★★★★★ 0/5

Bumped: The Messenger, The North Water, Ragdoll.

ABC pushes its new local drama to a later slot, plus changes to Saturday schedule.

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In a rare programming move by ABC, new local drama The Messenger has been bumped to a later timeslot, in favour of UK drama Silent Witness.

From Sunday night Silent Witness will screen at 8:30pm with The Messenger at 9:30pm. In its third outing The Messenger drew just 174,000 overnight viewers.

Meanwhile there is a change to Saturday programming with The North Water bumped to 9:50pm with Ragdoll at 10:45pm.

A Vera replay will screen at 8:30pm Saturday.

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  2. North Water is competently made but characters and story are totally uninteresting. Ragdoll is based on novel that tries to push the cops involved with a serial killer idea as far as it can. I watched it on BBC First and it is crazy but fun. Silent Witness I have seen this season and the one after it on BBC First. Interview With The Vampire is classic pulp gothic horror. Cruise and Durst were brilliant as lurking evil in the movie. The TV show if camp and hilarious, Reid is totally unconvincing as a French Noble hundreds of years old. Louis just boring and New Orleans consists of a few cheap obvious sets. The only things I am watching on the ABC are Antiques Roadshow from two years ago during Covid (Lifestyle have the more recent series) and Mayfair Witches which is the worst piece of TV I have seen for a long time. The writing, acting direction, sex scenes and production decisions are all truly awful — welcome to the bottom of peak TV.

  3. Hopefully the new content person at Aunty sorts this out. The Messenger looks dreadful from the promo alone.

    ABC local productions has become so staid and predicable in the last few years. Hardly any risks being taken and everything made to be as appealing to as many people as possible. I could never get over the fact Mystery Road was set in these fictional towns, completely losing any sense of place or identity you would get by owning it was in Broome (think back to the masterpiece SBS drama, the Circuit). Also, too many one or two seasons shows and that’s it. There’s no investment made in building up a strong audience over a number of years or the show will rest only to come back two or three years later.

    And this is just drama – the comedy and variety slate is even worse. Gruen needs the knife. Spicks and Specs should have been left in the 2000s. Bring in new talent and ideas!

  4. I’m struggling with ABC’s aussie content this year. I’m watching both The Messenger and In Limbo and I just hope there’s a good pay off at the final episodes. Definitely a far cry from their year of The Newsreader, Wakefield etc. Looking forward to Newsreader S2 at least.

  5. We gave up on Messenger mid-way through the 2nd episode. The trailer for North Water was enough. Ragdoll is OK but at 10:45pm … nope … will have to watch it via my PVR or iView.

    I’m also guessing that the ABC didn’t think much of these shows anyway as they weren’t advertised that much, not at least, when compared to Witches & Vampires. We are fed up with the saturation advertising of these 2 shows.

    But why show repeats of Vera? Surely, with all the TV made these days, the ABC should have something new to broadcast? Or perhaps new seasons of its current shows (I can think of quite a few)?

      1. And Witches & Vampires on AMC. I suspect, though, that the number of AMC subscribers here in Australia are *lot* less than for Foxtel/Binge.

        I also think that these 2 shows are certainly not your normal “ABC” drama, eg. Call the Midwife, Vera, Death in Paradise, Midsomer Murders, etc. etc. that this is a bit of an experiment by the ABC. If successful then the ABC might broadcast more of this type. Hence, the saturation advertising.

        Could be completely wrong of course.

          1. Me too, love a witch, ….watched Ragdoll with the selected body parts and North Water left me cold….only lasted one episode both on Foxtel…fast forwarded most of what I saw anyway….totally agree with BazzaG…with all the tv made nowadays…. is spot on.

  6. North Water – I lasted the first 5 minutes of episode one before parting company with that series, as dull as dishwater.
    The Messenger – more a series for teenagers – my initial impression. I can’t say I found it all that engaging, despite the performance of the lead actor.
    So not shocked the ABC have made some programming changes, none of those series mentioned above were setting the house on fire when it comes to ratings.
    And Silent Witness belongs in an 8.30PM timeslot – I’m a longtime fan, fantastic that Amanda Burton is back as Sam Ryan to lock horns with Emilia Fox’s Nikki.

    1. SW has well and truly lost it-so many things wrong with the current ep it’s difficult to know where to start, but Nikki raising the point that having an eye witness directly involved in the investigation was inherently wrong, and utterly no response to that objection was a start…

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