This is the first Australian TV show i have watched (regularly watch Amercian and British productions) and in my opinion this is on par with some of the better ones put forward by the aforementioned countries. The two seasons released to date have it all ( action, good character development, romance, drama). Acting in my opinion by all the actors was top class. The characters were absolutely brilliant and multidimensional. No doubt in my mind about the 10/10 rating for this show

This ABC produced TV series started off well but began to deteriorate rapidly after the first couple of episodes. While I understand the need for fantasy in escapist TV series, this one really depended on that aspect far too much. Although it was advertised as Australia's response to Scandinavian Noir films, it does not even come close. By the start of season two, one started to get tired of the computer screen displays constantly appearing on screen, a plot that had weakened significantly, and acting that was becoming very tiresome. The plot began to go all over the place with sub-plots developed but went nowhere. The actor who played the Autistic brother seemed to go in and out of character too often, and the story line began to wrap up very quickly as if they suspected the series might be cancelled.....or maybe the writers just ran out of ideas.

There's a lot to be admired in Shelley Birse The Code, not least the convincing, often quite touched, relationship between journalist Ned Banks and his autistic brother Jesse. And the final scene of one of the 'baddies' leaving Australia with - well, I shan't tell you here - does end it all on an unexpected note and set Ms Birse et al up for a second series. And that's no bad thing because if nothing else The Code is hugely entertaining.But there's also room for niggles, however, not least that the computer hacking abilities is to flawless and results are obtained far, far too quickly to allow us to suspend disbelief. Yes, I know cyber nerds can do a lot you, but this quickly? This efficiently? From a cybercafe in the outback?And to be honest I really wasn't too sure what was going on, not even when the final credits were rolling. I could attempt some kind of explanation here, but it doesn't really add up: so some of the bad guys were actually good guys, though a tad brutal? I am always rather disappointed in some drama productions which don't have the mega-bucks budgets of Hollywood - which is all of them made outside Hollywood, then - that there are so few characters of any consequence. Yes, I know it comes down to nothing more than budget restraints but . . .Overall, though, The Code was refreshingly different and, for this Brit at least, it was good not to suffer from the usual range of 'cutting edge' TV drama clichés which are apt to pepper our homegrown - Brit - product (an obligatory gay character, the alcoholic who can still keep it together, the single-mum cop who juggles motherhood and career with an Avon Lady business - no, I think I've got that wrong, but you get the picture. I can honestly say I shall look forward to the second series if there is to be one.

Australian thriller 'The Code' brings to mind the classic BBC thriller 'Edge of Darkness', with its story of nuclear secrets, dodgy corporations and untrustworthy government. But we make dramas differently now, and the pace is much faster - which is not altogether a bad thing, although the slick graphics and camera-work are sometimes distracting. There are also some disappointing clichés: the genius hackers who can do just about everything, and the expository graphics that the computers conveniently display for the sole purpose of telling us that they're currently being hacked. Another point of critique is that, apart from the good guys, just about everyone else seems utterly ruthless and violent, in a way that slightly beggars belief: our heroes are asked to make constrained choices, but the motivations of the villains are seemingly explained by villainy alone. That said, the plot is both superficially clever and substantially intelligent, and there's some genuine emotion in the relationship of the central protagonist and his socially limited brother. And for Europeans like me, a chance to get a glimpse of the bleak beauty of the Australia itself.