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Catching Milat is a full meal, with its combined runtime of three hours dedicated to covering as much material as possible from the 2007 novel Sins of the Brother by investigative journalists Mark Whittaker and the late Les Kennedy. Penned by Justin Monjo, the teleplay is thoroughly bathed in stereotypical Aussie vernacular, with the Milat family in particular speaking like uneducated bogans. The show completely encapsulates our home-grown culture, which may turn off potential international viewers but is overall fairly true to life.
Despite being a ratings smash, Catching Milat was slammed quite openly in the press by Clive Small, who served as superintendent on the case. Small took issue with the show's depiction of Detective Paul Gordon (Richard Cawthorne), who is shown working on the case for two years here and being instrumental in Milat's capture, when in reality he played a much smaller role in the investigation. However, beefing up Gordon's role makes sense from a dramatic standpoint. After all, this is a dramatisation rather than a documentary; it needed a protagonist to guide us through the story, making all the major discoveries and remaining a constant from start to finish. Running through the lengthy roster of policemen involved in the case would simply be tedious. What matters is that the script's broad narrative strokes are accurate, particularly in relation to the various suspects and discoveries, not to mention the inclusion of English backpacker Paul Onions (Alex Williams), who escaped Milat's clutches and whose testimony was vital in court.
It's undeniable that television has reached its zenith in terms of production value, with shows like Game of Thrones, Daredevil and Sherlock looking utterly cinematic. Luckily, Catching Milat is immensely competent from a technical perspective, maintaining a fluid pace across its two ninety-minute episodes. With the story occurring in the early '90s, the miniseries employs oodles of period detail to recreate the era, from the technology to the fashion to general household decor. It's all achieved convincingly, and it's topped off with stylish cinematography courtesy of Australian TV luminary Joseph Pickering (Underbelly) which belies the modest budget. Luckily, too, the acting is uniformly strong right down the line. Leading the pack is Kennard, who's thoroughly convincing as the titular Milat. Sporting facial hair, Kennard is the spitting image of his real-life counterpart, and delivers a menacing performance. He's a great asset to the production.
As perhaps to be expected, Catching Milat does not get everything right. This is a dense story, with plenty of content to be covered across the show's two episodes, and it's undeniable that some aspects do feel short-changed in the grand scheme of things. The court case in particular is given little-to-no airtime, serving as a perfunctory footnote as opposed to something more substantial. If executed competently, an entire episode could have been devoted to the court case. Nevertheless, Catching Milat is well worth checking out; it's an often absorbing look at a hugely controversial, well-publicised and horrific moment in Australian history.
7.8/10
