Expensive Ten cop drama pushes all the right buttons

The article is a behind-the-scenes look of the pilot episode of the new season of Rush, a police procedural currently airing on Channel Ten. The reporter is Melinda Houston, a TV critic writing for the Sydney Morning Herald.

Houston begins the article with a dramatic opening, summing up the show’s audacious action stunts with a quote from Adam Todd, the scriptwriter about the explosion sequence she was about to witness. This is one of the many quotes she uses from the various production crew members she meets, including Todd, producer Mimi Butler (the producer), production designer Sally Shepherd, and stunt director Mitch Dean, among others.

She also has found out (or researched) the inspiration behind the episode; the real-life story of a Swedish cash depot heist. Houston describes in fascinating the detail the amount of planning that goes into filming a single scene from the episode, the meticulous preparation of the stunt cars, the choreography of the extras in reaction to the explosion, right down to the timing of the stunt so that it is performed in favourable weather conditions.

Houston concludes the piece with a ‘plug-line’ for the show, but strangely has a side-story beneath which describes the editing process. The story might have been a port from the print version, which may have the editing process described in a side-bar story, but for the purposes of clarity and organization in the online version, the editing side-story should be incorporated into the main article so that is a single piece.

Also, there’s little user interaction or supplementary reading beyond a simple ‘More Related Coverage’ link at the bottom. This leads to a page that only has a review for one episode mid-season and an interview with one of the actors, Rodger Corser. Readers who want to submit a ‘review’ on that page have to sign up as a member first before logging in, which discourages casual commentary.


http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/expensive-ten-cop-drama-pushes-all-the-right-buttons-20100717-10ezp.html