Remember Rachel Ward, the dazzling British beauty who seemed on the verge of attaining Hollywood stardom when she bolted Down Under with Australian actor husband Bryan Brown? Ward never altogether stopped working, although her starring vehicles have been few and far between. The Australian series Rain Shadow allows her a real showcase role as Kate McDonald, a strong-willed veterinarian in the small farming community of Paringa, who's first seen laboring to save local sheep herds stricken with a mysterious disease in the aftermath of a lengthy drought. Kate is also a woman with a past, one that interests her equally feisty young assistant Jill Blake (Victoria Thaine), who is determined to dig up secrets the older woman would just as soon leave buried. That tension undergirds their oil-and-water relationship, but seldom comes to the fore because the two women are too busy dealing with external crises that pop up with predictable regularity. The show features some talented male actors, including Gary Sweet, Nathin Butler, and Nathaniel Dean, but Rain Shadow (the term describes a starkly beautiful region in Australia's Adelaide Hills) is mostly about the often-problematic relationship of Kate and Jill. Compiling all six episodes from the 2007 debut season, DVD extras include a behind-the-scenes featurette, and a text bio of Ward. Recommended. (E. Hulse)
Rain Shadow: Series 1
Acorn, 2 discs, 326 min., not rated, DVD: $39.99 Volume 24, Issue 1
Rain Shadow: Series 1
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