I want to kill him i hate him i hate him i hate him and his slutty prison shorts and his stupid walk
i started watching Correlli bc i was looking through Hugh Jackman's filmography and it sounded interesting. but oh my god this show grabbed me by the balls I have never 'HUH?????'ed so much as I did in the first episode
kevin and brett's relationship had great character growth opportunity for both. they could have helped each other through their trauma so much more than what they actually did in the show. literally i was tearing my hair out in frustration at how stagnant their relationship was. i understand it's really hard for either of them to reach out but... well, anyway.
Kevin's trauma centres around his survivor's guilt and how he thinks he's a terrible person for leaving his suicidal brother to die. Brett grew up with literally no one, thinking nobody cared about him, thinking he had to go through things all alone. In that way, he and Kevin are similar - Kevin distanced himself from others because he genuinely thought he was a bad person and would only make other peoples' lives worse - only starting to just open up with Louisa - while Brett thought nobody could actually care about him since he was pretty much abandoned as a kid, so he didn't even try. Both strive for connection, but Brett is essentially a kid, and much more impressionable. He needed Kevin to show him the ropes.
Brett COULD HAVE filled the void that Matt left in Kevin's life, and served as a sort of 'second chance' for Kevin to do right by him - to prevent Brett from becoming a full on junkie (as he was on that path when he came into the prison) and overdose just like his little brother did. To try and convince himself he could be redeemed after leaving Matt to die. Louisa breaks this down in the episode where Brett comes back and Kevin's just freaking out about how Brett isn't listening to him and is gonna become a junkie again.
...Aand it's just never mentioned again. Like, here is a guy who clearly cares for Brett (a connection he strived for), and here is a kid who makes Kevin feel good about helping and slowly recover from his survivor's guilt. They could have helped each other so much. But watching their pseudo mentor/sibling relationship progress is like watching a rock try to move. The best fluff we got was them playing basketball together. The potential BOTCHED, man. Correlli isn't even a good show, it just has a great and interesting concept which was never utilised to its fullest potential.
(But take all this with a grain of salt because the show gave us almost nothing to work with - i'm just filling in the gaps with my headcanons about their backstory ig)
CONTENT WARNING: mentions of drug addictions, suicide, self-harm, prostitution, sexual assault, general violence, rape
alrighty! time to talk about correlli (the obscure australian mini series that lasted 10 episodes from 30 years ago starring Deborah-Lee Furness and Hugh Jackman)
I'll work on writing up an actual sentence-by-sentence analysis but for now I'll share the dot points:
Summary
very much a character-driven drama
realistic, maybe too realistic given the shakespearean ending
i love me some anti heroes
dependent on main leads, good chemistry between them
WARNING: LONG post ahead, so….
Great things
Prison culture is depicted in scrutinising, even critical detail (with lots of jabs made toward a failing social system tbh) and quite realistic. characters and prisoners aren't caricatures or stereotypes but real human beings with real struggle. They aren't depicted as all, junkies, mafia bosses, psychopaths, bad guys, tough guys, or scumbags; pain is the driving factor behind most of these prisoners' incarceration. Louisa does an excellent job dissecting each of the characters' psychologies and unveiling to the audience why a prisoner may be there and why they might not always deserve it and can always make an effort to turn their life around. We feel sympathy and root for (most of) them.
Expanding on prison culture, Kevin himself is generally well-respected and is definitely anti-hero material. He's a tortured soul we feel sympathy for as more and more of his trauma is unveiled, yes, but he's definitely not a victim, per se. Many of these prisoners aren't victims, but that doesn't erase our empathy for them. kevin has to act tough - it's not just an act, although it is to an act to an extent (he eventually attempts to take this act off when with people he cares about, like Louisa, as she encourages him to be vulnerable and honest with himself) but it is genuinely what is required to survive in a prison like this. He is adamant on not going back to Maximum. he's already probably the 'toughest' guy in blackstream, he shows aggressive and 'dominant' body language - often hostile to those who provoke him - to assert himself as untouchable and somebody not to be messed with. because he's seen what rumours, fucking around and 'bullying' does to people in prison who are seen as weak. As what he told Louisa, it's all about how people perceive you. do not under any circumstances let them see you lose your cool or weak. that's why he retains a clear head and doesn't fall for many people's taunts (exceptions of two times, one where he nearly smashed a screw's head in and once for when murphy provoked him while he was emotionally volatile from his situation with the psych.) all in all, this is an accurate depiction of prison culture with the way people like him act and survives according to these unspoken 'rules' - the show shows us what happens to people who don't follow them or are swayed easily by other groups (like Brett and Harry, in a way).
Expanding on this again… I also like how the show doesn't pull its punches with the dialogue and behaviour of these imprisoned, hardened men who've probably done terrible things. they speak like real people, tough and crass and sometimes vulgar without being cringey (heightened by the aussie accent lol) with slang native to australia and exclusive to prison or street speak. if you don't come from a culture like that, like me, you have to quite literally decipher their slang and accent (being australian I only have to do 50% of the work) to figure out what they're saying. also, another point for culture: prisoners who committed sexual crimes like rape are the lowest of the low, even feared sometimes if they feel no remorse (steven haines, iirc) while those who committed big time robbery/arms robbery or murder are respected (like kevin. the reason why he was in there is a bit ambiguous but it was something to do with an arms robbery.)
again, people are realistic. kevin's depth especially really interested me. he's both childlike and mature. he's a bit selfish and self centred. but he's able to keep his cool and think smart to avoid getting into scraps which he knows will not pay off in the long run, even if it provides instant gratification. he's always vying for louisa's time disregarding how she's probably an insanely busy woman (which the show portrays as his right, because he's pretty much the only one being open, vulnerable and 'without a mask' in their relationship, but I'm not so sure - corelli's argument of it professional boundaries is also completely valid) and obviously doesn't want to try louisa's advice because he wants to feel some semblance of control and 'win her game'. exactly like a child - they would refuse any practical solution because they are either adamant they are right or they don't want to let the adults win. hilariously, mutually, charming and frustrating in the context of kevin.
i also enjoy the wide variety of themes explored, including Louisa's relationship with her children, her status as a mother and her devotion to work being tested, suicidal clients, deep-rooted trauma and its long-term effects, mental health and support, a social system which is failing its underclass, corrupt cops, self-harm, hopelessness, depression, isolation, desperation and loneliness, sexual harassment, etc. Some of these are only briefly touched upon (like the corrupt cop and the sexual harassment probably was only mentioned/dedicated a scene or two and never mentioned again despite the build-up) but i appreciate the range. they are really vying for accurate representation here to bring awareness to these kinds of issues more prevalent in our society than we think, at the very least. they only had 10 episodes so i'll let them off the hook for this point.
they did a very good job of depicting just how much this stuff affects prisoners and those of lower class, though. not being from an underclass myself I can't speak for them obviously, but it truly gave me more insight into what life is like for people living in poverty, in disarrayed families, living in bad neighbourhoods, people surrounded by bad influences/peers, and people lacking adequate emotional/mental support, whether it be from close friends/family or the government system itself. prejudice is usually rife amongst people suffering from these things and along with that, heavy cynicism, nihilism, misanthropy, and mental health issues; these people are particularly vulnerable to unhealthy influences which encourage drugs, suicide, self-harm, assault, etc. but they are explanations for their behaviour, not excuses. they were still incarcerated for a reason after all. but they are human beings capable of changing themselves, which is what louisa was so adamant to help them do, but which only succeeded in some. the battle is an uphill one, and as shown by brett, it is all too easy to relapse when not given the right resources. trauma is not just something to get over - it takes a lot of effort, pain and good resources. kevin's trauma is still haunting him after all these years, and it's something that was ingrained throughout his childhood; and steven haine's girlfriend also had severe trauma from being an accomplice of his which she didn't just get over. the show puts emphasis on confronting problems head-on to be able to tackle them instead of burying them deep down inside waiting to explode. (kevin, the girlfriend and the murdered girl's parents. sorry i can't remember their names atm)
Things it could improve (imho)
loads of unresolved plot threads tbh or hastily/unsatisfactory resolved plot threads (wtf was the deal with the band prisoners destroying the instruments and kevin being transferred to another prison? maybe they thought it would be 'realistic' but it just demonstrates to me that despite the hard work and effort put into changing them for the better, and all the progress made, they just relapsed right back into their old ways. this is i think a false representation of reality - anybody can become a better person, as kevin proved.)
really a bit of a hit or miss with the episodes as most of the characters at the forefront of each - a different one every episode - have their psychology thoroughly explored and then never appear again after their time int he limelight. so the series doesn't really give you much time to get attached to any of them.
i'd have really liked the relationship between Brett and Kevin to be explored more. Brett filled the void Kevin's dead brother left, and served as a sort of 'second chance' for Kevin to do right by him - to prevent Brett from becoming a full on junkie and overdose just like his little brother did. To try and convince himself he could be redeemed after leaving Matt to die. This sorta got explored in Brett's episode but iirc, he only showed up once more for ep 8 and then never again which is really sad. His and Kevin's relationship also ended on bit of a sour note.
despite it being kinda marketed as a romance, the romance itself does not take centre stage for a while and definitely isn't given a lot of screen time. which i think is for the best because although it is a captivating relationship and perhaps even the driving force that keeps people coming back for each episode, the secondary characters should definitely have been dedicated the large amount of development that they did. i'd rather the romance be neglected than the prisoners, because honestly, the romance between Louisa and Kevin didn't have a huge amount of meat to it - after all, the series is called Corelli, not Corelli-Jones. but who knows, maybe there could have been more meat had they explored it more thoroughly.
speaking of that, the romance between the leads was kinda rushed - not really much screen time, or at least progress in their relationship, given throughout the other episodes as secondary characters were at the forefront. only since episode 8 did the romance start to really start to roll especially on Louisa's end - obviously, Kevin has been pining for a while but Louisa really showed no romantic attraction toward him before ep 8.
I would have liked for Louisa to have grown with the prisoners, as in as she dissects each of their psychologies and helps them start to heal she also learns something new about herself. I felt maybe she did a little but they were incremental changes. I can only find a few, such as when Harry's talking about his fond relationship with a druggie who OD'd, where she does go through a revelation about her own life (in this case her relationship with kevin). but still, it would have been great if it was consistent with every episode just like the 2016 Lucifer show - Corelli was only 10 episodes after all, and weaving in both the protagonist's character development and the 'plot' of the show (the prisoners) would have been an efficient way to make use of the time they had.
