Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Tuesday's Overlooked TV: Wentworth


The first Tuesday's Overlooked for 2016 is on the Australian women's prison TV drama Wentworth.

Wentworth revolves around the character of Bea Smith, who enters the prison while awaiting sentencing on an attempted murder charge on her husband. While there, she runs into many characters among the prison population and staff, all of varying degrees of moral ambiguity. Other characters include sadistic warden Ferguson, fellow inmate and prionser leader Frany Doyle and other various prisoners and corrections officers with their own stories to tell. 

The series, based on an earlier Australian series called Prisoner, has won critical acclaim in its native Australia and the UK. The first three seasons of the series are available on Netflix in the US. A fourth season is airing on Australian television later this year. For those who may think it's similar to the US series Orange Is The New Black, be forwarned: Wentworth is much more serious than Orange (not that Orange doesn't have its serious moments), and is a bit closer in tone to HBO's Oz. I've only seen sporadic episodes here and there, but my wife has been binge-watching the series religiously since our Christmas vacation.

Here is the trailer for Season 1.


For more Tuesday's Overlooked, check out Todd Mason's blog Sweet Freedom!



1 comment:

Todd Mason said...

Cool...and sorry it took so long for me to get another list up (music for January soon). was the predecessor series PRISONER: CELL BLOCK something or other? (I suppose I could look it up). And oddly perhaps, OZ had its surreal and gallows-humorous aspects...shall take a look.