Take Three: Cleverman

Cleverman: Season 1, Episode 3 “A Free Ranger” (B-)

I wanted to get into this show, but after three episodes I’m just not feeling any real pull. There are definitely interesting things going on here, but there’s something missing. Waruu’s exposition expedition to the containment facility resulted in two very unexpected complications while presented different problems for him. The first was the freeing of three prisoners, one of whom was in bad shape but ended up bouncing back quickly thanks to a smart suggestion from Jarrod and a successful blood transfusion. The second was the unfortunate framing of the Hairypeople as a band of savages thanks to the manipulation of the guard’s dead body as a gruesome murder scene. We did see at the end of the episode that Waruu gave in to a violent impulse and killed the guard when he didn’t have to die, but it still was nothing nearly as brutal as what the Australian public now believes has happened. Latani nearly got herself into serious trouble, but fortunately her captors underestimated her and she made it to at least temporary safety. Araluen is in a far more dire state, and even though she has the freedom to move around and not sleep in a cell, her new life is not a good one and not one she is free to control. As I said, it is interesting, but I don’t think that this show is quite focused enough to achieve the objectives and cover the ground it wants to. This is going to be my last episode.