REVIEW: ‘Territory’ Tries To Capture The Struggles Of Family

The Lawson Family has run Marianne Station for five generations. The biggest cattle barons in northern Australia, the family likes to project an unassaulted position atop the cattle industry. But the truth is far from the illusion they project. Debts pile up, and fractures among the family threaten to tear the Lawsons down. When one of their own turns up dead, it sparks an avalanche that the family may never recover from in Territory, directed by Greg McLean and written by Ben Davies and Timothy Lee.

Two primary threads run through Territory‘s narrative: the external threats of those who want their land, cattle, or both and the emotional struggles within this highly dysfunctional family unit. Though the two sets of problems frequently interact, the story has clear points where one takes center stage over the other. How well the show delivers the twists and hits it looks to deliver frequently depends on which of these threads it explores.

The external problems plaguing the Lawsons provide the most successful element of the show’s drama-filled six episodes. The main antagonists of the family, fellow rancher Campbell Miller (Jay Ryan, IT Chapter Two) and corporate mogul Sandra Kirby (Sara Wiseman, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes), prove to be ruthless opponents who will stop at nothing to get what they want.

However, while they share a total lack of morals, their approaches differ, allowing the two to contrast in style sharply. As Miller charges forward, Kirby plays the manipulator, even regarding her son’s life. The latter provides a more insidious long-term threat, while the former captures immediate attention.

The strength of the threats within this aspect of Territory is a big part of what helps it succeed. The other element that makes it more engaging than the internal turmoil is what it doesn’t do. The external problems manage to engage the viewer without leaning as heavily on emotion. To get the viewer emotionally involved, the viewer must invest emotionally in the Lawsons. And that is a big ask overall.

Territory immediately runs into the hurdle of wanting viewers to feel bad for wealthy cattle barons. It is a tough sell as the rich are rarely easy to sympathize with. In their attempts to manifest this sympathy, the show makes Colin (Robert Taylor), the family patriarch, a monster. Abusive, backstabbing, and paranoid, Colin seems incapable of doing anything but destroying everything he touches. This has reduced his son Graham (Michael Dorman, The Invisible Man) to a helpless drunk desperate for approval he’ll never find, and his grandson Marshell (Sam Corlett, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) to flee the family altogether.

While Colin makes a strong foil, in theory, the problem comes with why everyone else puts up with him. The rest of the family endures or looks the other way at his brutal failings, hoping to seize the empire from him one day. The motives for wanting the empire differ from person to person, but in the end, it always comes back to that. The pain that the family endures elicits sympathy from the viewer but never manages to overcome the “just leave him” reaction many viewers will likely have.

Further undermining the family’s emotional pain is how easily it gets overcome as the show enters its final act. A pair of significant events hit the Lawsons, and suddenly, all is forgiven. Decades, lifetimes even, of abuse are spontaneously water under the bridge as the family comes together to make another run at saving the business. No one can be as forgiving as these people. It doesn’t just break the suspension of disbelief. It shatters it.

The final nail that keeps the Lawsons from being sympathetic is the presence of their attitudes towards the Aborigine people who have claims on their land, including the presence of sacred sites they are refused access to. It’s good that this thread is present, as not including the obvious issues such industries always have would be a gross oversight; it does the show’s protagonists no favors. Although it does deliver one of the few genuinely sympathetic characters, the series takes real time to explore.

Nolan (Clarance Ryan, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga), half-white, half-aborigine, spends his part of the series trying to navigate his way through the world in the hopes of building his own cattle company. Seen as a traitor by the Aborigines and a government charity case by everyone else, Nolan frequently finds himself in hard spots with no one on his side. His anger sometimes drives him to regretable choices, but the viewer understands his extreme pressure.

Territory delivers a mixed bag of a series. While there are some interesting politicking and strong villains, the protagonists the show focuses on generally fall short of being cheer-worthy. Coupled with the mishandling of the resolution of the family’s internal struggles, Territory’s strengths are heavily outweighed by its weaknesses.

Territory is streaming now on Netflix.