TV
Janet King | ABC1, Thursday, February 27, 8.30pm
Line of Duty | ABC1, Friday, February 28, 9.30pm
Two new legal dramas debut on Auntie this week, both focusing on what happens once a case is closed. In Janet King, the eponymous Sydney Crown prosecutor is thrust into two high-profile trials on her first day back from maternity leave. When she makes a mess of the first trial, she is determined to prove herself with the second – the prosecution of a policeman accused of helping his terminally ill wife to die.
Spun-off from hit-and-miss legal drama Crownies, this new series takes its lead from British series Silk. King is a strong, nuanced character, played with steely grace by Marta Dusseldorp, but I’m not sure this first episode shows her in her best light. While we might admire her conviction, her moment of heroic defiance ultimately looks misguided. Still, this is a well-made Aussie drama. I only wish it trusted its audience a little more. There’s more power in a wink than a heavy-handed line. I’d rather be left puzzled than spoken down to.
BBC series Line of Duty has its own moments of clumsy exposition but soon hits its stride. It too involves the investigation of a respected police officer by an anti-corruption team, who are suspicious of the detective’s arrest rate. The show’s focus on character and authenticity means that, when the plot thickens, we can’t help feeling invested in the stakes, while the cliffhanger endings make a week seem an impossible wait. Don’t miss this.
MUSIC
Atlas Real Estate (Domino)
There’s always been a relaxed, summery quality to the music of New Jersey’s Real Estate – the aural equivalent of driving through picturesque pastures with the windows down. New LP Atlas, however, is positively lackadaisical. Lacking the pop urgency of 2011’s Days, the songs here blend into a pleasing haze of dreamy, oddly submarine Americana.
Although the jangling, occasionally discordant guitars still recall Pavement, the main influence here seems to be the shoegazing work of British bands such as Ride – by way of Nick Drake, perhaps. It’s telling that the album’s most distinctive track sounds closer to home. How Might I Live is striking, smoky alt-country and a rare moment of shade among the warm prettiness that defines the album.
FESTIVAL
Pushy Women | Gasworks Theatre, Albert Park, Sunday, March 2, 4pm, Tickets $35/$25
This week, Port Phillip launches She Spoke, the first all-female bike festival that hopes to encourage more women to take to two wheels. Running until May, the festival features events that include an assertive riding course, practical workshops in bicycle maintenance, and excursions led by notable local women. Proceedings kick off on Sunday with Pushy Women, in which Catherine Deveny leads some of Melbourne’s funniest and most talented women in discussion of their biking experiences. Part performance, part comedy, the show will tackle speed freaks, Lycra lasses, dykes on bikes, pedal pushers, dinkers and BMX bandits.
» pushywomensouth.eventbrite.com.au
FILM
The Wind Rises | Opens February 27, Rated PG, English subtitles, 126 minutes
» Director Hayao Miyazaki’s final film is a love letter to his nation and the technology that transformed it. Following the career of aeronautical engineer Jiro, The Wind Rises begins in a pastoral Japan and ends amid the ruins of an industrial war. While Miyazaki’s best-known flicks have tended towards whimsical flights of fancy, here the fantastical elements are restrained.
Nonetheless, the film retains a fairytale feel, celebrating the astounding invention of aircraft without lingering on the wartime nightmares they served. It’s a tale told with a childish sense of wonder, every aspect of its world imbued with magical life. Even the mechanical creations feel organic and animate, engines wheezing and sputtering with human voices and spitting inky blood.
The plot itself is slight, the story of a man living through history, rather than engaging with it, but the delivery is seductive, graceful and startlingly beautiful. A worthy final entrant to Miyazaki’s remarkable career.
CONCERT
Symphony Under The Stars
Malvern Gardens, Saturday March 1, 7pm, free
The kinda sporty Dave Graney is this year’s debonair star of Stonnington’s annual outdoor concert. Hosted by Sian Prior and held in the lush surrounds of Malvern Gardens, the event promises “cryptic rock voyager” Graney will make a cameo appearance in the midst of a diverse program of symphonic pieces. The affair will be overseen by conductor and violinist Roy Theaker, who has built an impressive reputation performing at home and abroad, working with material ranging from Mozart to The Lion King.
» www.stonnington.vic.gov.au/events/symphony-under-the-stars/
MYKE’S SPACE
Listening | Morrissey Your Arsenal. Remastered, reworked and re-released, this is one of the few Morrissey solo records that come close to matching his Smiths work.
Watching | Cowboy Bebop: Remastered Sessions Collection 2. The second half of the best film noir, jazz, space Western anime ever made has arrived on Blu-ray.
Attending | Live in the Studio (ACMI, February 27). In the wake of Orange Is the New Black, a discussion on our TV obsession with prison life.
