0/5

Gallery: Farewell to East West 101

Lauded for its strong performances, dramatic storylines and diverse casting, SBS crime series East West 101 finally draws to a close next week.

Another Australian drama exits our screens next week….

SBS crime series East West 101 draws to a close on Wednesday night.

Produced and created by Steven Knapman & Kris Wyld (Wildside, White Collar Blue, The Strip), it premiered in 2007 with Don Hany and William McInnes as detectives investigating major crimes while trying to balance their lives and personal ethics.

The cast also included Susie Porter, Aaron Fa’aoso, Daniela Farinacci, Renee Lim and has since featured Gerald Lepkowski and Matthew Nable.

With its strong performances, dramatic storylines and impressive stunts, the series has included diverse characters including stories set amongst Muslim, Somali and Jewish communities. It has also included many first-time actors.

Critically acclaimed, but attracting modest ratings, the three seasons have accrued awards from the AFI Awards, Logie Awards, Australian Writers Guild Awards, Australian Directors Guild Awards, The Accolade Competition (LA) and a Gold Medal for Best MiniSeries at the New York Festivals International Television and Film Awards.

Despite being SBS’ most lauded drama series producers Knapman / Wyld only ever planned the series for 3 seasons and are bowing out to develop other projects. The series was envisioned after the events of 9/11 and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

SBS hopes for further projects with Knapman / Wyld. Director of Television and Online Content, Matt Campbell, recently told TV Tonight, “We would work with them again in a heartbeat.”

The last-ever episode airs 8:30pm Wednesday on SBS ONE.

11 Responses

  1. Only actually saw a few episode of this amazing drama series. The most relevant storylines on Australian television. Hope down the track they return.

    I registered my interest with my local library and joy! Joy! they text me they had all 3 series available. Enjoyed a couple of Huge weekends… just finished viewing the 3rd series. Very sad with the untied “loose ends’… Excellent stuff!!

  2. Good luck to the producers for next week’s Monte Carlo Television Festival Awards – it’s the only TV drama representing Australia in a global competition:

    tvfestival.com/content/Presentation-Nominees/presentation_nomineesUK.php?menu=smenu2&trk=nom&typeN=7&ER=TD

  3. Simply one of, if not, the best and culturally relevant dramas / crime genre to have been made for Oz TV – world standard.
    Great storylines, great casting, great acting & direction, great photography, editing etc etc.
    For me anyway, it sets a standard for those that come after must follow.
    SBS, ABC and Foxtel can possibly do it, Seven and Ten can try – but Nine has no chance to match the quality of this series.

  4. @Neil, Aaron Fa’aoso was also in RAN: Remote Area Nurse. I still can’t go past the first season with William McInnes and Don Hany going head to head. Such intense and outstanding performances by both. Congratulations to Knapman/Wyld on this superb series.

  5. Yep a good solid show.

    I loved a lot of the early eposides with the direction of Peter Andrikidis. Also love the character played by Aaron Fa’aoso. Don’t know what else he has been in, but he certainly lived that character.

    My only complaint was Susie Porter. Don’t know if it was her or her character, but I tuned out whenever she was on screen.

    I think it is a good thing that shows come to an end within a reasonable time. Allows for good strong stories to play out, rather than invent new weaker story lines just to keep the show going. Also allows for new ideas to come out.

Leave a Reply