Sydney barrister Cleaver Greene (Richard Roxburgh) has the distasteful task of defending government economics adviser Professor Graham Murray (Hugo Weaving) on murder charges. In a media-sensationalized case the accused is prepared to stipulate he is a cannibal but not a murderer.
Seemingly everyone wants to put the Hannibal Lecter clone away without debating legal niceties. Greene has other ideas because technically the corpse Murray consumed was a suicide who volunteered to be eaten and the jurisdiction has no law on the books against cannibalism (not really an issue in Australia since a single incident way back in 1826).
Cleave is without an office as the series begins. Divorced and living above a cafe he is fighting tax evasion charges and disappointment that his favorite prostitute has left the business to go to university. He is also facing violent reprisals from a bookie to whom he owes big money. On top of that he is trying to be a father to a teenaged son who is more mature than he is and he is nursing a longstanding crush on his best friends wife.
Whatever else he may be he has redeeming qualities. He is a brilliant lawyer with a penchant for championing lost causes raising the curtain on the dark recesses where bizarre legal minutiae reside.
What do you reckon fair-minded folks would think if an old fella like me went full on earbashing with my praise of this brilliant satire? I'll risk them thinking my summary is furphy typed whilst off my face on a gutful of grog.
On yet another yobbo's fossick for great foreign television I discovered 'Rake' but only after the American version with Greg Kinnear had debuted. I'm glad I did because this show is a ton of fun.
Seemingly everyone wants to put the Hannibal Lecter clone away without debating legal niceties. Greene has other ideas because technically the corpse Murray consumed was a suicide who volunteered to be eaten and the jurisdiction has no law on the books against cannibalism (not really an issue in Australia since a single incident way back in 1826).
Cleave is without an office as the series begins. Divorced and living above a cafe he is fighting tax evasion charges and disappointment that his favorite prostitute has left the business to go to university. He is also facing violent reprisals from a bookie to whom he owes big money. On top of that he is trying to be a father to a teenaged son who is more mature than he is and he is nursing a longstanding crush on his best friends wife.
Whatever else he may be he has redeeming qualities. He is a brilliant lawyer with a penchant for championing lost causes raising the curtain on the dark recesses where bizarre legal minutiae reside.
What do you reckon fair-minded folks would think if an old fella like me went full on earbashing with my praise of this brilliant satire? I'll risk them thinking my summary is furphy typed whilst off my face on a gutful of grog.
On yet another yobbo's fossick for great foreign television I discovered 'Rake' but only after the American version with Greg Kinnear had debuted. I'm glad I did because this show is a ton of fun.