if I don’t watch this it will because I want to give the ABC a free run. Due to my stupid computer graphics phobia. Where I fear there’ll be even more computer graphics to stress me out. Plus those tasteless stuff at the end. I’m just a curse of a viewer. I really wish the ABC could prove nobody else is watching based on those things. Although if they can safely prove it. I know it would take time however. I really wish this show the best either way.

  16. I really enjoyed Crownies, hopefully stripping out the soap elements helps it find an audience. I agree with harrypotter1994 having Tony Gillies as DPP director could make for some interesting scenes.

  18. I’ll give this a look, I’m prepared to put Crownies in the past as long as it really really is in the past, and dead with a stake through its heart!

    I never noticed Crownies improve over its run, it was as painfully bad in its final outing as it was in the first. I kept hoping it would improve but it never did alas.

  19. Wow Tony Gilles is director of the DPP!! That will be interesting to see for sure!

    Love Marta can’t wait till Thursday esp with this this awesome review!

  22. I didn’t mind Crownies but agree that it would have been much better without the soap opera elements.
    This looks really good & I’ll definitely give it a go.

  23. Great review. I must give this one a whirl. I stuck with Crownies for a few eps then gave up. I’ve always thought Marta is a great talent, Her time is now.

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