I'm new to McLeod's Daughters. I may have seen an ad for it when they showed the series on the WE channel (which I understand no longer carries it), but it wasn't the kind of show that would be on my radar. Evidently, it's a wildly popular television series in Australia - and an unusual one, because of its focus on women in traditional male roles: women running a cattle station in the back country of Australia. McLeod's Daughters apparently has a large following here in the States, as well, judging by the angry emails on Amazon about the disappearance of the show from WE, and the many sites devoted to discussing the show.

McLeod's Daughters: The First Complete Season presents all 22 episodes of the first season, along with the 1996 television movie, starring Aussie star Jack Thompson, that led to the creation of the series. I thought it was curious that the TV movie was buried at the back of the set, at the bottom of disc six; I would have thought it would have been front and center, since most people (like myself) like to start a story at the beginning. However, after first watching the TV movie, and then the series, I can see why the producers put the TV movie at the back of the set: it's far better than what precedes it.

The basic story of the McLeod's Daughters television movie is the how two sisters come together after the death of their father, to run his farm and cattle station, despite a community (or at least the men in that community) that doubts they can. Jack Thompson is Jack McLeod, a hard drinking, independent farmer who's been having trouble making back payments to the bank. Living with him are his daughter by his first wife (who died over twenty years ago), Claire (Tammy McIntosh), who strives to get approval from her father, and Meg (Kris McQuade), a housekeeper/girlfriend who takes care of the house, and Jack.

Enter Tess (Kym Wilson), Jack's other daughter from his second wife, who packed up Tess and left Jack twenty years ago. On the pretext of "passing through" the area where the farm is, Tess informs her father that her mother has died of cancer. Jack wishes she would stay, but Tess has plans to leave the country. As well, Claire's jealousy over Jack's obvious fondness for Tess, causes friction between all of them. When Jack tries to stop Tess from leaving the farm, he falls from his horse, fatally injuring himself - but not before he states that Tess was the daughter he always wanted (which Claire hears), and that she (Tess) is not alone (meaning that she and Claire should join together as a family).

After much strife (including dealing with, and dispatching, the male workers on the farm who condescendingly dismiss them as authority figures) and personal soul searching, the sisters come together to fight not only the perception that women can't run a cattle station, but also their own self-perception that they are essentially strangers who should part ways. At the end, Tess and Claire have found themselves again, and intend on running the cattle station together -- without the need of men to bail them out.

Director Michael Offer and screenwriter Ro Hume, working from a story by series creator Posie Graeme-Evans, created a credible family drama with stunning location photography, and solid, believable performances. Jack Thompson (Breaker Morant) is particularly strong in the complex role of the father, and his absence halfway through, is strongly felt during the rest of the film. Kym Wilson and Tammy McIntosh create whole characters that have a believable tension/affection, which develops nicely up to the film's climax. It's a good, solid television film, with a satisfying dramatic arc, that delivers an important message about the emotional and physical strength of women, as well as the durability of family bonds.

Which brings us to McLeod's Daughters: The Complete First Season. It's not that it's a bad TV series. It's not. It's entertaining, and competently done, with a big screen look that's easy on the eyes. But it's not the television movie, and that's a shame. All of the gritty naturalism of the television movie has been scrubbed clean away. The same location was used for both the movie and the series, but what looked dry and scrubby and dirty -- and authentic -- in the film, now looks dewy, and green and considerably cleaner -- and easier. That may seem like nitpicking, but it's basic to what has changed in the translation from the movie to the series. A TV series has to be welcoming to the viewer, week in and week out, to be a long running hit. It has to be, to a certain extent, comfortable to the viewer. McLeod's Daughters: The Complete First Season abandoned the grizzled, authentic feeling of the telemovie, to become a good looking soap opera. I don't have anything against good soap, but compared to the telemovie here, the series comes off as facile, synthetic TV drama. It's good looking to be sure (which the creator of the series, in an interview on the disc, emphasizes again and again was her ultimate goal), with the second episode pretty much summing up the new approach to the series. In Ducks on the Pond, the sheep on Drover's Run need to be sheared, and it's time for endless, slow-motion shots of beautiful, sweaty Claire (Lisa Chappell), in nice fitting jeans and a muscle shirt, hauling in the sheep, and shearing them. In fact, there's so many freeze frames, isolating the good looking girls and guys in this scene, that I thought there was something wrong with my DVD player. Hey, I'm all for watching Lisa Chappell and Bridie Carter (Tess) and Jessica Napier (as sexy Becky) in sweaty slo-mo; they're good actors, they handle their scenes well, and they make for good TV. But the focus of this episode pretty much sums up the series' focus: safe, familiar TV drama, telegraphed by songs which spell out the emotions we're supposed to feel with each scene, with an added emphasis on good looking actors to keep our attention until the next commercial break.

Here are the 22 episodes of McLeod's Daughters: The Complete First Season:

DISC ONE:

DISC TWO:

DISC THREE:

DISC FOUR:

DISC FIVE:

DISC SIX:

The DVD:

The Video:
The picture quality for McLeod's Daughters: The Complete First Season shimmers; it's a perfect widescreen transfer, with deep, rich colors, and absolute blacks. One curious glitch, though: Episode Two (Ducks on the Pond), on Disc One, is anamorphically squeezed (everybody looks two feet tall, and four feet wide). You can correct it by selecting 16:9 on your DVD player, but that will eliminate the widescreen aspect ratio -- if you have a non-widescreen TV.

The Audio:
The Dolby Digital stereo mix brings out the lovely songs on the show quite well.

The Extras:
As indicated above, McLeod's Daughters: The Complete First Season includes the superior television movie that started the series. As well, there's an interesting Inside Story behind-the-scenes making-of featurette, which gives the low down on what was involved in getting the series off the ground, and how much work it is to continue to produce it. In addition, there are three interviews with producer/creator Posie Graeme-Evans, her husband, co-producer Andrew Blaxland, and series director Karl Zwicky. Several passages from these interviews make up most of the Inside Story documentary, so there's a bit of deja vu when you watch these. Graeme-Evans is the most animated, and most informed; Blaxland is a real snooze, and Zwicky is a little too keyed up for the interview. But they do fully explain the genesis of the series.

Final Thoughts: