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Back in the days of Blue Heelers and Water Rats, there was nothing Kiwi audiences fancied so much as an Aussie drama in uniform.
Since then, the middle-of-the-road law-and-order drama seems to have died out across the Tasman. But Sea Patrol (TV3, last night, 9.30), a new offering
from the creators of both shows above, sails fearlessly into the doldrums with its crew on board the Navy patrol boat HMAS Hammersley.
The new show may have its work cut out, however, now that there's stiff competition in the emergency services genre from reality TV.
Shows such as Border Security reveal the nation's protectors as valiantly holding back the drugs and cash smugglers, and those vast hordes of Asian students threatening to overrun Australia with undeclared packets of prawn crackers.
Sea Patrol isn't in that league. The most excitement it could rustle up in last night's debut episode was the apprehension of a tatty boat manned by a few down-and-out Indonesian fishermen caught in Australia's exclusive economic zone.
Not exactly searing stuff but the scriptwriters did their best. The weedy-looking enemy might have been a bit short of the daunt factor, but there was always the danger of a fire at sea dumping the crew and their naval guards oh-so-predictably into the drink.
Meanwhile, the mother ship was out of radio reach attending a scientist struck down by a mystery malady on a remote island, leaving the blokes in the briny to stew for a bit about the sharks and those nasty northern Queensland salties.
No points for guessing whether they were rescued. Of course, edge-of-the-seat action isn't the point. The real aim of this drama, you suspect, is getting one of Australia's favourite telly actresses, Lisa McCune, back in uniform.
As the ambitious Lieutenant Kate McGregor, she's the newcomer on board and her job is to clash and probably pash with her commanding officer. Although the only other woman on board, the navigator, aka Nav, is perky enough to steer things off course.
After the love interest, the rest of the action is pure Aussie mateship drama. The blokes, with seagoing titles like Chefo and Buffer, and the hapless rookie Spider, rag one another mercilessly but are really there for each other when it matters.
It could be that everyone's getting to know each other, but the dialogue so far has been as starchy as a naval officer's dress uniform. "I think we can be two professionals about this," suggests Kate to her new boss and former lover, in one of the show's more original lines.
The Indonesian seamen didn't fare too well in the dialogue stakes, either, getting only to wave their arms around and jabber in foreign; while the stricken scientist was paralysed and unable to talk. But the actress playing this role didn't allow the lack of lines to restrict her style. If you thought lying down, goggling the eyes in fear and gurgling through a tracheotomy tube might not be all that difficult, this woman made you realise there are nuances. Give her the Ricky Gervais award for best performance by an extra.
It's early days in the exploits of HMAS Hammersley. Perhaps the patrol boat might soon sail into stormier waters. For example, a container-ship laden with refugees could spice up the drama.