TV Eye: Gritty expose of Sydney's seedy side

Don Hany plays Muslim detective Zane Malik. Photo / Supplied

The Sydney tourism people probably hate East West 101, the powerful new Australian series on Maori TV (Tuesdays, 9.30pm), because it portrays the nasty side of the city: drugs, corruption, murder, racism. And trains, trains, everywhere. It's not a pretty place.

The series - which has won Logies plus a big prize in this year's New York Festival's TV and Film Awards - is based around the doings of the Major Crime Squad. Much of the action takes place out west in suburbs populated by a vast mix of races, including many immigrants from the Middle East.

The drama pivots on the conflict between Zane Malik, a Muslim detective, superbly played by Don Hany, and his racist white colleague, Ray Crowley, ground out by William McInnes in the meanest, most complex role of his career.

The first episode flashed back to Malik's childhood, when he witnessed his father being shot in the head when their shop was held up. His father (played by Hany's real dad) survived but with crippling brain damage. The culprit was never caught but he's still very much on Malik's mind. Crowley doesn't think highly of Malik, and goads him constantly: "You workshop your bloody Arab mates"; "you're a mad Arab and I'm going to do you". Initially, Crowley seemed like just another Aussie bastard but as this week's second episode unfolded, some reasons for his bitterness became clear. His teenage son was a junkie, who died on the platform of Redfern's train station, poisoned by bad heroin dealt by a piece of scum called Bashar. An "Arab".

East West 101 fills the slot previously occupied by the wonderful series The Circuit, starring Aaron Pedersen. He turned up very briefly at the beginning of this episode as Adam King, an egocentric Aboriginal activist lawyer. When he was shot outside his house, Crowley was quite happy to see him gone. Meanwhile, Malik's increasingly demented father was determined to go to Mecca, the cops were chasing their tails trying to discover King's killer and Crowley was stalking Bashar as well as sucking up gallons of whisky. He quietly went incendiary - you could see it in his bloodshot eyes - when he saw Bashar wearing the Rolex his son had stolen a few days earlier. At the end, Bashar ended up in the morgue, allegedly run down by a train, Crowley disposed of the Rolex - and Malik saw him do it. He's on to him.

Like The Circuit, some of East West's cast are real people, not professional actors, which makes the drama seem even more authentic, balanced by formidable performances from Hany and McInnes. It's perfect for people seeking gritty stories, well told, which reflect reality. Which is more than I can say for Castle, which started last night on TV One. It's just another variation on the charming cad teamed with a tough but lonely female cop formula. Square-jawed Nathan Fillion plays Richard Castle, a superstar crime writer (yet his book titles are Barbara Cartland-ish) who has run out of ideas. When someone starts copycatting his fictional murders, he latches on to New York police detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic), who can't stand him/wants him.

Castle the man is glib, smug and annoying, pretty much an apt description for the whole thing - although the presence of real-life crime writer James Patterson as Castle's poker buddy was a nice twist. Through a ludicrous intervention by the New York mayor, yet another one of Castle's friends in high places, Beckett is stuck with him so the series has the steam to run on. It all hinges on the chemistry between them. Who cares?