★★★★★ 0/5

Sister of Michael Hutchence slams INXS miniseries

The sister of Michael Hutchence,has described Seven's miniseries as a "complete fabrication of our family."

17
Leave a comment

2014-02-17_1247Tina Hutchence, the sister of Michael Hutchence, has described Seven’s miniseries INXS: Never Tear Us Apart, as a “complete fabrication of our family”.

She told Nova 100’s Meshel Laurie, “Michael is the only Australian so far who has become a bona fide rock star on the international stage as far as I know, and I really think they really owed it to the Australian public, who let’s face it, supported them on the pub circuit on the way up, to give a true account of the INXS rise and fall.

“I mean they certainly owe it to Michael and his family and friends to do better than that soap opera.

“He took them from obscurity to playing Wembley in front of 80,000 people, and I’m not saying that the other guys … you know they’re very talented … but quite honestly Michael could’ve stood in front of any five guys and make them look good.”

Seven’s miniseries, which had the support of the surviving members of the band, as well as their music library, noted in the closing credits “Certain events and characters have been changed for dramatic effect.”

It’s not unusual for this to occur in dramatisations, either in Australia or overseas. What’s crucial is making sure it doesn’t stray too far from the truth, and in being up front with the audience.

Last night the show pulled 1.77m viewers, down some 200,000 from the preceding week but more than enough to win its timeslot.

17 Responses

  1. @ Jake: Now come on Jake, it’s all going to be ok. Just cheer up a bit. I would say this was a great Australian production but I guess you will never know.

  2. I haven’t seen the movies yet, so can’t comment on them. But I doubt she was with them when they were in the recording studio or on tour. People behave differently around different people. I doubt she would have seen that side of Michael. I behave differently when I’m with my friends or at work to when I’m with my family. The manager was on The Morning Show last week praising ch 7 and everyone involved in the show for how it was done.

  4. The INXS mini series has certainly re-ignited interest in their music.
    Todays ARIA charts had 5 INXS albums in the top 50 (The Very Best- No. 1, Kick- No. 7, Live At Wembley- No. 17, Shabooh Shoobah- No. 41, The Swing- No. 43)

    On the singles charts Never tear us apart was No. 16 and Need You Tonight No. 33.

  6. Now you can see why it was an awful film in more ways than one. Now I really smelt a rat when I learned that this 2-part telemovie was, “for dramatic impact”. (actually, for legal reasons) part-fiction. But then I often wonder how anybody (let alone a majority of that 1.8 or so million viewers that tuned in for both halves) would be so gullible enough to actually want to see it and get taken in by the fictitious propaganda (and the disgusting porn visual filth) that polluted this particular portrayal of INXS’s history. Basically the type of tabloid TV stuff for people with only half a brain.

    1. The ‘disgusting porn visual filth’ was classified appropriately: M [Adult Themes or medical procedures, Drug use/references, Coarse language, Sexual references/sex scenes] Please avail yourself of our current classification system so you can make informed decisions in the future. Thanks.

  7. Compressing 20 years into around 3 hours of drama was always going to mean that compromises would have to be made. However, the series was sometimes messy, descended into cliche at times, to the point of being a little ‘soapy’. After all the hype, it was a little disappointing.

  8. Whoops, I got cut off – I agree with cronker, I too would have liked to have seen this be a three part series rather than two, some of the story felt a little rushed as they had so much to fit in. But I still enjoyed it, I thought the cast was fantastic (other than the clunker casting that was Molly and Bono!) and I would love to see more Aussie rock biopics in the future.

  10. The Moops is spot on – INXS were not the only world renown Australian rockers, and how insulting of her to say such things.

    On her comments, they make no sense. She states that it’s a “complete fabrication of our family” – the mini series was not about her family. It was about Michael and INXS. The band members were consulted (some more than others) and I think I’d rely a lot more on their memories of their own experiences than his half sister.

    Also, what a slap in the face to speak about the other band members like that. They may not have had Michael’s charisma but they were talented and were all part of what made INXS successful.

    At the end of the day, this was not a documentary. It was a dramatisation. There is a difference and most of us know that. This whole situation reeks of someone desperately trying to get their next 15 minutes of fame.

    And I agree with…

  12. Michael and INXS are not the only Australian rock stars of world renown. Tina needs to become acquainted with Rick Springfield, Little River Band, Men at Work, Crowded House, Jet, Keith Urban and of course, the behemoth that is AC/DC, a band much more famous and successful internationally than INXS. Admittedly, Urban, LRB and Crowded House are more soft rock acts, but all are famous worldwide, her claim about Michael is wrong.

  13. Whilst I believe last nights second installment was dramatically better than its first, there was still a lot of leeway taken with the story. And quite a bit that made no sense in terms of storytelling.
    Subplots about Gary Beers having a fling with a backup singer, Andrew Farriss having a sore foot (why?) and the flashback about Michael suddenly becoming a good singer once the girls turned up at the garage were pointless and a poor attempt at painting a background.
    On the whole, the series was well produced with excellent performances by most of the cast, but it think they tried to tell too much of a story in two episodes. A third would have given it some space to breathe and filled in some glossed over elements.

  15. I don’t think people were expecting a documentary sticking to every fact. Television drama would be a very place if that was the norm. Bio pics should be taken with a grain if salt. Her concerns are understood but it must just be harder to accept when it concerns your own family.

Leave a Reply