Director: Shawn Seet

Cast: Lucy Lawless, Dan Spielman, Ashley Zukerman, Adele Pevrovic, Adam Garcia

Label: Arrow Films

Format: 2 DVDs

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 327 mins

Availability: DVD Box set and Digital Download on November 3rd. 

All good things must come to an end and time certainly appears to be up for THE CODE, which has recently aired on BBC4 in their coveted Saturday evening slot. The series has intrigued and refreshed UK television and now the episodes are available to download on iTunes and are also available to buy on DVD from November 3rd.

THE CODE is a slick, Australian crime drama, which has you hooked and reeled in from the very first episode. It tells the story of Ned Banks (Dan Spielman), a Canberra political journalist working for an online newspaper and hoping for his first big break. Balancing a hectic and demanding work life with caring for his vulnerable autistic brother, Jesse (Ashley Zukerman), a convicted hacker, life becomes even more complicated for the inquisitive journalist. Ned is given a political scoop in an envelope, which also contains a scrap of paper with the word ‘Lindara’ written on it. Intrigued, he investigates and stumbles upon an apparent cover-up regarding a recent car crash in the outback involving the death of an aboriginal teenage girl, with the powers that be trying to keep a nuclear enrichment programme off the front pages.

One of the survivors of the crash, Clarence manages to make it to his teacher’s house, unable to remember what happened or where his girlfriend is.  The mystery is soon solved when Ned finds a video on Clarence’s mobile which shows jumbled footage of the crash and deciphers the licence plate on the truck which hit them.

His autistic brother traces the number to a bio-tech company and hacks into their unfathomable system to find out more about their suspicious cover up on the rural road.  The company detect he has accessed the classified information and they send malware to his computer, which then spreads to his brother’s online newspaper, crashing its site. That’s quite a big reaction to the hacking… The computer whizz and his brother realise that action like this means the company has something to hide and that they have accidentally been exposed to a ruthless world of political and corporate corruption and they are totally out of their depth.

Jesse befriends Hani (Adele Pevrovic), another hardcore hacker who has been busted one too many times, and is now paying the price by ‘helping’ the authorities – unbeknown to Jesse and his brother. Hani’s family is from Iran and she is forced into an unenviable position of remaining loyal to Jesse and helping keep her family in the country – a compelling tryst which finds her in serious danger.

An onslaught of kidnappings, cover-ups and deaths follow as the police and international agencies try to get their hands on the file, which ends up on the black market. As relationships are put to the test and severed, the overwhelming sense of hoping nothing happens to the vulnerable and naive Jesse develops, as each day he finds himself in even more danger. For the last 50 years, countries have been trying to crack laser enrichment and effortlessly Jesse cracked the code. As defined by his brother, Ned “Jesse is a just a little bit too clever for his own good.”

The choice of casting in the TV series is fantastic. Ashley Zukerman makes his character loveable, appealing and sweet. His mannerisms playing an autistic character do not appear over exaggerated and he proves to be a real scene stealer. Dan Spielman’s character evokes a sense of sympathy towards his daily struggles with life – maintaining a challenging job, looking after his autistic brother and trying to have some kind of normality by breaking free of his obligations for a few days to chase what could be a big story.

Zukerman and Spielman are superbly supported by Adele Pevrovic, Lucy Lawless and Adam Garcia who all help to bring an intriguing quality to this crime thriller series and forces an attachment to the characters.

Aside from the gritty storyline, visually the series is very pleasing. As the computer graphics are displayed on the screen it gives a SHERLOCK HOLMES-esque feel to the production and adds that contemporary addition to a modern show.

THE CODE is continuously gripping, which leaves the audience on a cliffhanger edge at the end of every episode, making you want more. It’s slick, smart and sassy and should definitely be added to a crime thriller fan’s must-see list.

Verdict

Australian conspiracy thriller THE CODE is released via Arrow Films November 3rd. You can purchase the series from Amazon.co.uk.

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