a5c7b9f00b Beneath its surface exists a playground for the murky underworld, a place of illicit rubbish dumps. pollution hazards, the remnants of huge drug hauls, and a graveyard of bodies from years of suicides, accidents and murders. That&#39;s the world of the WATER RATS, and elite bunch of 70 brave men and women guarding the harbour against all the elements that threaten to foul the blue waters. With the breathtaking actions stunts, thrilling races against time, chases across both waves and wharves, intrigue mystery, triumphs, heartbreak, love, lust and laughter, WATER RATS is a compelling drama from Southern Star and the Nine Network. What&#39;s so good about Water Rats? Well - the actors. The realism. The believable emotions involved. The fallible human face of the police. Years ago, when I watched a lot of television, I often noticed that most of the best TV series were Canadian or Australian. Better stories, better acting, everything just feels more real and more intelligent. Water Rats is a prime example of this. All the characters feel real. When the cops cut corners and reluctantly break the rules, you can understand it. You can sympathize. You can see it from their point of view. Once in a while the good guys have to play dirty, because all the bad guys do. And the performances of everybody involved in this show, from the actors to the directors to the production crew, are just superb.<br/><br/>As a dyed-in-the-wool sci-fi freak, I&#39;m actually not a big fan of realism. And certainly not of cop shows. Except when it&#39;s done really well! And Water Rats scores on this account. When Goldie died, I totally did not see it coming. Sure, I could see something ominous was building up, but I was sure it was the guy she was with that would buy the farm. How could they kill HER?! I was so upset I had to call up a friend (whom I knew to be watching it at the same time) and talk about it, despite it being close to midnight.<br/><br/>I hear the show was produceda kind of export product, to attract tourists to Australia. Well, lemme tell ya: It works! I haven&#39;t been there yet, but the show sure does give me the urge to go. I love the whole Aussie national atmosphere, not least of all the accent! I hope to be able to afford the complete DVD set of Water Rats someday. My life will be pretty much complete if I can slip an episode into the DVD player every night before I hit the sack. Oh yeah!<br/><br/>9 out of 10. Only cop show I could ever even consider rating so highly. When I first moved to Australia, I had very limited choices of what to watch on TV back in 1998 –a deaf viewer, I required captionings to be able to follow shows through. &quot;Water Rats&quot; and a few others had captions, so I was immediately hooked to &quot;Water Rats&quot; from the first episode I ever saw. I only saw a couple eps with Colin Friels and it was different once Steve Bisley came into the picturethe replacement,Jack Christey, still he did a fantastic job. He and Catherine McClements made a wonderful team, both professionally and personally. I stopped watching &quot;Water Rats&quot; after the episode, &quot;A Day At the Office&quot; where Catherine&#39;s character, Rachel &quot;Goldie&quot; Goldstein was stabbed to death. :( The story lines and the basis of the show simply fell apart when Goldie departed. I did watch here and there, but it just didn&#39;t hold the same intensityit did before Goldie went. The last ep was a bit laughable when Bisley&#39;s &#39;Christey&#39; died in the ocean after being shot. Still, I reckon the show would&#39;ve done better if the writers hadn&#39;t killed Goldie off and change the layout and story lines.<br/><br/>RIP &quot;Water Rats: - that show will always be a memorable part of my heart.
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