Black Snow

2023 - 1 - 1

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Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

Black Snow review – Australian murder mystery has a corker of a ... (The Guardian)

With twin narratives set in 1994 and 2019, the whodunnit centres on a buried time capsule – but struggles to maintain tension.

Still: that time capsule premise is a corker, and the show’s creators extract considerable dramatic mileage from it. This isn’t a criticism: it’s part of the format, and guessing who is part of the fun. Things falling from the sky is a great way to ratchet up atmospheric intensity or signal a change of emotions: rain of course being the most common, often used to heighten drama, evoke melancholia or symbolise cleansing and rebirth. The cast are generally impressive but the performances are tonally imbalanced, with Blackman-Corowa bringing a fair degree of gravitas as Isabel but Bani overacting as her evangelical dad. In the great Australian tradition of unhelpful cops (from Chips Rafferty in Upon arrival at the cop shop in the town of Ashford, the local senior sergeant (played by the under-used Kym Gyngell) delivers him a bloody-strayan greeting: “So, you’re the finger up my arsehole.” But he is mostly obliging.

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Image courtesy of "Mediaweek"

“A Trojan Horse”: Behind the scenes of Stan's Black Snow (Mediaweek)

Stan has kicked off 2023 with a bang, by releasing its new six-part mini-series, Black Snow, starring Vikings star Travis Fimmel.

That’s a great landscape to explore, with storytelling to have that kind of support and creative space made for you to go a little bit left of centre. The bar is so high to get this show up against Succession and Mare of Easttown. That’s the ambition of all sorts of high-end drama producers in this country. They’re obviously diversifying more and more with more and more platforms appearing in the marketplace. What we choose to do, is do the best six hours of television we can do with the most extraordinary cast we can pull together.” “As far as film and television and storytelling goes in Australia, there’s a great confluence of us evolving as practitioners. The story of people being taken from Ireland to work in the cane fields in this country is a story that when we think about it is quite a universal story. “To attract someone of Travis’s level who is so incredibly recognised around the world, and can open doorways for international broadcasters around the world. “I’ve got this theory that the more distinct it is, the better it sells. “That shift from longer running productions to shorter running productions, just satisfies market needs and the flow of finances coming through. The idea that something has to find an instantaneous market these days, whereas historically, projects had a little more time to breathe and to be discovered, and there was just a totally different mechanism.” The show unfolds across two timeframes, with Isabel driving the 1994 strand and Detective Cormack in the present day.

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Image courtesy of "Nine"

Exclusive: Alexander England on why The Stan Original Series ... (Nine)

The gripping mystery-drama is set in a small town in North Queensland, and tells the story of 17-year-old Isabel Baker who was murdered in 1995. The crime ...

It will hopefully be the start of a number of conversations, because it is a show with a lot to say. "This story is very important to the Australian South Sea Islander community as well, so there's a great responsibility there. But in 2020, the opening of a time capsule unearths a secret that puts cold-case detective James Cormack (Travis Fimmel) on the trail of the killer. 8 hours ago [The Stan Original Series Black Snow](https://www.nine.com.au/entertainment/latest/stan-original-series-black-snow-travis-fimmel-lead-cast-news/e482c88e-7fb4-4df1-ac1a-4dd287e1f543) is premiering on New Year's Day, with all six episodes available to watch now only on [Stan](https://9.nine.com.au/GiXrSt). "My story is 25 years [after the murder], and we meet these characters again," he explained. We meet someone who has been heavily affected, and has a much more restricted world view later." The crime shocked the small town of Ashford and devastated Isabel's Australian South Sea Islander community. Alexander plays Anton Bianchi in the series, who was in love with Isabelle before her murder. I'm honoured to be invited to be a part of it and do what I can to tell this story as truthfully as possible." [Brooke Satchwell opens up on playing a new type of role in Black Snow](https://www.nine.com.au/entertainment/latest/exclusive-stan-black-snow-brooke-satchwell-interview-character/dea3567f-f7f0-4b1d-8afb-06b98a28ac68) He said it was this character complexity that really "drew him" to the role, adding that he believes the story as a whole "really has something to show". He's almost never moved past that point.

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Image courtesy of "Pedestrian TV"

Everything We Know About Stan's New Aussie Murder Mystery ... (Pedestrian TV)

Everything We Know About Stan's New Aussie Murder Mystery Series Black Snow · Black Snow is all about a cold case · A present-day detective dives deeper · The cast ...

It was also pretty incredible to see how collaborative and involved the Australian South Sea Islander community was in telling this story. Black Snow is one of the first Aussie TV Series to really centre around the Australian South Sea Islander community as it tells the story of Isabel Baker. All six eps drop on Jan 1, and considering most of us will probs still be a little dusty from NYE, it’s perfect timing. They’re joined by familiar faces in Brooke Satchwell (Mr Inbetween), Alexander England (Alien: Covenant), Erik Thomson (Packed to the Rafters), Kym Gyngell (Wakefield) and Rob Carlton (Total Control). The crime sent shockwaves through the small tropical North Queensland town of Ashford and devastated the Australian South Sea Islander community. 25 years later, the opening of a time capsule unearths a secret that reopens the cold case and puts Detective James Cormack (Travis Fimmel) on the trail of the killer.

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