Fires
|
o. |
Title |
Directed by |
Written by |
Original air date |
Australia viewers |
|
|
1 |
"Episode 1" |
Belinda Chayko |
26 September 2021 |
354,000 |
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|
Lighting strikes and starts what is to become a long, hot and treacherous summer for young volunteer firefighters Tash and Mott. |
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|
2 |
"Episode 2" |
3 October 2021 |
295,000 |
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|
Dairy farmers Kath and Duncan return to their farm in the aftermath of the fire while grief and blame threaten to tear the family apart. |
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|
3 |
"Episode 3" |
10 October 2021 |
318,000 |
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|
Tash and Mott join the local fire-fighting effort in a small beachside community as locals and tourists alike have to make the difficult decision of whether to stay or flee. |
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|
4 |
"Episode 4" |
Steven McGregor & Belinda Chayko |
17 October 2021 |
371,000 |
||
|
On Christmas Eve, Tash and Mott escort locals from a small rural community to a community hall for refuge from the fires. |
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|
5 |
"Episode 5" |
24 October 2021 |
321,000 |
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|
The fire fronts join up creating a "megafire". As a wall of flames bear down on Ruth and Nawra defending their home and the wildlife they care for, conflicting priorities at the fire control centre leave them in peril. |
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|
6 |
"Episode 6" |
Belinda Chayko |
31 October 2021 |
304,000 |
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|
It's New Year's Eve. A usually picturesque holiday town looks like a war zone - as day turns to night, then the sky turns blood-red, people rush to the water's edge for safety. |
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This six part television series is not a continuous narrative. Rather, it is an anthology of stories about bushfires, responses, the human condition, disaster and tragedy. It reflects the huge range of fires that devastated, especially, the eastern states of Australia in 2019-2020. The production is under the auspices of prolific producer, Tony Ayres.
In the first episode there is the introduction to the fires, in Queensland, the voluntary services, and a focus on a young couple and their families, the touch of romance, their working together, Eliza Scanlen and Hunter Page-Lochard. They will reappear in further episodes, moving south with their volunteer work, sometimes heroic, sometimes impetuous, and, ultimately, sad.
The second episode was nominated for all kinds of awards, writing, direction, cinematography, performances, especially of Miranda Otto. This is a tense episode, an older couple, destruction of the house, their wanting news of their sons, the behaviour of their prospective daughter-in-law, tension and clashes. Richard Roxburgh plays the husband, more accommodating, Miranda Otto having the angry outbursts.
In further episodes, there is a focus on a more affluent couple and the threat to their home and their behaviour, Sam Worthington and Anna Torv. There is also the episode with Mark Leonard Winter, unreliable background, getting a lift with a family and guiding them from the South Coast to Canberra, having to take detours, having to control the children, Christmas pending and the family wanting to get home. There is also an intense episode focusing on a shelter, some of those taking refuge, an aboriginal woman, wanting to walk back to her home against advice…
The final episode is on New Years Evil, people taking refuge near the water (memories of boats having to come to Mallacoota to take people away), and a number of the themes of the previous episodes coming together.
The series showed on the ABC and was praised – although, interestingly, on the Internet movie database, there are many adverse and critical comments.
