As The Narrow Road to the Deep North begins, we’re in Syria in 1941. Dorrigo Evans (Jacob Elordi) and his comrades speak to a young boy and give him water. In the morning, Dorrigo speaks to Frank ‘Darky’ Gardiner (Thomas Weatherall) and the others. Guy ‘Rabbit’ Hendricks (William Lodder) has a picture of a woman. Rabbit is asked to make the woman’s chest bigger. Dorrigo speaks to Darky about being a gambling man. Dark says he’s running a book on when he’ll die. He asks Dorrigo if he’d like to make a bet. Dorrigo wants to put down ten shillings on that Darky will make it through the entire year alive. Yabby Burrows (Jeremy Blewitt) is asked to get the little boy. Tiny Middleton (David Howell) is asked why they call him Tiny. The guys joke around with Tiny. An explosion in the distance interrupts everything.
Yabby has stepped on a mine and is seriously injured. He passed away a short time later. 12 months later, an Adelaide Mail article reports that the Commonwealth has surrendered. Keith Mulvaney (Simon Baker) says his father didn’t know anything. He tells Amy Mulvaney (Odessa Young) that a woman might though. Ella Evans (Olivia DeJonge) receives a call from Amy who explains she’s Keith’s wife. They were worried about Dorrigo. Amy hasn’t heard from him in weeks. At that time, he was somewhere in the Pacific. Amy asks why Keith didn’t call if he was so concerned about his nephew. In Australia 1989, Dorrigo (Ciaran Hinds) and Ella (Heather Mitchell) meet Anna Moore (Annie Shapero). Anna questions Dorrigo about going from a soldier to a prisoner of war. Dorrigo says they just did what they were told. He explains it was more humiliating than anything. He believes luck is what got him through. Dorrigo says their enemies were more monsters than men.
When asked about their extreme acts, Dorrigo claims they were forced to extreme measures. Anna says she’s been to Japan. Dorrigo asks if that offered her some great insight. He doesn’t believe she has any comprehension of war because she wasn’t there. He says she knows one thing while war is many things. When she asks what they are, Dorrigo says she doesn’t want to know. Ella tells Dorrigo later that they’ve agreed not to air the footage if he meets with the journalist again. She reminds him it’ll help with the sales of the book. Ella thinks cursing was very disrespectful in front of a young woman. Later, Dorrigo looks at sketches of the war and other things. He finds a note telling him that Guy would’ve wanted him to have them. Dorrigo talks to Ella about the book. In August 1940, Dorrigo visits Ella who asks if he’s ready to be fed to the wolves. They join the party. Ella is going to introduce Dorrigo to her mother and her father. He tells Helen (Alexandra Schepisi) and Edward Lansbury (Ewen Leslie) that he’s back in Melbourne on leave.
He brings them books. Dorrigo has a book of poems by Roman poet Catullus. Before long, Dorrigo and Ella are having sex and they sit around naked. Dorrigo thinks he’ll be safe because he’s only a medical officer. Dorrigo says he’s told his uncle he’s going to visit him so he’ll have to leave. Next, Dorrigo goes to a bar to look for Keith Mulvaney. He finds Amy who is Keith’s wife. Dorrigo says he just came to say hello. Amy agrees to let Keith know he stopped by. During another scene, Ella tells Dorrigo that another man propositioned her and he just watched. Dorrigo suggests she should take him up on that offer since he’s going to war. Ella reminds him he promised he would be with her. They go back to their room. Dorrigo asks Ella to marry him. One day, Max Harris (Rupert Bevan) speaks to a small crowd. Dorrigo sees Amy at the event. She follows him and talks to him about Max’s speech. Dorrigo tells her about Catullus. Amy asks him to read her some. He does. Amy tells Dorrigo about her favorite poem. It says, “you burn me”.
Tippy Gardiner (Lucinda Howes) interrupts with a friend and tries to get Amy to leave. In the future, Dorrigo works on the speech for the upcoming launch for Guy’s book. Ella helps him with the speech. In Thailand 1943, Dorrigo is held as a prisoner of war in the back of a train. Frank is still with him. They eventually arrive and are held captive. Major Nakamura (Show Kasamatsu) tells them they’re there to serve the Emperor and to build a railway. Nakamura claims they can redeem their honor by building the railway. While they work, Frank and Tiny argue. Tiny doesn’t want Nakamura to feel superior. Frank argues that he is superior right now. Dorrigo stumbles around until he finds several men. The guys have fun at the prisoner of war camp. At one point, Tiny is urged to show everyone his giant unit. Tiny says he’s only doing it once. Nakamura and the other soldiers watch them. In another scene, Keith tells Dorrigo he’s glad he finally visited. Dorrigo isn’t sure when they’ll ship out. Keith suspects it’ll be soon with London being bombed.
They arrive at the home where Dorrigo is introduced to Jim. Amy is waiting for them. Keith tells Dorrigo that Amy is going to look after him. Later, Amy and Dorrigo go to a club and get drinks. Dorrigo tells her about Ella who has a rich family. He tells Amy what his family said about her. Amy explains she started working at The King a few months before his aunt passed. She was wooed not long after that, Dorrigo says he met Ella at a dance. They dance together. They go back home later and drink more. Amy begins telling him about Leslie Hutchinson. Amy asks if Dorrigo thinks they’re friends. Dorrigo thinks he should go. They seem to be getting a little too close. In the present, Dorrigo continues working on his speech.
The Narrow Road To The Deep North Review
The opening episode of The Narrow Road to the Deep North was very scattered making it impossible to really know what is going on. The novel is about an Australian doctor haunted by memories of a love affair with his uncle’s wife and his time as a Far East prisoner of war during the construction of the Burma Railway.
Sadly, reading the Wikipedia page quickly makes a lot more sense than what just happened in this episode. It is a mess with constant jumping from one time period to another without any explanation. There are so many characters that it’s going to be difficult to keep up with them all.
In reality, very few of the characters will matter and viewers won’t know all of the character names anyway. Dorrigo’s time as a prisoner of war looked pretty comfortable and that shouldn’t have been the case. I’d highly doubt a group of prisoners would be sitting around making penis jokes.
Unless viewers have read the book, they’re likely going to hate this episode. It still has time to develop and get better, but it’s going to require a big change going forward. The artsy filming style is okay when it works. It really doesn’t work here and the music needs to be toned down a bit.
It’s unfortunate but the series could’ve been executed a lot better. Doing so would’ve given the story more meaning. We’ll see if it can get better, but it wouldn’t be surprising if viewers didn’t make it through this episode. That’s unfortunately how messy and frustrating the whole thing was.
The opening episode scores a 4 out of 10. Recaps of The Narrow Road to the Deep North can be found here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. See what others are saying and join the discussion at the forum.