Steamy, sexy, violent and disturbing, Underbelly: The Trilogy has all the things that entertain the male 18+ demographic group.  The Australian series is neither cheesy nor trashy, but extremely well made.  Based on true events the unrated 3 seasons runs over 1700 minutes in 12 discs. 

But, let me warn you this trilogy becomes extremely addictive and your best gal may wonder why you are missing work, cutting classes or even a stranger deed, ‘not watching football’. On the other hand ladies, there’s always the mall…Ooo Macys, Dillards, Coach…

Underbelly: The Trilogy is based on real people and follows crime lords of the drug-fueled corruption wave that rocked Australia from the 1970’s to 2004.  The series is presented in three 13-episode season installments, each portraying a specific period of the country’s criminal history.

The first 4 discs, “Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities” tells the story of the Griffith drug trade in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.  The drug tricks come with a price and local politicians are fair game in this season.  Part two, called Underbelly: The Golden Mile involves Kings Cross section of Sydney, Australia the hotbed of criminal activity. Good cops, bad cops, strippers, gambling and dealers all have fun on this playground of sin.   The final four discs called Underbelly: War on the Streets focused on the Melbourne gangland killings between 1995 and 2004.  It’s the Sopranos on speed featuring The Carlton Crew crime syndicate in this decade long gangland war.

As a bonus the third trilogy features a Behind-the Scenes Featurette and “On the Newsreel: Carl Williams – A Day of Reckoning.” There is also a Behind-the-Scenes featurette in the A Tale of Two Cities discs.

If you enjoy series like “The Sopranos” and Australian movies like Animal Kingdom you are the right audience for Underbelly: The Trilogy.  The 3 exciting seasons are shown uncensored and in their entirety without any fuzzy blurs or deletions from the original content.  Even on DVD (The trilogy is also available on Blu-ray) it shows clean and clear in a wide 16X9 (1.78:1) format that fit my whole screen without borders or letterbox using my LG Blu-ray Player and LG Plasma Television.

The three series are unrated by MPAA but contain sex, nudity, violence, language, drugs, brutality and all the other things that crime organizations, gangs and hit men do.  After seeing this trilogy I must admit that Australian television has a more liberal take on entertainment viewing.

FINAL ANALYSIS: An extremely addictive crime thriller. Story (A), Bonus Features (C) Overall rating (B)

GENERAL INFORMATION (Not all actors, directors are listed for the whole trilogy)

• Actors: Caroline Craig, Jacqui James, Paul Tassone, Dennis Kelly, Daniel Roberts
• Directors: Greg Haddrick, Brenda Pam
• Genre: Crime
• Format: Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen (1.78:1)
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Number of discs: 12
• Rated: NR (Not MPAA Rated)
• Studio: Entertainment One
• DVD Release Date: December 6, 2011
• Run Time: 1755 minutes