3 months ago
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For Greg Mclean, director of the Netflix drama series Territory, the day the Logie nominations were announced was rather bittersweet.
The outback soapie about a succession struggle for the world’s largest cattle station is the second most nominated drama of the year, with seven nods (Apple Cider Vinegar has eight). It was a bona fide hit for the streamer, making the top 10 list in 70 countries around the world, and becoming the most watched Australian original yet, with more than 26 million views to date of the entire seven-episode season.
And yet, it was also cancelled, when a second season had clearly been set up and anticipated by everyone involved.
“If it played well, we kind of assumed we would get a second season,” says McLean. “There’s a story, a world to soak in, there are characters people fall in love with. Obviously, nothing is guaranteed, but it’s certainly disappointing for everyone involved.”
Netflix Australia’s former head of originals, Que Minh Luu, is no longer at the company, and precisely why she didn’t order a second season remains unclear. But McLean is reasonably philosophical about it all.
Man 2 man: Michael Dorman and Robert Taylor (and co-star Sam Corlett) will duke it out for best lead actor.Credit: Netflix
“The reality is, there are so many decisions made at different levels about types of programming, how long things take to get on screen, loss of audience between delivery of one series and the next. And it’s not a small show, so it would have taken at least a year and a half to get the second season out.”
It’s not like Territory is the only show to get the chop despite doing well, either. “I read recently that The Residence, which was a huge Netflix show and I believe a huge hit, also got cancelled,” he says. “There are so many factors that go into these things.”
And there’s some solace, perhaps, in Territory fulfilling the old showbiz adage of always leaving the audience wanting more.
Anna Torv is nominated for best lead actress for her turn as Emily Lawson.Credit: Netflix
“I feel like we will be a James Dean show, where we die young, leave a beautiful corpse, and people will look at it as the great thing that it was,” he says.
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McLean isn’t personally nominated for Territory, despite directing all seven of its episodes; the Logies do not recognise technical categories such as directing, editing, cinematography (the AACTA awards, which were held in February, do; Territory received three nominations – for best sound, cinematography and for Anna Torv as best actress – but won none).
Torv is again up for best lead actress, while three of the male cast – Michael Dorman, Robert Taylor and Sam Corlett – will duke it out for best lead actor. Sam Delich is up for best supporting actor and Kylah Day for the Graham Kennedy Award for most popular new talent.
If the show wins as best drama, it will likely be creators Ben Davies and Timothy Lee and producer Rob Gibson who take to the stage. But if it does, McLean promises, “I’m going to just go up anyway. I’ll be in the background and push my way to the front for the photo.”
And how do you rate your chances?
“This is a very, very good year. There’s a lot of really good stuff up, so who knows if we’ll get anything,” he says. “But it’d be hugely satisfying to see the actors get something, because I’m a huge fan of all the cast. They deserve it.”
But if they go home empty-handed, he will still treasure the fact they got to make something a little mad, wild, ambitious – and successful. A “meticulously researched” show inspired by the real-life characters of the Northern Territory, a “Wild West” place unlike anywhere else on the planet.
Greg Mclean, right, and Anna Torv, centre, watch a scene on a monitor while shooting the show in the Northern Territory.Credit: Netflix
“We were making a soap opera, granted. But we were at pains to say we wanted it to be really Aussie,” he says. “We didn’t want to over-Americanise it, or try and soften it for anyone else. It was broad Australian accents, it was dealing with the issues of the NT – it was about indigenous history to some degree, it was about the mining industry, it was about the cattle industry, and specifically the Australian cattle industry. We were trying to make it as Australian as we could and not compromise, and I think that flavour is what made it travel around the world.
“The fact that we got to make a show like that is extremely satisfying,” he adds. “We took a very big swing with this to say we’re going to do a big romantic Australian drama about this place that there really hasn’t been a drama of that scale done in.
“To do that, to pull it off, and to feel like we were all proud of the show, that’s kind of enough in some ways.”
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