Jack Irish: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Jack Irish: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

Jack's Back (the One from Down Under)

Reviewed by Michael Reuben July 31, 2016

After three successful 90-minute TV movies, the creators of Australia's Jack Irish series took on a more ambitious task. Borrowing a few plot elements from White Dog, the sole Jack Irish novel by author Peter Temple that hadn't yet been dramatized, they invented an original story subtitled "Blind Faith" that could unspool over a six-hour miniseries. The result aired on Australia's ABC TV beginning on February 11, 2016. Guy Pearce reprised his acclaimed performance as the former lawyer turned debt collector, gambler, drinker, woodworker and occasional detective. With one exception, all of the principal and supporting cast returned. Acorn Media is now releasing Jack Irish: Blind Faith as "Season 1" on Blu-ray, and it is also re-releasing the three prior installments as Jack Irish: The Movies (previously reviewed here and here).

You don't have to know Jack Irish's prior adventures to enjoy Blind Faith, but it helps. As the first hour opens, Jack is once more splitting up with on-again, off-again girlfriend Linda Hillier (Marta Dusseldorp). As ambitious as ever, the aggressive reporter has accepted a post in Manila, where Jack won't even be able to visit her, because he's never bothered to get a passport. Linda's goal is to track down and interview a homegrown Australian jihadist, Hadji Adhib (Osamah Sami), who has been launching terrorist attacks against his homeland from a base in the Philippines. Upon arrival, Linda is shocked to find none of the first-class accommodations and support she was promised. Instead, she's lodged in a squalid apartment and given a desk in a shabby office where the electricity routinely fails. The operation is run by an indolent supervisor named Orton (Jacek Koman), who, like so many characters in Jack Irish, turns out to have more to him than meets the eye.

Jack will find himself once again in need of Linda's assistance when his latest case develops a Philippine connection. It begins as a simple assignment to find a missing person, but the man in question turns out to be affiliated with an array of mysterious enterprises, including a prison outplacement program, a wealthy megachurch called The Way of the Cross, a paramilitary unit operated by a sadistic thug named Stedman (Robert Morgan) and a business conglomerate with multiple operations, including a power plant on the Philippine island of Mindinao. At the center of these affairs is the missing younger daughter of a prominent federal official, Senator Michael Longmore (John Bach). When the Senator's elder daughter, Sarah (Claudia Karvan), enlists Jack's aid in finding her sister, romantic sparks ignite between the pair, who recognize in each other the shared scars of emotional trauma.

As the investigation evolves and expands, Jack finds himself suspected of multiple murders, necessitating intervention by his former law partner, Drew Geer (Damien Richardson), and his old buddy in the Melbourne police, the cantankerous Barry Tregear (Shane Jacobson). He also suffers a string of beatings, abuse and indignities, not the least of which is having to beg rides and borrow cars after his beloved Studebaker is stolen by a fleeing witness. (Both car and driver come to a bad end.) Without Linda on hand to undertake his research, Jack turns to friend and computer ace Simone Bendtson (Kate Atkinson), who helps him out even though he can't manage to arrive at her wedding on time.

In his spare hours, Jack continues to work collecting on markers for gambler Harry Strang (Roy Billing) and Harry's long-time associate, Cam Delray (Aaron Pedersen), and he is still trying to improve his carpentry skills under the disapproving tutelage of Charlie Taub (David Ritchie, replacing the late Vadim Glowna). Not much has changed at Jack's local pub, the King of Prussia, where proprietor Stan (Damien Garvey) is navigating the perils of internet dating, while the three old-timers whose rear ends are permanently affixed to their bar stools— Norm, Wilbur and Eric (Ron Falk, John Flaus and Terry Norris)—have yet to conclude their forty-year discussion about erecting a statue in memory of Jack's father, a former star of the Fitzroy Lions. (As we learn in flashbacks, Jack remembers his late father as something other than a champion of Australian rules football.)

Guy Pearce's portrayal has become more richly layered with time, and the expanded format of Bad Faith gives him new opportunities to explore the former hotshot's gloomy interior. The man who lets Linda walk out of his life without protest is even scruffier and more dissipated than the grieving widower we first met four years ago. Still, he has somehow retained an instinctive need to do the right thing, even when he's not entirely sure what that is.

Jack Irish: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

This latest installment of Jack Irish was shot by Geoffrey Hall (Red Dog) and series veteran Martin McGrath. The cinematography and digital grading continue the realistic lighting and naturalistic palette established in previous installments. Acorn Media has spread the six one-hour episodes across two 1080p, AVC-encoded BD-50s with an image that reflects the typical virtues of Arri Alexa photography: sharply detailed, noiseless and free of distortion or interference. The average bitrate of 25.98 Mbps is somewhat higher than on Acorn's previous Jack Irish releases, and the increased bandwidth is a welcome support to busy scenes like the bustling Manilla streets, the full-capacity audience of worshippers at The Way of the Cross and the crowded racetrack where Jack attempts to masquerade as the owner of a horse that really belongs to Harry and Cam.

Jack Irish: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

With this miniseries, Jack Irish graduates to a full-fledged 5.1 soundtrack, encoded on Blu-ray in lossless DTS-HD MA. The discrete format provides tighter focus and localization for the dialogue (which is, for the most part, only lightly accented) and improves the dynamic range for the occasional eruption of gunfire and other violence. Surround activity is limited to environmental ambiance. David McCormack and Antony Partos, who composed the music for Jack Irish: Dead Point, resume their scoring duties and take full advantage of the miniseries' expanded canvas.

Jack Irish: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind-the-Scenes Featurette (1080p; 1.78:1; 10:19): Pearce, Hillier and the other recurring cast members discuss their characters, as they return for another round of Jack Irish.



• Photo Gallery (1080p; various; 1:21): A slide show of production photos.



• Introductory Trailers: At startup, disc 1 plays trailers for Acorn TV, Janet King and A Place to Call Home.

Jack Irish: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The longer form suits Jack Irish. It permits exploration of Jack's overlapping pursuits in greater depth and lets us get better acquainted with the parade of scoundrels and eccentrics who routinely cross his path. There may be no more Jack Irish novels to adapt, but the creative team hasn't ruled out the character's return. With Blind Faith they have demonstrated their thorough mastery of the world author Peter Temple created. Highly recommended.