The Slap (TV series)
| The Slap | |
|---|---|
Intertitle
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| Genre | Drama |
| Written by |
Emily Ballou Alice Bell Brendan Cowell Kris Mrksa Cate Shortland |
| Directed by | Jessica Hobbs Matthew Saville Tony Ayres Robert Connolly |
| Starring |
Jonathan LaPaglia Melissa George Essie Davis Alex Dimitriades Lex Marinos Diana Glenn Anthony Hayes Sophie Lowe Blake Davis Oliver Ackland Toula Yianni Eugenia Fragos Rebecca Downie |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 8 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Penny Chapman |
| Producer(s) | Tony Ayres Helen Bowden Michael McMahon |
| Running time | 51 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Matchbox Pictures |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC1 |
| Picture format |
720p (SDTV) 1080p (HDTV) |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Original release | 6 October – 24 November 2011 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | The Slap (U.S. adaptation) |
| External links | |
| www |
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The Slap is an Australian television drama series. It was first broadcast on ABC1 from 6 October to 24 November 2011. The series is based on The Slap, a 2008 multi-award winning novel by Australian author Christos Tsiolkas, which explores what happens when a man slaps a child, who is not related to him, at a suburban barbecue.
Filmed in Melbourne, Victoria, the series was produced by Matchbox Pictures' Tony Ayres, Helen Bowden and Michael McMahon, with Penny Chapman serving as executive producer. The directors; Jessica Hobbs, Matthew Saville, Tony Ayres and Robert Connolly, directed two episodes each. The writing team included Emily Ballou, Alice Bell, Brendan Cowell, Kris Mrksa and Cate Shortland.
The series was aired on DirecTV's Audience Network in 2012, and an American adaptation of the series, also starring Melissa George, premiered on NBC on 12 February 2015.
The Slap was originally screened by ABC1 each Thursday at 8:30pm from 6 October 2011. Repeats followed on the preceding Friday nights on ABC2.
The series received generally positive reviews. Holly Byrnes of The Daily Telegraph said after viewing the first episode that The Slap is "arguably the best Australian drama produced this year", and Luke Buckmaster of Crikey commented after seeing previews, "The dramas and interpersonal relationships are engrossing from the get-go, the story like a David Williamson script that actually has bite, tension and doesn't pander to racial or cultural stereotypes. The Slap presents a view of middle class multicultural Australia rarely seen in film and television." David Knox of TV Tonight also praised the series, writing after episode one, "I was completely hooked by its ability to present three-dimensional characters on the screen and its strength in telling an urban story. So confident are the sum of the parts that frankly it feels like this will only get better. The Slap is one of the bravest dramas of the year." Yet, Clem Bastow of The Sydney Morning Herald had the opposite view, writing the program contains, "listless direction and lifeless editing (huge pauses between great swathes of dialogue), an adaptation that squishes large passages of the narrative into bite-sized chunks (witness Hector and Connie's divebomb from flirty glances and kissing to Connie suddenly deciding he was repellent), and the actors wandering around in the middle of it all." Despite this earlier negative review, the Herald subsequently gave The Slap its "Couch Potato" award for best Australian drama of the year. Kit MacFarlane in Metro offered further negative evaluation of the series, finding that "despite a strong dramatic foundation, The Slap is ultimately an exercise in announcing drama rather than exploring it, presenting a scenario drenched in forced excess, sensationalism and artistic posturing" and describing it as "around seven hours of soap opera masquerading as earnest drama." MacFarlane goes on to suggest that its critical popularity might point to "a regression in the ability to analyse screen texts and narrative nuances" and that "The Slap’s themes and cultural ideas have been explored countless times before in a variety of different ways."
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