This highly addictive and fiendishly entertaining series about a delinquent on the run across outback Australia in the 1980s has real oomph and chutzpah, leaping from the screen like a frog strapped to a firecracker. With its in-your-face attitude, springy plotlines and sassy young female protagonist, Thou Shalt Not Steal reminded me of SBS’s recent series Swift Street: both extremely bingeable productions that never take the audience’s attention for granted and work hard to sustain a punchy tempo.
Co-created by director Dylan River and executive producer Tanith Glynn-Maloney, this stylish Stan original is packaged into eight tight episodes, clocking in at less than 30 minutes apiece. It begins with 17-year-old incarcerated Aboriginal protagonist Robyn (Sherry-Lee Watson) declaring: “Them missionaries reckon thou shalt not steal. Bit rich from the Bible-bashing bastards that stole our country!” This is just the beginning of a wildly irreverent show largely set in – to quote Robyn – “the middle of bumfuck nowhere”.
Desert settings are given a burnt, dusty, sunbaked palette and are impressively shot by Tyson Perkins, who collaborated with River on another top-notch TV show, Mystery Road: Origin. Thou Shalt Not Steal is pumped full of country and gospel music and a big bold score, lots of pulpy retro flourishes giving it an out of time feel and a funky Tarantino-esque flavour. Robyn’s escape from detention, while old-timey tunes blast on the soundtrack, reminded me of the opening of the great Coen brothers movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?
The protagonist quickly arrives at a hospital where she retrieves her grandfather Ringer (Warren H Williams). They enter a taxi driven by Maxine (Miranda Otto), a former sex worker turned cabbie; after an altercation, Robyn steals her car and fangs it down the freeway, making a dangerous enemy. Old Ringer’s not long for this world, drawing his last breath right after breaking big news: Robyn’s father, who she believed to be dead, is still alive.
Robyn is tasked with delivering a MacGuffin: a racing trophy inscribed with a reference to Coober Pedy, which Ringer wants her to return to her father. When she arrives back in her home community to retrieve it, she meets a new love interest and partner in crime: Gidge (Will McDonald), a troubled young man and son of outback pastor Robert, played by a grubby, singlet-clad Noah Taylor in his best role in years. Robert sings and strums the gee-tar for the Lord, but really he’s a shyster, collecting donations from Indigenous communities who have already been robbed of so much.
But the writers (River, Glynn-Maloney, Sophie Miller, Tanith Glynn-Maloney and Samuel Nuggin-Paynter) keep the primary focus on Robyn and Gidge, kindred spirits who are soon cheek to jowl as they are chased across the country by Maxine and Robert.
The cast absolutely nail it. Particularly Watson in the crucial role, chock-full of youthful intemperance, moving with a coy and cheeky swagger. Her performance is skillfully restrained, Robyn’s rebellious personality coming through in the very funny voiceover that includes wisdom passed on by Ringer – some perhaps a little potty-mouthed to recap here but deliciously entertaining in the proper context.
Music plays a huge part, giving the show bounce and jive. Every episode begins by blasting loud brassy tunes in the spirit of Ennio Morricone or Sergio Leone: keep it dominant, dictate the tone, get the horn section doing overtime. There’s memorable use of several songs, especially Slim Dusty’s The Biggest Disappointment, which reflects some of the show’s – and Robyn’s – attitude; confessional to some degree (“I just couldn’t be the person they expected me to be”) but truly nonconformist, middle finger always pointed in the air.
The whole thing hangs together brilliantly from go to whoa. River bolts out of the gates and maintains a rambunctiously entertaining tone until the very last scene, which (no spoilers) is a great example of an upbeat ending that doesn’t come at the cost of edge or sass. Thou Shalt Not Steal has future classic written all over it.
Thou Shalt Not Steal is on Stan from Thursday
