Underbelly NZ

Following on from the success of three seasons of Underbelly in Australia, New Zealand follows suit with it’s own take on the events that had some impact on the story told in Underbelly Season 2. It’s the 1970’s and a young Kiwi entrepreneur figures out that there is money to be had selling drugs and gets together with some nasty people to take his operation to a global scale. It’s an eye opening story of the birth of the drug wars in New Zealand, and how unprepared the police were to deal with it.

Promoted as The real Mr Asia Story – a slight dig to Underbelly 2: The Mr Asia story – Underbelly NZ follows the same format as it’s Aussie cousins, that is a mix of history, nudity and violence. It has the same charm, lovable and despicable characters that the Aussie Underbelly’s had, but for some reason never seems to come off as good.

But don’t get me wrong, it’s a solid show and well worth watching, and to be honest, if you’ve never watched any of the Underbelly DVDs, then this would be the idea jumping off point. 

But for long time fans of the show, Underbelly NZ may seem a little lackluster, which is a pity because it’s a damn good show.

FILMGUIDE rating:

Reviewed by: Jonathan