By Gordon Farrer
ABC1, Thursday, 8.30pm
For Sydneysiders, Redfern has long been associated with Aboriginal crime, impoverishment and squalor. For years its infamous fortress-within-a-city known as The Block was a no-go zone for outsiders - especially for police, against whom residents ran a constant battle. Sitting on the edge of the city's trendy, increasingly gentrified fringe, The Block was also for years the beating heart of strong indigenous community and the birthplace of political awareness, protest and action around indigenous rights.
Efforts to raze The Block to remove the social issues that plagued it never quite succeeded. But Redfern today is not the Redfern it once was. The creep of gentrification has reached into it and blended with the area's indigenous character to create a unique melange, adding new dimensions to old social issues.
The skill and achievement of Redfern Now is that it captures the suburb's contemporary issues and finds deep and powerful drama in the new and the old. It is not solely about indigenous issues; nor is it not about indigenous issues. It's about human issues, and if those are sometimes to do with colour, culture and exclusion then we should see that these are also universal themes that can be overlaid on to the timeless themes of love, revenge and courage within an outsider community.
Redfern Now captures the suburb's contemporary issues and finds deep and powerful drama in the new and the old.
In "Where the Heart Is", the first episode of season two, we meet gay couple Richard (Oscar Redding) and his aboriginal partner Peter (Kirk Page). The fate of Richard came in a quick, brutal blow, leaving Peter fighting for custody of daughter Amy against Richard's determined, hateful mother, Margaret (played with an aching, raw power by Noni Hazlehurst).
In the series' second episode, "Starting Over", we return to a story rooted more deeply in community as indigenous policeman Aaron (Wayne Blair), rejected by his neighbours as a sellout, finds romance with Allie (Lisa Flanagan), also on the outer because she chooses to parade in public the cuts and bruises from her abusive partner, now in jail. Flanagan is superb as the feisty battered wife. Blair, an accomplished writer and director in his own right - he directed the hugely successful feature film The Sapphires - is terrific as the quietly determined policeman who makes a stand in the face of ugly community prejudices.
The ABC is making a lot out of the fact that Redfern Now is the first drama series wholly by indigenous Australians. We might lament that the milestone took so long, but to make so much about its origins distracts from the simple truth that this is superb television. No matter who made it, this series is some of the best drama you will see.