History Series / Underbelly

Season 5: ''Underbelly: Badness'', was set in TheNoughties and following the career of underworld figure Anthony Perish (Jonathan [=LaPaglia=]), and the police Strike Force Tuno which formed to stop him, led by Detective Sergeant Gary Jubelin (Matt Nable).

* DeconstructedTrope: Owen plays CowboyCop in his efforts to bring down Carl which not only endangers the investigation and causes grief with his boss but has Carl target him. It's Jacqui working on his imprisoned associates that lead them to make a deal a give evidence.
** Despite explicitly spelling out their involvement in other crimes Task Force Hamada cannot move in on the pair involved in the Silk/Miller murders out of fear that there is not enough evidence. Despite Debbs and his nephew basically saying they did it and are caught trying to hide evidence they don't want another bungled investigation. The police eventually move in anyway after threats are made, hoping that the raids will uncover evidence.

* {{Retcon}}: The kid who borrowed money from Condello and lost everything to the loan shark before committing suicide? Didn't happen, this was based on a similar fate of one of Condello's victims.
** No, Roberta and Andrew did not have an affair, despite Carl's suspicions. No, Jason did not shoot Carl because he was selling his own drugs, that came later. Other modified facts was the gun used to kill Gangitano being thrown out in a UsefulNotes/McDonalds bag was portrayed as the gun Gangitano used to kill reg Workman, Mark Moran threatening witnesses testifying against his brother Jason (not to say he didn't but the Nomads biker gang who did do this were not shown) and the show had Carl racing to a bottle shop to be seen just after shooting Mark, which was based on Graham doing the same thing after Gangitano's murder. Justified in writing around the court proceedings.
** The spin-off series, Fat Tony & Co., retcons a whole laundry list of things that potentially weren't even factual in the first place:
*** Danielle is a major drug producer with her own pill press, compared to the arm-candy hairdresser she is in Underbelly.
*** The Morans' pill-press now suddenly belongs to Danielle, despite Underbelly going to great lengths to show how Jason and Mark actually negotiated and purchased it from a Biker gang.
*** Alphonse is murdered simply because he slept with The Munster's daughter-in-law and no other reason. In Underbelly it's a slowly boiling cauldron of many faults and fuckups that lead to his demise.
*** Even the characters TookALevelInJerkass; Lewis Moran and The Munster, who were the wise old voices of reason to the Carlton Crew in the first show, suddenly gain much nastier, more aggressive personalities in Fat Tony & Co.
*** The previously fictional Purana coppers in Underbelly - Steve Owen, Jacqui James and Gary Butterworth - are retconned out of existence, and replaced by the actual real-life Purana coppers Jim Coghlan and Jim O'Brien, along with AFP agent Jarrod Ragg.
* SwatTeam: Used by the main character detectives to essentially kidnap suspects (such as Jason Moran for the Kings Street brawl and one of the shooters in the Silk\Miller murder) as well as planting listening devices and a raid on a suspect in the Victoria police murders. Steve Owen is called out for using them to rough up a suspect after he made threats.

* EvilVersusEvil: Kate vs Tilly.

* TheDeterminator: Gary Jubelin, in his quest to solve the murder of Terry Falconer.

Season 1: With the simple title ''Underbelly'', aired in 2008, and involved the portrayal of the so called "Melbourne Gangland war" of 1998 to 2010. It portrayed the downfall of Alphonse Gangitano and the rise of Jason Moran and Carl Williams, and the gang war that killed 36 members of the Melbourne underworld.

Season 2: ''Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities'', was set in the late 1970's to 1980's as ambitious drug dealer Terry Clark teams up with Bob Trimbole to traffic in heroin from Asia as well as subplots regarding "The Great Bookie Robbery", Ray Chuck's war with the Kane Brothers, the rise and fall of would-be assassin for hire Chris Flannery, the attempt on the life of casino kingpin George Freeman, and the increasingly unchecked corruption of the New South Wales police.

Season 3: ''Underbelly: The Golden Mile'', is a direct sequel to ''A Tale of Two Cities'' and details George Freeman grooming his successor, John Ibrahim, and Ibrahim's ascension as kingpin of a stretch of land in King's Cross, Sydney, known as "[[TitleDrop The Golden Mile]]". Also, it covers the 1995 Wood Royal Commission, where a young corrupt police detective named Trevor Haken testifies against his fellow dirty cops after being caught red handed.

A series of telemovies called the ''Underbelly Files'' was then aired, followed by Season 4: ''Underbelly: Razor'' which was about the origins of Australian organised crime in the 1920s, lead by the Razor Gangs of Sydney.

Season 5: ''Underbelly: Badness'', was set in TheNoughties and following the career of underworld figure Anthony Perish.

Season 6: ''Underbelly: Squizzy'' focused on Squizzy Taylor in TheRoaringTwenties. It was set in the same time frame as Razor but was about the criminal scene in Melbourne.

While technically not part of the franchise, what could be called Season 7 went back to the beginning with ''Fat Tony & Co'' which was an offshoot of the first season and focused on the rise and fall of drug kingpin Tony Mokbel, Carl Williams' alliance and murder, and events such as the Auskick murders covered in the 2008 series being addressed.

The actual 7th season of the show is set to be filmed, and will involve the white collar criminal Melissa Caddick, who defrauded $20 million dollars from her victims before vanished in November 2020, until a part of her foot washed up on a Sydney beach, causing her to be declared presumed dead in early 2021.

The series consists of five distinct shows. The first season, simply titled ''Underbelly'', aired in 2008. It portrayed the downfall of Alphonse Gangitano and the rise of Jason Moran and Carl Williams. When the Morans go into drug trafficking, Carl teams up with Tony Mokbel and begins using the Morans gear to produce and sell his own product. He is caught, beaten and shot, leaving him with a desire to tear apart the Carlton Crew, a desire that resulted in a gang war that left over twenty people dead.

The second season, ''Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities'', goes back in time to the late 1970s and the 1980s, as ambitious drug dealer Terry Clark teams up with Bob Trimbole to traffic in heroin from Asia. While the series is anchored by that storyline, other storylines play out. These include the Great Bookie Robbery (committed by career criminal Ray Chuck) and Ray Chuck's war with the Kane Brothers, which left one of the Kane siblings dead and Ray Chuck killed by the surviving Kane sibling, in a daring public execution committed inside a court house. Also featuring are the rise (and fall) of would-be assassin for hire Chris Flannery, the attempt on the life of casino kingpin George Freeman, and the increasingly unchecked corruption of the New South Wales police.

The third season, ''Underbelly: The Golden Mile'', is a direct sequel to ''A Tale of Two Cities'' and details George Freeman grooming his successor, John Ibrahim, and Ibrahim's ascension as kingpin of a stretch of land in King's Cross, Sydney, known as "[[TitleDrop The Golden Mile]]". Also, it covers the 1995 Wood Royal Commission, where a young corrupt police detective named Trevor Haken testifies against his fellow dirty cops after being caught red handed.

During the show's first season, the series was [[BannedInChina banned in Victoria]] by Judge Betty King. At the time, several people portrayed in the work were the subjects of ongoing trials for the crimes depicted in the series, and so the ban was instated to prevent the work from influencing the trials' jurors. Despite - or rather, [[StreisandEffect because of]] - this, the ban was widely discussed by the Australian media, sparking greater interest in the show, and bootleg copies of the series were quite popular, with people even ringing into radio shows saying how they purchased them from construction yards, '''''and the radio hosts saying where they got their copies from.'''''

Following ''The Golden Mile'', the producers stated that they will be doing a series of direct-to-television movies in order to focus on one-off events, instead of doing a full fourth season; these telemovies were placed under the umbrella title of ''Underbelly Files''. [[FlipFlopOfGod Then they announced a fourth season anyway]]. ''Underbelly: Razor'' will be dedicated to the origins of Australian organised crime in the 1920s.

A fifth season aired in 2012: ''Underbelly: Badness'', set in TheNoughties and following the career of underworld figure Anthony Perish. A sixth season focused on Squizzy Taylor in TheRoaringTwenties and the seventh and final season went back to the beginning with ''Fat Tony & Co'' which was an off shoot of the first season and focused on the rise and fall of drug kingpin Tony Mokbel, Carl Williams' alliance and murder, and events such as the Auskick murders covered in the 2008 series addressed.

For its US release, Direct TV's Audience Network aired the first three seasons in chronological order, starting with season two (''A Tale of Two Cities''), then season three ("The Golden Mile"), and finally the first season (retitled "Underbelly: War On the Streets"), then the made for TV movies. While Season four ("Underbelly: Razor") has yet to see the light of day in the US, it has been announced that season five ("Underbelly: Badness") is set to air this summer on Audience Network.

''Underbelly'' is an UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}n drama revolving around the UsefulNotes/{{Melbourne}} and UsefulNotes/{{Sydney}} criminal underworld. The series (which consists of three separate series), is based upon the novel "Leadbelly: Inside Australia's Underworld", written by John Silvester and Andrew Rule, reporters for the newspaper The Age.

* RealityEnsues: Owen plays CowboyCop in his efforts to bring down Carl which not only endangers the investigation and causes grief with his boss but has Carl target him. It's Jacqui working on his imprisoned associates that lead them to make a deal a give evidence.
** Despite explicitly spelling out their involvement in other crimes Task Force Hamada cannot move in on the pair involved in the Silk/Miller murders out of fear that there is not enough evidence. Despite Debbs and his nephew basically saying they did it and are caught trying to hide evidence they don't want another bungled investigation. The police eventually move in anyway after threats are made, hoping that the raids will uncover evidence.

* EvilVsEvil: Kate vs Tilly.

* VillainProtagonist: Being that the series is based around biographies of important figures in organised crime, this is [[CaptainObvious pretty much the point]]. That said, it's not to the extent that the cops are ever {{Hero Antagonist}}s.

* DownerEnding: Trimbole dies before he can be arrested, the people smuggling the heroin into Australia get short sentences, George Freeman is untouched, and the NSW Police have filled the void left by Trimbole's arrest and gotten away with everything.

* VillainousBreakdown: Allison, after corrupt cop Jack Smith threatens to make her the scapegoat for the Mr Asia syndicate and the subsequent disgrace her family would endure if her crimes were made public.

* BreakTheCutie: Debbie Webb, who is tormented and (for a while) driven to alcoholism due to the way that she is shunned by her fellow cops when she attempts to stand up to the corruption of her fellow NSW detectives.

** The spin-off series, Fat Tony & Co., retcons a whole laundry list of things:
*** Danielle is a major drug producer with her own pill press, compared to the arm-candy hairdresser she is in Underbelly
*** The Moran's pill-press is apparently now Danielle's, despite Underbelly going to great lengths to show how they actually procured it from a Biker gang.
*** Alphonse is killed simply because he fucked The Munster's daughter-in-law, not because he was a loose cannon
*** Even the characters TookALevelInJerkass; Lewis Moran and The Munster, who were the voices of reason to the Carlton Crew in the first show suddenly gain much nastier personalities in Fat Tony & Co.

* MoustacheOfFailedHeterosexuality: Trevor Haken has one during "A Tale of Two Cities", which had the character as a rookie detective. The actor loses the mustache during "The Golden Mile", which had him as a central character.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: ''The Runner'' and ''The Driver'' question Carl's orders to kill Jason in front of his kids. To a lesser extent Benji who is presented as LighterAndSofter to how he really was in regards to Victor Brincatt.

* SwatTeam: Used by the main character detectives to essentially kidnap suspects (such as Jason Moran for the Kings Street brawl and one of the shooters in the Silk\Miller murder) as well as planting listening devices and a raid on a suspect in the Victoria police murders. Steve Owen is called out for using them to rough up a suspected after he made threats.

** Well, Ibrahim is still the protagonist, he's just a VillainProtagonist.

----

* PsychoForHire: Christopher Dale Flannery again.

* PsychoForHire: Benji comes across this way when he emptied round after round into his best friend, but he isn't AxCrazy.

** No, Roberta and Andrew did not have an affair, despite Carl's suspeions. No, Jason did not shoot Carl because he was selling his own drugs, that came later. Other modified facts was the gun used to kill Gangitano being thrown out in a McDonalds bag was portrayed as the gun Gangitano used to kill reg Workman, Mark Moran threatening witnesses testifying against his brother Jason (not to say he didn't but the Nomads biker gang who did do this were not shown) and the show had Carl racing to a bottle shop to be seen just after shooting Mark, which was based on Graham doing the same thing after Gangitano's murder. Justified in writing around the court proceedings.

* AxCrazy: Chris Flannery, full stop.

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: George Freeman, high flying racing identity and owner of illegal casinos.

A fifth season aired in 2012: ''Underbelly: Badness'', set in TheNoughties and following the career of underworld figure Anthony Perish. A sixth season will focus on Squizzy Taylor in TheRoaringTwenties.

* NoExportForYou: No plans yet have been made for the fourth season to air in the US as of yet, as Audience Network has opted to skip it in favor of going straight to season five.