I can't believe the people slagging off this TV series as being historically inaccurate. If it was to stick to the true letter of historical accounts then it wouldn't be called a "drama" series, it would be a rather dull documentary. Instead this series attempts to draw the viewer into a plausible set of scenarios and relationships that develop as the convicts and marines get to know each other in their new home. Having watched the behind the scenes from the DVD, the writer explains that the absence of Aboriginal contacts in the show was to avoid only paying token reference to them here and there and focus on the narrative of the main characters. Perhaps if a second season is able to get funding then there may be more scope to introduce the aspects of interactions with the aborigines and hopefully show them to be the peaceful people that they are, albeit conflicted by the encroachment of their resources and lands, and the abuse of their women at the hands of brutal marines. This was a really enjoyable series and I only hope an opportunity arises for season 2 to be produced. Great acting by all involved and very realistic sets. Curious to know where the outdoor scenes were was filmed. It's a beautiful area.
61 Reviews
Good Historical Drama, although devoid of controversial subjectivity
luke-eberhardt17 July 2015
I have to be lucky I was exposed to Australian history at quite a young age even for it to be taught in a fascinating manner. I have since maintained a healthy passion for Australia's Colonial History in particular, mainly between the first fleet of 1788 and pre-1901 federation anything before then was Indigenous culture and outsiders Exploration.
'Banished' is particularly inspired by historical events after the landing of the first fleet, and really examines the life and times of the convicts and naval authority of the Penal Colony that would become known as Sydney.
I can honestly say the overall quality of the series was really impressive. There's enough compelling drama and insight into the lives of the convicts and settlers, mostly fighting for survival and civil rights and disobedience challenging the authority. I also loved the genuine sense of historical authenticity reflected in the series' production design, costumes and aesthetics along with some fantastic performances from a talented ensemble cast I admire.
Although the series merely mentions the presence of 'Natives'. It absolutely doesn't show it, which is questionable due to the local Aboriginal tribes feeling the political upheaval of the British Colonists settling on their land. Aborigines now more refer to the First Fleet's colonization as an 'invasion'. I do have enough respect for screenwriter Jimmy McGovern who created this show, along with many other respectable screen writing credits. Even after developing 'Redfern Now' which focused on the lives of Aborigines in Modern Australia he would've had some sense to delve deeper into pressure of the colonist's conflicts with the Aborigines faced at the time.
However, I did really enjoy the series for what it is. If you enjoyed this I recommend 'The Timeless Land', 'The Term of His Natural Life' (1983), 'Against the Wind', 'The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant' and the more recently critically acclaimed miniseries 'The Secret River'.
'Banished' is particularly inspired by historical events after the landing of the first fleet, and really examines the life and times of the convicts and naval authority of the Penal Colony that would become known as Sydney.
I can honestly say the overall quality of the series was really impressive. There's enough compelling drama and insight into the lives of the convicts and settlers, mostly fighting for survival and civil rights and disobedience challenging the authority. I also loved the genuine sense of historical authenticity reflected in the series' production design, costumes and aesthetics along with some fantastic performances from a talented ensemble cast I admire.
Although the series merely mentions the presence of 'Natives'. It absolutely doesn't show it, which is questionable due to the local Aboriginal tribes feeling the political upheaval of the British Colonists settling on their land. Aborigines now more refer to the First Fleet's colonization as an 'invasion'. I do have enough respect for screenwriter Jimmy McGovern who created this show, along with many other respectable screen writing credits. Even after developing 'Redfern Now' which focused on the lives of Aborigines in Modern Australia he would've had some sense to delve deeper into pressure of the colonist's conflicts with the Aborigines faced at the time.
However, I did really enjoy the series for what it is. If you enjoyed this I recommend 'The Timeless Land', 'The Term of His Natural Life' (1983), 'Against the Wind', 'The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant' and the more recently critically acclaimed miniseries 'The Secret River'.
Not a historical drama, just a period drama
kosa-matyas5 January 2016
Apart from that, it is not a historical accurate drama, we don't have to write off this television serial. Don't wait from these show a correct picture of the Australian situation( late 18.century) and of the aboriginal people. It is a drama, slow actions, harsh emotion which must be processed.( and made for mostly for British, Irish viewers focused on definitely the connection between the convicts and the soldiers.) Concentrating on few characters, their developments, how their actions refine their personality. James Freeman what will happen to you? If there still would be a sequel, it would be really interesting, enjoyable to follow Freeman's life in the wilderness. But we will never see that.. Such a shame to have canceled this TV show.
A Joy of a Series....
sonolite-9775220 October 2016
This is a period piece that takes place in 1800 Australia. Filmed on location, the setting is beautiful. If you haven't been to Australia this gives you a chance to enjoy this beautiful continent... The story is pure enjoyment...Up there with The Boardwalk Empire, Rome and a few others... the acting is great, the writers are fantastic! It is easy to buy into the story and you are gone on a wonderful vacation from reality....and isn't that the best in entertainment? I just discovered it...just finished it..and then found out there is not to be a second series...However, the story has a natural ending even through there is much more that could be done with such a script. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute.
Cancelled!? Why!!??
racheldustin10 February 2019
Fishing? Hunting? Anyone?
NilsZippo13 February 2021
One season not enough
danigb-3080121 July 2018
I liked the concept
philipryburn13 July 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Really interested at the start of this. I felt the story progressed too quickly, and the characters developed at an unnecessary rate. Also... why kill off Tommy at the end?! What a waste, and an empty way to leave the show!!
Must watch!
clarkeemily16 April 2015
So surprised about the negative reviews of this. I think this was an excellent piece of scriptwriting, so emotive and interesting. No, it may not have been 100% historically accurate but it is drama not a documentary, so should not be expected to be. In fact, I had never heard much of the story of the Australian convicts before, and given that this was based on many true stories, I found it very interesting; usually this time period does not normally interest me but the exploration of power, duty and morals of this period were great. After such good character development and acting, I was in tears after the events of the last episode. Beautiful portrayal of humanity.
Not historically accurate, but I didn't expect it to be.
jinxieb19 March 2022
Banished, like many other series in this genre, is a fictional drama set during an historical period. Which is 1788, and the establishing of a penal colony by the First Fleet in NSW Australia. I am not all that knowledgeable on the settling of NSW but, from the first episode it it didn't appear to be historically accurate nor did I really expect it to be. That being said, I did enjoy the series. Further reading into the settling of NSW, it would have been more interesting if the writers used the accounts of the settling of NSW.
BBC - BRING IT BACK!
barkleylloyd7 October 2018
Wife and I sadly just finished the last episode only to discover no more seasons are coming. Hopefully BBC will correct this and produce another season. While a few historical licenses were taken for the drama, the acting, the scenery, the story lines, etc, were all outstanding. Thanks to Netflix for showing this in the U.S.
It's entertaining but not a realistic documentary
jonnithomas18 March 2015
Warning: Spoilers
This isn't a documentary and cries of 'she has perfect teeth, she shouldn't have' are laughable. What should the producer do then ? Get the teeth remodeled to show how bad dentistry was in that period ? if you view it as a drama set in a period and location which isn't strictly accurate then you may well enjoy it.
The characters are not fully developed yet as it's early in the series. However, the acting is OK and the storyline is entertaining. I enjoyed it as I watched it in the spirit in which it was intended (as entertainment).
Don't watch it if you want to see signs of realistic brutal rapes, scabies and actors and actresses that are rather liked walking skeletons. I don't think the BBC can expect that from their cast.
btw the uniforms all look rather too clean too :)
The characters are not fully developed yet as it's early in the series. However, the acting is OK and the storyline is entertaining. I enjoyed it as I watched it in the spirit in which it was intended (as entertainment).
Don't watch it if you want to see signs of realistic brutal rapes, scabies and actors and actresses that are rather liked walking skeletons. I don't think the BBC can expect that from their cast.
btw the uniforms all look rather too clean too :)
Had Promise Lacked Authenticity.
kollasch-3781628 September 2020
The acting is good but with a story of a soap opera.
The writers lost all realistic stock ,when putting 20th century morality in to this show.
People look to see period shows to reflect the true hardships and tribulations of the time. Not watch a modern soap dressed up in period clothes.
The writers lost all realistic stock ,when putting 20th century morality in to this show.
People look to see period shows to reflect the true hardships and tribulations of the time. Not watch a modern soap dressed up in period clothes.
60 Minutes Gone In 60 Seconds
challenged_traveller26 March 2015
That's how this program feels like each episode. Fantastic setting, Blue skies, green jungles, sunny beaches. The acting is first rate, the script is challenging enough to be fun without being too cerebral. That's what entertainment is supposed to be. Its one of those series where an hour is not long enough. As for realism, I don't want to see skanky teeth or manky uniforms but I do agree on the condition of Kitty's hair but then again 'maybe shes worth it'. Maybe in the second series, she looses her memory and The Major convinces her its May Belle Lynn McVitie This story could run and run as the New South Wales colony grows over the decade. If done properly, more series than Stargate SG1 Well done script writers and well done to the BBC for funding it. Feel free to making a remake of Mutiny On the Bounty or Hornblower or anything anywhere hot 'n' sunny on water or in a jungle and I'll be a fanboy of that too. :)
How Dare You Cancel This?!
brittanyscute25 December 2019
Hulu needs to add a warning label for canceled shows. I decided to watch this random show, only to get utterly hooked and subsequently discover that it was canceled.
This show is different. Since the characters face life or death, honor or duty type scenarios there is a deepness and a darkness that you don't always find. But unlike some of the other dark historical dramas, there is a more humanistic element. It feels like real people, real damaged and imperfect people. The characters, so many of them, were all intriguingly complex and dynamic. Perhaps that was the due of the amazing actors. Everything about them made me look for more, curious and drawn in. I found myself yelling at the screen, going from cheering to jeering in a second. And crying a lot.
Now I'm hanging on a perpetual cliff with no outlet for this frustration. I'm just dangling here, waiting for a resolution that will never come. I vote the creaters of canceled shows write a book or something. Seriously.
Time to jump I guess, goodbye cruel world.
This show is different. Since the characters face life or death, honor or duty type scenarios there is a deepness and a darkness that you don't always find. But unlike some of the other dark historical dramas, there is a more humanistic element. It feels like real people, real damaged and imperfect people. The characters, so many of them, were all intriguingly complex and dynamic. Perhaps that was the due of the amazing actors. Everything about them made me look for more, curious and drawn in. I found myself yelling at the screen, going from cheering to jeering in a second. And crying a lot.
Now I'm hanging on a perpetual cliff with no outlet for this frustration. I'm just dangling here, waiting for a resolution that will never come. I vote the creaters of canceled shows write a book or something. Seriously.
Time to jump I guess, goodbye cruel world.
Good Vibe/Bad Hair
jessief-4852926 August 2015
Now being viewed in Canada on Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Unfortunately the CBC has nasty habit of interrupting dialogue mid-sentence for commercial =more$$$. The remainder of scene is then deleted. Don't quite get the neatly barbered look of many characters and the structured hair mess of others. A $300 haircut looks VERY out of place after 5 episodes. The British ideal of 'holding down the fort' certainly displays English ideal of inability to assimilation to surroundings. "The supply boat will bring supplies to feed us." How many months do they starve before they explore for sustenance? The plot may lack continuity through out episodes though the female treatment seams to help gloss over inconsistencies.
Excellent acting in this tense drama
sue-payne17 April 2015
I absolutely loved this and by the final episode the tension was unbearable because these were characters I really got involved with. The drama was clever in showing that most characters had good and bad sides. Major Ross - the "villain" was ruthless but clearly had a softer side (and was gorgeous too in my opinion!). Such an interesting character and a great performance by Joseph Millson. Julian Rhind-Tutt, who I've always thought of as a wimpy sort of man, was a revelation here as tough convict Tommy and the love between him and his woman in this was heartbreakingly real. Their friendship with Russell Tovey's character was brilliantly played. So many great performances, too many to mention. An excellent drama, best thing on TV for a while. The emotions in the finale were almost too much to bear.
despite shortcomings good take on imperialism
prosper130 March 2015
despite shortcomings good take on imperialism. well done in terms of locations, characters and story, but somehow fails to gel. never the less, it is another in the long line of exposing British brutality. it often takes eons to probe into a nation's past and to expose the crime and cruelty perpetrated on lower classes.
Downton Abbey, Mutiny on the bounty etc all paint a picture of British cruelty and jimmy mcgovern hits this message. if you read "fatal shore" by Australian writer/critic robert hughes, you find that most people were deported were poor, disenfranchised irish.
I look forward to seeing more of this admission of guilt on the part of the British empire in Ireland, Africa, India, the Caribbean, Asia and Australia. There is such a rich, dramatic history of cruelty and perhaps this will serve as an introduction. perhaps McGovern's writing's subtext is that so many have have suffered for the benefit of so few. This holds true for Belgium, Holland, Germany and France. Today this story plays out with Amerika and China exploiting poor folks in ways the more devious than the British could not even imagine.
Downton Abbey, Mutiny on the bounty etc all paint a picture of British cruelty and jimmy mcgovern hits this message. if you read "fatal shore" by Australian writer/critic robert hughes, you find that most people were deported were poor, disenfranchised irish.
I look forward to seeing more of this admission of guilt on the part of the British empire in Ireland, Africa, India, the Caribbean, Asia and Australia. There is such a rich, dramatic history of cruelty and perhaps this will serve as an introduction. perhaps McGovern's writing's subtext is that so many have have suffered for the benefit of so few. This holds true for Belgium, Holland, Germany and France. Today this story plays out with Amerika and China exploiting poor folks in ways the more devious than the British could not even imagine.
Australia should be ashamed
srhballard18 September 2015
As a person who was born in Australia and spent all of my life here, all I have to say is that we should be ashamed of not supporting the first drama depicting colonization that even rates a mention. Even though indigenous Australians were not depicted in the first season, i'm sure they would have been included in the seasons to follow, if not I may have lost interest in this TV series but it was barely given a chance. One season is surely not enough time to introduce a foreign people the main characters know little about if you want to focus on their stories. This show was the first chance for the story of Australia to become known to the rest of the world, and now we will never know what the impact of that would have been.
I did
Headturner111 May 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Not now this was another creation of Jimmy Mcgovern or I would have watched it sooner. Decent enough but they go back and forth and things like they forgot they ha even written it that way. SPOILERS
Such as the marrying of Tommy and Elizabeth(Whom myana buring ) was fantastic( loved her in Ripper Street). The hanging of James. Did they forget the governer said it was the black smith that drove him to it and he should have been hanged instead, blah, blah and shinny new laws etc then none of that happened. The cast was fantastic. I didn't even recognize Genvive Reily. I felt bad for Ryan Corrs character) forget his name0 I knew that was going to happen tho but in the end I doubt she'll be with either of them. Too bad there isn't more seasons as I'm struggling to find anything and this isn't really my genre but I enjoyed it.
One season??!!
eacorna29 August 2020
I wish I hadn't started watching. I didn't realize it was canceled after one season. This was a great show. Well done and some of the best actors who were unknown to me (which always makes the drama better, in my opinion).... I wonder what network genius decided this had to go?😡
The actual history is actually interesting
andy-nielsen17 February 2019
Warning: Spoilers
The founding of the penal colony of NSW is incredibly interesting.
We know the stories of actual convicts and many members of the NSW Corps - like most military efforts, it was recorded in meticulous detail.
There are so many fascinating and touching stories. There were 'the stone men' who, on occasion, were flogged to death rather than let out a cry of pain. One convict had been flogged so often that part of his spine became permanently exposed; the soles of his feet were whipped thereafter. There was the Rum Rebellion, when the Corps rebelled and imprisoned Governor Bligh; later maligning him by claiming he'd been dragged out of hiding from under his bed.
They faced real struggles, including a lack of skilled labour in food production. Most convicts and soldiers were city folk who knew less about farming than the modern urbanite. The First Fleet only survived because of a single convict fisherman and a lone soldier who'd worked as a farmhand.
The seasons were reversed, the climate entirely different, and almost everything they knew about farming was wrong in this settlement on the other side of the world.
And yet, life was also remarkably unchanged in some cases. Convict women weren't the property of soldiers (though plenty of them did pair up). The male and female convicts married and, in many cases, had brought their families with them.
The stories are fascinating; why not showcase the reality?
We know the stories of actual convicts and many members of the NSW Corps - like most military efforts, it was recorded in meticulous detail.
There are so many fascinating and touching stories. There were 'the stone men' who, on occasion, were flogged to death rather than let out a cry of pain. One convict had been flogged so often that part of his spine became permanently exposed; the soles of his feet were whipped thereafter. There was the Rum Rebellion, when the Corps rebelled and imprisoned Governor Bligh; later maligning him by claiming he'd been dragged out of hiding from under his bed.
They faced real struggles, including a lack of skilled labour in food production. Most convicts and soldiers were city folk who knew less about farming than the modern urbanite. The First Fleet only survived because of a single convict fisherman and a lone soldier who'd worked as a farmhand.
The seasons were reversed, the climate entirely different, and almost everything they knew about farming was wrong in this settlement on the other side of the world.
And yet, life was also remarkably unchanged in some cases. Convict women weren't the property of soldiers (though plenty of them did pair up). The male and female convicts married and, in many cases, had brought their families with them.
The stories are fascinating; why not showcase the reality?
I enjoyed it
stephensims538 March 2015
I'm sorry Lavina but I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the locations and the acting but I have to admit there wasn't the brutality as there would have been in the early stages of the settlement of the real Australia. I also found that certain things didn't look true to life eg When the woman gets flogged shes up and walking the same day after 25 lashes (I don't think so)flogging would have been a major injury which would have needed several days if not weeks to get better. There also wasn't the broad spectrum of ages in the prisoners, there was no age limits to who was transported from children as young as 5yrs through to the elderly and most were sent for as little as supposedly stealing a piece of bread.
Excellent Period Drama can't wait for the next one.
eddiebarth6 March 2015
I love period dramas and was happy to see a great number of familiar actors from Game of thrones , Ripper street and Peaky Blinders. The suspense had me on the edge of my seat and I thought the cinematography was great.. Haven't managed to give Wolf Hall my full attention yet as the first 3 ephisodes didn't really get my attention. I'm sure I will go back to it at some pint though.With this however, I can't wait for the next episode. I really liked the costumes and the thought the characters already started to show depth. I particularly liked the governors character and it was good to see Spud from transpotting acting the nervous type again. I'm happy there's other period piece to watch at the same time as Black Sails. Love it. the Good job team.
Brilliant
tomgould74926 April 2015
How could anyone not like this. It is one of the most gut wrenching and unflinching period dramas I have ever seen. In almost all respects it reveals the hardships experienced by convicts and the sheer desperation of the soldiers and convicts alike. Following the excellent The Village and 37 Days the BBC has once again done itself proud.
The climax although I will not go into detail is one of the most nerve shredding that I have ever seen in possibly any television drama or film for that matter. It's this kind of raw take on life that gives Banished and The Village their edge and given the emphasis in the past few years has started to move towards accuracy with regards to entertainment, it is almost refreshing that one of the UK's most respected institutions.
I would recommend this to anyone.
The climax although I will not go into detail is one of the most nerve shredding that I have ever seen in possibly any television drama or film for that matter. It's this kind of raw take on life that gives Banished and The Village their edge and given the emphasis in the past few years has started to move towards accuracy with regards to entertainment, it is almost refreshing that one of the UK's most respected institutions.
I would recommend this to anyone.
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