taipan-1 With the third series now complete one can only congratulate Geoff Atherden for some truly outstanding scripts. Great plotting and some excellent characters, including the addition of Mary Coustas as local newspaper editor Ava Strick, really made the third series sing. And Jody Dry, as the new Biddy Marchant, was very good following in the big footsteps of Sophie Heathcote. The final episode tied together many threads, Col and Karin getting together, Biddy becoming mayor and Greg getting sacked, but it also opened several new threads for what will almost certainly be a fourth series with, I suspect, Col running for State Parliament and Biddy trying to run the council, have a baby and save her marriage. Can't wait!

John (opsbooks) A masterpiece of television in the making, 'Grass Roots' sweeps away the mysteries of local government in a beachside suburb of Sydney, Australia. One wonders how many council employees have spilled the beans to the creators of this series! It's difficult to pick out any particular members of the cast, because they work so well together. No one is really a standout, which is probably how it should be. But mention must be made of the superlative production values, especially the camera work. A 5-star series right up there with 'Seachange' and 'The Games'.

supertedg Really innovative (esp. with the already mentioned simultaneous plots) and genuinely funny series without any of the bloody canned laughter that is so prevalent in American comedies. Successful enough for us to get a second season on ABC soon, thank god.

Muchi This was a brilliant show. The most enjoyable part for me was the multiple story lines that ran over each episode. Geoffrey Atherden cleverly didn't start and finish each story at the same time like other tv series have, instead he had several plots going at once each at different stages of completion. Stories could start or end at any point in the season without effecting the quality of each episode. The cast was also fantastic, everyone played their roles with determination, trickery and humour. I have to give special mention to Rhys Muldoon and Geoff Morrel, Greg and Col were my favourite characters and I always enjoyed it when they argued over budgets and business plans. I really hope that Geoffrey Atherden makes a second series of Grass Roots, but even if he doesn't I'll always have re-runs