Underbelly: The Trilogy

This Australian TV crime drama (which has been compared to The Sopranos) chronicles the violent, drug-fueled Melbourne gangland war that exploded in the 1970s and continued through the 2000s. The stories are based on real-life events, fictionalized to some extent but basically following the historical record of murders (of both witnesses and criminal rivals and snitches), disappearances of key figures, and arrests, all within the framework of the career of one police officer, Jacqui James (Caroline Craig), who serves as narrator. Straddling the line between gritty tell-all and lurid melodrama, the sex- and violence-laden Underbelly—directed with a rapid pace and flamboyant sensibility—was highly controversial when it first appeared on Australian TV, but went on to become a massive hit, so subsequent installments followed, rewinding back to the 1970s to trace the origins of the mayhem in Sydney and Melbourne. The “trilogy” in the title refers to the initial three 13-episode seasons of the show—War on the Streets (2008), A Tale of Two Cities (2009), and The Golden Mile (2010)—although the boxed set reorganizes the order so the storyline unfolds chronologically. American audiences won't necessarily get the Australian cultural and historical references, but the tales of a rampant drug culture and intertwined police corruption are compelling in their own right. Compiling 39 episodes on 12 discs, extras include a documentary on Carl Williams (the real-life gangster at the center of the 2008 production), and two behind-the-scenes featurettes. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)