Pine Gap (TV series)

Pine Gap (TV series)
Pine Gap is an Australian television series that was released on Netflix and broadcast on ABC in 2018. The six-part series is written and created by Greg Haddrick and Felicity Packard with Mat King directing all six episodes. The series was produced by Screentime.
Overview
Pine Gap is an international political thriller which is set around the Australian and American joint defence intelligence facility at Pine Gap, south-west of the town of Alice Springs, Australia.
Cast
Parker Sawyers as Gus Thomson, American mission director at Pine Gap
Tess Haubrich as Jasmina Delic, Serbian Australian communications intelligence team leader
Jacqueline McKenzie as Kath Sinclair, Australian deputy chief of the facility
Steve Toussaint as Ethan James, American chief of the facility
Stephen Curry as Jacob Kitto, Australian mission director seconded from the Australian Secret Intelligence Service
Sachin Joab as Simon Penny, Australian communications intelligence analyst
Mark Leonard Winter as Moses Dreyfus, American foreign instrumentation signals intelligence analyst
Kelton Pell as Dr Paul Dupain, Elder of the Arrernte people and medical doctor
Madeleine Madden as Immy Dupain, Arrernte activist and law student, Paul's daughter
Lewis Fitz-Gerald as Rudi Fox, the American chief of intelligence operations
Edwina Wren as Eloise Chambers, American imagery intelligence analyst
Alice Keohavong as Deborah Vora, Laotian Australian electronic intelligence analyst in a lesbian relationship
Jason Chong as Zhou Lin, executive for the Chinese state-owned mining company Shonguran
Simone Kessell as Belle James, American wife of Ethan
Milly Alcock as Marissa, Alice Springs local
Michael-Anthony Taylor as Will Thompson, Gus's father
Episodes
Season 1 (2018)
Reception
Critical response
Luke Buckmaster of The Guardian wrote that the "soporific" series was "less a spy drama than an attempt to cure insomnia." He also criticised the series for what he regarded as its poor story-writing and unsatisfactory acting, giving it one out of five stars, as "there is nothing remotely cinematic about the drama." Helen Razer of the Daily Review gave the series a negative review, disparaging it as "a poor attempt at promoting favourable propaganda about Australia–United States relations". She also criticized what she regarded as the tokenistic use of Aboriginal characters.
Pat LaMarco of The Daily Free Press described Pine Gap as a "dull and sluggish attempt at a thriller". He also viewed the show's release on Netflix as a sign of what he regarded as the deteriorating quality of its content, writing that "now we will be seeing critically acclaimed dramas...and low-quality, forgettable efforts such as Pine Gap on the same [streaming] service."
Nine-Dash Line controversy
Pine Gap was removed from the content streamed by Netflix in Vietnam by order of the country's Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information because a map with the nine-dash line was shown in two episodes of the series, albeit in a context in which characters criticised China's claim over the waters in on-screen dialogue.
In November 2021, the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board of the Philippines ordered Netflix to remove certain episodes that featured the nine-dash line, deeming it "unfit for public exhibition" after the country's Department of Foreign Affairs issued a complaint calling the line "illegal" and a "violation of Philippine sovereignty".
References
External links
English-language Netflix original programming
Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming
2018 Australian television series debuts
Television shows set in the Northern Territory
Spy thriller television series
Television series by Screentime