Underbelly - too hot to handle?

Well, at least this weeks episode featured some male gratuitous nudity to make those lads that sit in their living room anxiously waiting for the next bit of tit (with their hand down their pants) feel a bit awkward. The thing is, Underbelly isn't porn - there's just a lot of sex and nudity in it. Compared to other countries Australia is pretty tame when it comes to sex on TV - and really, if you look at what is actually shown, a few frames of ass or tit in any other show would not be looked at twice, it's just that on Underbelly it's every third or fourth frame. The real shame about all the raunch on Underbelly is that the show is clearly targeted to a specific demographic - as we can tell from all the Zoo magazine ads in the commercial breaks - and is thus alienating those female (and other) viewers that might find all the sex and violence a bit offensive. Meanwhile, I can't imagine what the ratings would be if those people switched on as so far Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities has been ratings gold for Channel 9.

Here's the thing though - the story is a bit slow. The dialogue is a bit stunted. The characterisation is not all that good and they expect us to believe that EVERY woman in the 70's was attractive (including those that worked in the police force - give me strength!) But other than that it's not all that bad. Matthew Newton is stellar - although I can't watch him chop up bodies without thinking what his poor old dad would say.

If I was a right-wing Christian (and let's be honest, they're only complaining so they have an excuse to watch it) I'd be more upset about the violence than the nudity - but seeing as some of our top rating shows (CSI whatever and all those other 'forensic' type shows) are relative bloodbaths, it's only natural to find something else to be morally outraged about.

I would suggest that the moral panic has aided the shows popularity - because without it, it's just another average show - not good, not bad - but not worth the pages and pages of newspaper print debating its value.