Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} #1 by Ryan Griffen Cleverman Season 3: Release Date, Cast, Trailer, Recap, News. ‘Cleverman’ is an Australian drama television series which airs on ABC in and Sundance TV in the US. Based on a concept by Ryan Griffen and written by Michael Miller, Jon Bell, and Jane Allen, the show follows some Aboriginal people or “Hairypeople” with extraordinary abilities who are marginalized by humans and live in a special, designated area called the Zone in a not-so-distant future. The show, understandably, has sci-fi elements and is deeply rooted in Aboriginal mythology. Further, it also provides insightful commentary into contemporary issues such as the marginalization of minority communities, racism, border protection, and dealing with asylum seekers. Season 1 of ‘Cleverman’, consisting of six episodes, premiered on June 1, 2016 in the US, and received outstanding reviews from television critics and viewers alike. Understandably, ABC wasted no time in renewing the show, which returned with a six-episode second season on June 28, 2017. Since then, fans of the show have been eagerly waiting for news on a third season. Here’s everything we know about it thus far. Cleverman Cast: Who is in it? For a show that is relatively new, ‘Cleverman’ has several many characters. Hunter Page-Lochard plays the role of the main protagonist, Koen West, a young Hairy boy who escapes marginalization and lives among humans, hiding in plain sight. Koen and his friends run a pub, and for money, they smuggle Hairypeople into human settlements and hand them over to the Containment Authority (CA). Despite being a morally grey character, Koen ends up inheriting the powers of Cleverman, and tries to unite a world which is starkly divided. , meanwhile, plays the role of Koen’s older half-brother, Waaru West. An activist fighting for equal rights between humans and sub- humans (Hairypeople), Waaru’s already strained relationship with Koen becomes toxic when the latter becomes Cleverman. plays the role of Aunty Linda, Koen’s adoptive mother and Waaru’s biological mother who lives in the Zone is and stricken by cancer. of ‘Game of Thrones’ fame plays the role of Jarrod Slade, an enterprising man with an agenda involving Hairypeople an Koen. Frances O’Connor plays Jarrod’s wife Dr. Charlotte Cleary, who runs a clinic in the Zone. , meanwhile, steps into the shoes of Koen’s childhood friend Blair Finch, while plays Blair’s girlfriend Ash Kerry. Other main cast members in the show include as Araluen, as Boondee, Jada Alberts as Nerida West, Tamala Shelton as Alinta West, as Latani, Tysan Towney as Djukara, Andrew McFarlane as Geoff Matthews, as Steve McIntyre, Rachael Blake as Marion Frith, Clarence Ryan as Jarli, and as Tim Dolan. The show also has dozens of recurring cast members, some of who are Alexis Lane as Kora, Leeanna Walsman as Belinda Frosche, Jack Charles as the original Cleverman Uncle Jimmy West, Adam Briggs as Maliyan, Lynette Curran as Virgil, Robyn Nevin as Jane O’Grady, Josh McConville as Dickson, Mansoor Noor as McIntyre 2IC, Rhondda Findleton as Frankie, Isaac Drandic as Harry, Katie Wall as Rowena, Miranda Tapsell as Lena, Rahel Romahn as Ludo, Sam Parsonson as Taki, and Val Weldon as Jyra. If the show does return for a third season, we expect most of the main cast members and quite a few of the recurring cast members to make comebacks and reprise their roles. If there are additions to the cast, we’ll update this section to reflect the same. Cleverman Plot: What is it about? The plot of ‘Cleverman’ is quite an intriguing one and has strong political undertones. Set in the not-so-distant future, the show revolves around the Hairypeople, who come into contact with humans in an event known as Emergence Day six months prior to the events in the show. The Hairypeople, who are covered in thick body and facial hair, are faster, stronger, and sturdier than humans, live almost thrice as long as humans, and have tough, sharp fingernails which can act as weapons. They speak the Aboriginal language Kumbainggar, and also share certain things with the Aboriginal peoples of Australia, such as knowledge of the land, and Aboriginal religio-cultural worldviews. However, when the Hairypeople come into contact with humans, human society, fearful of what the Hairypeople might be capable of, isolates them, and forces them to live in an area called the Zone. While most Hairypeople live out their lives in the Zone and fight for equal rights with humans, some choose to escape this marginalization. Known as “shavers” these outcasts shave off their body hair, learn to speak English, and blend in with human society, hiding in plain sight. In this backdrop, the show follows Koen, who gains the powers of an Aboriginal legend called Cleverman after his Uncle Jimmy West chooses him over his half-brother Waaru as the one worthy of wielding the powers of Cleverman. Once Koen gets chosen as Cleverman, he gains several abilities such as the ability to heal, the left eye of Cleverman, the ability to see visions by touching others, etc. As Koen struggles to come to terms with his newfound powers and the responsibilities which come with them, his strained relationship with Waaru becomes toxic, as Waaru becomes jealous of his powers. As the show progresses, it tracks Koen as he transforms himself from an outcast scrounging to survive to a hero who tries to unite the divided world of humans and Hairypeople. As far as reception is concerned, ‘Cleverman’ enjoys critical acclaim and has a brilliant score of 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the critics consensus reading, “Cleverman is a substantive sci-fi drama that ultimately unveils a unique tale of racial identity and paranormal terror.” Viewers, however, have not been as appreciative of the show as critics, and ‘Cleverman’ has a decent rating of 6.5/10 on IMDb. Cleverman Season 3 Release Date: When will it premiere? Season 2 of the show released on June 28, 2017. Although it has been nearly two years since then, neither ABC nor Sundance TV has made any announcement pertaining to the future of the show yet. This is indeed discouraging, as the word is that ‘Cleverman’, despite enjoying critical acclaim, failed to generate impressive viewership or ratings. Thus, there’s a high chance that the show might get cancelled. For now, however, there’s nothing left to do but sit and wait for ABC and/or Sundance TV to make an announcement on the future of the show. In the unlikely scenario of the show getting renewed, we might see Cleverman season 3 release sometime in 2020. We’ll update this section as soon as we hear more. Cleverman Season 2 Trailer: While we wait for an announcement on the future of ‘Cleverman’, here is the trailer for Season 2 to give you a glimpse into the show and the story thus far. We need more Aboriginal superheroes, so I created Cleverman for my son. F or as long as I can remember, I have loved film and television. As a kid who couldn’t read or write properly, it was my way to access new stories and new worlds. Screens can take you out of reality, and they’ve always drawn me in. I still remember where I was the first time I saw the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on TV. I was just your ordinary kid avoiding his homework, watching afternoon cartoons before Monkey Magic started – but this day was different. The usual programming was replaced by the Ninja Turtles. A new journey began. As soon as the credits started rolling after the episodes, I jumped to my feet and headed outside to reenact what I had just watched. Leap forward 15 years, and I was still reenacting those scenes from the Ninja Turtles – but this time with my three-year-old son, Koen. Just like any loving parent, I shared my love of superheroes with my son (and sometimes even forced the point); thankfully, he fully embraced it. We would read comics – I’d act out the characters’ voices – and we’d watch Batman, Ben 10 and the Turtles regularly. That was our time to bond. The genesis of Cleverman came five years ago on one of those afternoons, playing dress-ups with my son. We were playing Ninja Turtles, and in that moment I suddenly wished we had something cultural – something Aboriginal – that he could cling to with as much excitement as he did with this. ‘Growing up, I had to fight for my Aboriginality’: Ryan Griffen, creator of the Aboriginal sci-fi series Cleverman. Photograph: Wayne Quilliam/Michelle Grace Hunder. My son’s mother and I are both light-skinned Aboriginal people who strongly embrace our Aboriginality. Why does the colour of our skin matter to this story? Because growing up, I constantly had to fight for my Aboriginality. I was presented with casual racism on a regular basis. I remember being handed a plastic cup while everyone was given glasses, in the home of someone I thought was my friend. Later that night, I walked out of that house as the other kids spouted hate of “petrol-sniffing” Aboriginal people. Whenever I would tell people that I was Aboriginal, they questioned it immediately: “What percentage are you?” or, “Yeah, but you’re one of the good ones”. Others would flat out deny my claim of my heritage until they saw my father, and then those questions were laid to rest. But for my son, he won’t get that opportunity; people will look at me, and still ask him the same questions. I wanted to create an Aboriginal superhero that he could connect with, no matter what others said. I wanted a character that would empower him to stand and fight when presented with racism. Just like the old dreaming stories, Cleverman would be able to teach moral lessons; not only for my son, not just for Aboriginal people, but for many more out there as well. Thanks to the growing Australian film and television industry, and the rise of Aboriginal storytelling within it, we are now in a position to step up to the global stage and show what the oldest culture in the world has to offer. This is so close to my heart. On Cleverman, we worked hard to get Aboriginal people in as many roles as possible, and this shines very brightly on screen. Showing the world all these stories in a modern format is one of the greatest gifts Cleverman has to offer. But blending 60,000 years of culture with the superhero world on a modern platform was not easy. Aboriginal protocols are complex to navigate, and informed much of our process. We could sit in the writers’ room and come up with something amazing that hit all the genre beats to make a great hour of television, but if it crossed the line of what we can say and do around Aboriginal culture and Aboriginal stories, then we had to revise our thinking. These are protocols put in place by Aboriginal elders who passed the stories over to me for the show. They put their trust in me and the team, and that was one of the biggest breakthroughs that enabled us to go ahead with the series. The elders were trying to achieve something very special that would help to keep our culture growing. One of the stories we were given permission to use comes from outside Katherine in the middle of the Northern Territory – so it was a four-hour plane ride and four-hour drive for me, before I sat in the river for another four hours, discussing the story with an elder. These were, for me, the strongest and most spiritual moments of the Cleverman journey. I sat in the river where the songline travelled for that specific story; it was an absolute privilege to be there and to be given the permission to bring that story to the screen. It blows me away every time I think of how far this story has come. The passion of comic books blended together with 60,000 years of culture and history makes this something special – and when my son is old enough to watch and understand these stories, I hope it empowers him too. That’s why the hero in Cleverman has my son’s name, Koen. Cleverman premieres in the US on Sundance TV on 1 June at 10pm and in Australia on the ABC on 2 June at 9.30pm; it will be broadcast on BBC Three later this year. Who is Cleverman? The titular hero of the television series Cleverman is - according to Wikipedia - a "superheroic version" of an "important figure in many Australian Aboriginal cultures". I'm trying to find more information about the traditional Cleverman, but all of my searches so far ended up being about the series. Who or what is Cleverman? What is his connection to the Dreamtime? 2 Answers 2. A whole book has been written about the Cleverman, title Aboriginal Men Of High Degree by A.P. Elkin. Elkin was a anthropologist who actually lived with the tribes to get the knowledge. The Cleverman has the power of weather control, curing illness, hypnotism, the strong eye, visiting the Sky-world and so much more. He has magical powers of invisibility, psychic displays, clairvoyance and telepathy. The life of the tribe revolved around this spiritual man. An article in The Morning Herald has the creator of Cleverman , Ryan Griffen, discussing the traditional Aboriginal role of the Cleverman. The article paints a picture of the Cleverman as a shaman of sorts, an elder and master of magic within a local community. Griffen states. "Our cleverman is different from the actual cleverman that existed in many Aboriginal communities," he says. "The Dreamtime is about the past, present and future, and so he has powers that relate to all three of those. . . . "In our show, these powers are passed down, very much as in Aboriginal culture. A cleverman is chosen by another cleverman when they're of the right bloodline or are the right type of person. For our cleverman, those powers are passed down to him by his uncle." I agree that finding references to the Cleverman not connected to the show is extremely difficult. I found a tenuous reference in James Cowan's book Myths of the dreaming: interpreting Aboriginal legends (from an article here) connecting them with the mekigars, shamans. Cleverman recap, season one episode one – supernatural and political. After media buzz and critical acclaim following its preview at Berlinale, Cleverman has arrived. Created by the Indigenous Australian Ryan Griffen, with an 80% Indigenous cast, the show draws on traditional Aboriginal culture and lore, repurposing it into a superhero show. Being a Goori from the Birpai nation in New South Wales, I was prepared to cringe at Cleverman: the Kadaitcha (Clevermen) and the Hairymen, presented as superheroes here, are seriously heavy figures in our lore. Having 60,000 years of backstory to cover, episode one has a lot to get through. First we see a crew of mouthy yobs on a bus harassing a lone, young, dark-skinned woman (Miranda Tapsell) who is reading a book. In self-defence, she pulls up the sleeve of her jacket. “She’s a Hairy,” one of the yobs warns. “You shouldn’t be outside the Zone, you filthy rug,” another sneers, moments before his cheek is opened by a single swipe of the woman’s hand. For Australian audiences, the context of the scene is immediately familiar: bigoted ranters targeting marginalised people on public transport has become prolific viral-outrage fodder over the past five years. For Indigenous viewers, the scene announces that we’re definitely not relegated to the back of the bus on this ride. Cue the slick titles, featuring a breakbeat audio track with Indigenous hip-hop performer (and Cleverman cast member) Adam Briggs laying down over Top End folk artist Gurrumul, and a montage of images evoking science, the environment and Aboriginal spirituality. The political parallels continue as we encounter a government minister delivering a statement to a scrum of reporters the following morning. He’s spinning the bus attack as confirmation that the Hairies are “dangerous subhumans” that need to be segregated and contained securely within an area known as “the Zone”. The parallel with the Australian government’s policy approach to asylum seekers is obvious. But there’s a more historical reference at play here too: the experiences of First Nations people during the White Australia era. It could also be an allegory for the political situation surrounding the influx of refugees into Europe, or Trump’s border wall rhetoric. Next we’re in the Zone with the series’ protagonist Koen, and his business partner and mate Blair. Koen and his “bruz” are about to engage in a spot of human trafficking. The Hairy family helped by the pair provide our first good look at the special effects that come courtesy of the Weta Workshop, who worked on the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I, for one, welcome the Teen Wolf-likeness of the Hairies. There’s plenty going on elsewhere. The fact that the Hairies speak the traditional Gumbaynggirr language, for example – the use of which was officially discouraged until relatively recently. There’s humour, too, like the short exchange between Koen and the father of the Hairy family – “Listen Bundy …” “Boondee” “Yes. Boondee” – much like Frank Drebin in Police Squad, and the banter between Koen and Blair as they wait for the family to appear. It turns out that the entrepreneurial pair have been double-dipping, ratting their resettled clients out to the Containment Authority (CA) for a lucrative reward. This double-cross appears to be in financial aid of their bar venture – an establishment which may or may not be the Criterion referred to by the yobs as they boarded the bus. With the CA’s “retrieval process” under way, we glimpse one of the series’ international stars: Iain Glen, star of the Jack Taylor series, Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones. Glen’s character, Jarrod Slade, is a media mogul. Tipped off about CA’s impending retrieval, he assigns one of his reporters, Belinda (Leanna Walsman), to get a human angle on the story. It turns out that she’s involved with Cleverman’s secondary Indigenous protagonist, Waruu, who is married and works in the Zone. This series isn’t shy about sex and nudity. Rounding out this hectic exposition is the confrontation between the militaristic CA and the Hairy family who were ratted out by Koen and Blair. As the CA attempt to separate them in a basement carpark, the eldest son Djukura retaliates, overpowering half of the force with his superior speed and strength before being subdued with a Taser. As if to punctuate the melee, a CA guard then shoots the family’s youngest daughter dead. Belinda’s news crew are recording, and footage of the event is broadcast across the city and (uh-oh) inside the Zone. Indigenous elder and actor Uncle Jack Charles makes his first appearance as Jimmy in Koen’s bar, where he bestows a warrior’s club (known as a nulla nulla or waddi) on his nephew. Koen arrogantly dismisses the gesture and is warned: “This is not a game. It’s time you decided what tribe you belong to.” Later on, Uncle Jimmy is seen inside a morgue passing a life force into the frozen corpse of an Indigenous girl. The same night, Uncle Jimmy – now on a beach – lights a campfire and summons something that arrives like a meteor from the sky. It splashes into the water just offshore; strangely satisfied, Uncle Jimmy opens his shirt to welcome what looks like a giant beast surging through the water towards him. Next, we hear the predatory squeal of something large and unmistakably bitey. Over at the city morgue, Waruu investigates the corpse of his late uncle – whose left eye has turned white – and immediately recognises the work of a Namorrodor, which, he tells his wife, “turns up when things are out of balance”. Waruu learns who is behind the people smuggling, and takes his henchman Harry to visit Koen at the bar. He describes Koen as a “Judas leech-sucking vermin of half-brother”, right before Harry rips off Koen’s petulant middle finger. It grows back almost immediately, and Koen’s blood-filled left eye turns blue. Koen demonstrates his new regenerative healing powers to Blair and Ash by slicing his arm open with a barman’s friend, and heads to Uncle Jimmy’s funeral to flaunt his newfound powers to Waruu. Moments earlier, Waruu had announced that he looked forward to inheriting Uncle Jimmy’s abilities – which appear to have gone to half-brother instead. Awks, but it sets up the next confrontation between the two of them rather nicely (and maybe attracts the Namorrodor?). It’s a solid first episode, albeit heavy going with a lot of ground to cover. The pacing is right, but how deeply can the series cover some of these weighty themes in six episodes? Also … why have the Hairies only appeared in the last six months, after 60,000 years of existing almost unseen? Cleverman is on Sundance TV at 10pm on Wednesday nights in the US and on ABC TV at 9.30pm on Thursdays in Australia. It will screen on BBC3 later this year. Review: Australian import ‘Cleverman’ explores race, class and the superhuman. “Cleverman,” a new six-part drama from Australia premiering Wednesday on SundanceTV (more or less simultaneously with its debut down under), imagines the sudden appearance of an ancient, not-quite-human race alongside our own. Naturally, they are rounded up, locked away and variously exploited. Commissioned by the Indigenous department of the state-owned Australian network ABC, the series has been celebrated for the high proportion of native Australians in front of the camera and behind it. (Ryan Griffen, who created the series, wanted to create an Aboriginal superhero for his son; “Cleverman” elides “clever man,” or shaman, into an echo of Superman.) For international appeal, Iain Glen (“Game of Thrones”) and Frances O’Connor (“Mr. Selfridge”) have been cast alongside Australian national treasures like Deborah Mailman and Jack Charles. We are in in the near future – you can tell it’s the near future by the paper-thin computer tablets, the drones and nothing else – in an unnamed city Australians might recognize as Sydney but without any of the better-known landmarks. It is one of those places that, like Metropolis or Gotham, stands for everywhere. Newly come into this world are the “Hairies,” so called because . they’re hairy. Their arrival is mysterious – it’s suggested that they’ve kind of been there all along, “so peaceful, in fact, none of us knew they existed until six months ago.” But what happened to get them noticed is never said. Now, the city is full of signs reading, “Hairy sightings? Call the hotline” and “Harboring a Hairy is an offense.” To blend in, some shave, and those Hairies are called “shavers.” Reluctantly at the center of this story is Koen (Hunter Page-Lochard), estranged from his family and running a bar with friends when not selling out Hairies to the authorities for a little extra cash. One evening he is presented a mystical wooden club from his Uncle Jimmy (Charles), who is generally understood to be in touch with the spirit world called the Dreaming. Not long afterward, Koen begins to have seizures, hear voices and glimpse the future, and what I take to be the cosmological birth and rebirth of everything. One of his eyes goes white. He will take a while getting used to the idea that he is any kind of chosen one -- and so will his more conscientious half brother Waruu (Rob Collins), a self-appointed spokesman for the Hairy people, who has had his eye on that job, the new Cleverman, for himself. That there is a racial allegory at work is nothing you will be left to work out alone. (“They used to say that about my people too,” says one Indigenous woman who hears the Hairies described as “animals.”) The logo for the Containment Authority, in charge of ghettoizing them, pointedly recalls a swastika. “I think you might like this one,” says O’Connor’s character, a doctor who works among them in the restricted zone, showing off a painting in her house. “It’s a political statement about skin color.” And yet the writers have given them relatively little agency. They are superhumanly strong and fast and live hundreds of years, qualities that are key to one of the series’ animating storylines, but they come off often as childishly meek or childishly aggressive. There are no Hairy intellectuals or activists. Humans imprison and enslave them, and humans also speak for them. The series is “comic book” not just in its subject matter but also in the sense that the natural implications of extraordinary circumstances are not bothered with. Characters break in and out of what should be secure locations with uncanny ease. And the narrative can sometimes be confusing. But the multiple, long arcs become legible, and sort themselves out satisfactorily in the end, if not in any way surprisingly. And there are good, under-the-top performances that enliven characters fetched from mothballs: the media mogul in search of great power (Glen); the depraved politician; the ambitious reporter; the amoral scientist; the sadistic warder. Page-Lochard is moodily effective as the slow-to-waken champion. (More than one character is told they need to choose a side.) But Mailman suggests that a 43-year-old woman with emphysema is the toughness the world really needs.