''Pine Gap'' is an Australian television series that was released on
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...
and broadcast on
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
in 2018. The six-part series is written and created by
Greg Haddrick
Gregory Bevan Haddrick (7 September 1960) is an Australian-born Logie Award winning screenwriter and film and television producer. Over the last decade he has won six AWGIE Awards as a writer, two AFI Awards as a producer, and an International ...
and Felicity Packard with Mat King directing all six episodes.
The series was produced by
Screentime
Screentime is an Australian television production company, which develops and produces scripted and unscripted television programs in Australia and New Zealand. The company has produced numerous popular series including ''Popstars'', the ''Under ...
.
Overview
''Pine Gap'' is an international political thriller which is set around the Australian and American joint defence intelligence facility at
Pine Gap
Pine Gap is a satellite surveillance base and Australian Earth station approximately south-west of the town of Alice Springs, Northern Territory in the center of Australia. It is jointly operated by Australia and the United States, and sinc ...
, south-west of the town of
Alice Springs, Australia.
Cast
*
Parker Sawyers
Parker Sawyers (born May 24, 1984) is an American actor.
Career
His first leading film role was starring as a young Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th presid ...
as Gus Thomson, American mission director at Pine Gap
*
Tess Haubrich
Tess Haubrich is an Australian actress and model who most recently played Heather in the 2022 Netflix sci-fi film ''Spiderhead''.
Early life and education
Haubrich was born on 1 April 1990 in Sydney, New South Wales. She was educated at Pittwat ...
as Jasmina Delic,
Serbian Australian
Serbian Australians ( sr, / ), are citizens of Australia who fully, or partially identify as Serbian by birth or descent. In the 2021 census there were 94,997 people in Australia of Serbian ancestry, making it a significant group with the gl ...
communications intelligence team leader
*
Jacqueline McKenzie
Jacqueline Susan McKenzie (born 24 October 1967) is an Australian film and stage actress.
Early life
Born in Sydney, New South Wales, McKenzie attended Wenona School in North Sydney until 1983 then moved to Pymble Ladies' College, where she ...
as Kath Sinclair, Australian deputy chief of the facility
*
Steve Toussaint
Steve Toussaint (born 22 March 1965) is a British actor and writer. He first gained prominence through his role in the ITV crime drama '' The Knock'' (1994–2000). As of 2022, he plays Corlys Velaryon in the HBO fantasy series ''House of th ...
as Ethan James, American chief of the facility
*
Stephen Curry as Jacob Kitto, Australian mission director seconded from the
Australian Secret Intelligence Service
Australian(s) may refer to:
Australia
* Australia, a country
* Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia
** European Australians
** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists
** Aboriginal Aus ...
*
Sachin Joab
Sachin Joab is an Australian actor. He took an interest in acting during primary school and attended various acting schools and workshops. Since graduating from the National Theatre, Joab has appeared in several films and television, including ...
as Simon Penny, Australian communications intelligence analyst
*
Mark Leonard Winter
Mark Leonard Winter is an Australian actor, known for performances in film, television and on stage.
Early life
Winter's family moved from Australia to Washington DC, United States, when he was in grade ten. It was the freedom of his American ...
as Moses Dreyfus, American
foreign instrumentation signals intelligence Foreign instrumentation signals intelligence, FISINT (''F''oreign ''I''nstrumentation ''S''ignature ''INT''elligence) is intelligence from the interception of foreign electromagnetic emissions associated with the testing and operational deployment o ...
analyst
*
Kelton Pell
Kelton Pell is an Aboriginal Australian (Noongar) stage, TV and film actor, best known for his role as the court liaison officer, Sam Wallan, in the SBS legal drama '' The Circuit'' set in north-western Australia. Pell is from Western Australia. ...
as Dr Paul Dupain, Elder of the
Arrernte people and medical doctor
*
Madeleine Madden
Madeleine Madden (born 29 January 1997) is an Australian actress. She is best known for playing Egwene al'Vere in the Amazon Prime series ''The Wheel of Time''.
Early life
Madden grew up around Redfern, a Sydney inner city suburb, and attended ...
as Immy Dupain,
Arrernte
Arrernte (also spelt Aranda, etc.) is a descriptor related to a group of Aboriginal Australian peoples from Central Australia.
It may refer to:
* Arrernte (area), land controlled by the Arrernte Council (?)
* Arrernte people, Aboriginal Australi ...
activist and law student, Paul's daughter
*
Lewis Fitz-Gerald
Lewis Fitz-Gerald (born 15 November 1958) is an Australian actor, screenwriter and television director, who lectures in Screen and Media Studies at Australia's University of New England.
Filmography As actor
* '' Breaker Morant'' (1980) ...
as Rudi Fox, the American chief of intelligence operations
* Edwina Wren as Eloise Chambers, American
imagery intelligence analyst
*
Alice Keohavong
Alice Keohavong is a Laotian Australian actress. She was nominated for the 2013 AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her role in The Rocket.
Filmography
TV
*'' The 21 Conspiracy'' (2009) Web series - Helen (2 episodes)
*'' Al ...
as Deborah Vora,
Laotian Australian electronic intelligence
Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of '' signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ...
analyst in a lesbian relationship
*
Jason Chong
Jason Chong (born 29 October 1969) is an Australian actor.
Chong was born in Sydney, Australia. He graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), Australia. He is frequently seen on television; his credits include: ''Wildside (A ...
as Zhou Lin, executive for the Chinese state-owned mining company Shonguran
*
Simone Kessell
Simone Kessell (born 19 August 1975) is a New Zealand television actress known for her role as Lt. Alicia Washington in the short lived Fox science fiction television series '' Terra Nova.'' In 2016, Kessell starred opposite Ray Winstone on t ...
as Belle James, American wife of Ethan
*
Milly Alcock
Amelia May Alcock (born 11 April 2000) is an Australian actress. She received an AACTA nomination for her performance in the Foxtel comedy-drama ''Upright'' (2019–2022). She made her international debut as young Rhaenyra Targaryen in the HB ...
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
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' wrote that the "soporific" series was "less a spy drama than an attempt to cure
insomnia
Insomnia, also known as sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder in which people have trouble sleeping. They may have difficulty falling asleep, or staying asleep as long as desired. Insomnia is typically followed by daytime sleepiness, low energy, ...
." 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
Helen Razer is a Melbourne-born and Canberra-raised radio presenter and writer. She is the author of four non-fiction books and a columnist with the Australian version of ''The Big Issue'', Melbourne newspaper ''The Age'' and contributor to the m ...
of the ''
Daily Review
The ''Daily Review'' was a daily newspaper published in Hayward, California. Floyd L. Sparks was owner of the ''Review'' from 1944 to 1985, along with '' The Argus'' of Fremont and the ''Tri-Valley Herald''. It was last owned by Bay Area News Gr ...
'' gave the series a negative review, disparaging it as "a poor attempt at promoting favourable propaganda about
Australia–United States relations
Australia and the United States are close allies, maintaining a robust relationship underpinned by shared democratic values, common interests, and cultural affinities. Economic, academic, and people-to-people ties are vibrant and strong. At the ...
". She also criticized what she regarded as the
tokenistic use of
Aboriginal characters.
Pat LaMarco of ''
The Daily Free Press
''The Daily Free Press'' is the independent student newspaper at Boston University. It is a digital-first publication with daily online content and a monthly print edition on Thursday during the academic year. ''The Daily Free Press'' is staffed ...
'' described ''Pine Gap'' as a "dull and sluggish attempt at a
thriller". He also viewed the show's release on
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...
as a sign of what he regarded as the deteriorating quality of the its content, writing that "now we will be seeing critically acclaimed dramas...and low-quality, forgettable efforts such as ''Pine Gap'' on the same
treamingservice."
Nine-Dash Line controversy
''Pine Gap'' was removed from the content streamed by Netflix in
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
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
The Movie and Television Review and Classification Board ( fil, Lupon sa Rebyu at Klasipikasyon ng Pelikula at Telebisyon; abbreviated as MTRCB) is a Philippine government agency under the Office of the President of the Philippines that is respon ...
of the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
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
*{{IMDb title, 7371868
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