Hadn’t expected to see a second series of this but a nice surprise especially given the 22 minute episodes.
Set in a small dairy farming town in New Zealand, it features Caz (Elz Carrad), a trans man who has returned home to help his ailing father and discovers what small town life is really like. In this series several storylines develop.
One is the quest by his father Gerald to get the council to ban pesticides and develop more organic methods. In this he is opposed by local tycoon Sir Keith Murphy (Peter Hayden) who despite speaking some Maori is upsetting locals by honouring colonisers and initiating new real estate projects on once Maori land.
Caz’s bff Anahera (Awhina-Rose Ashby) is learning about her Maori heritage from the aunties and is being pressganged into offering her shop as a venue for teen LGBTQ meetings which raises the ire of locals. His friend Ellie from Auckland comes down with a group to help promote the organic farming and she and Anahera have feelings for each other.
Meanwhile Caz is both getting close to newly out Jem and trying to deal with the suicide of his secret lover, a rugby star. Like a shroud over the top of all this are strange climatic events like earthquakes, an Aurora Australis and other magic realist elements.
Not all the stories are resolved by the end of 5 episodes and more are clearly planned.
While it is no masterpiece, Rurangi gives the impression of a fresh authentic look at Aotearoa with a large number of non-cis people in both the cast and crew.
It can only be praised for that and for reaching a decent level of quality. I enjoyed the view of farmland NZ in a process of change and the short sharp episodes with a reasonable dose of humour.
Ramon Te Wake as Ellie was underused in series 1 and is an asset here as are some of the aunties like Vanessa Rare and singer Anika Moa. A couple of actors have changed since the last series, notably Gerald (Cohen Holloway) and Jem (Liam Coleman) and are perhaps still finding their way. Carrad and Ashby continue to hold the centre effectively. Max Currie directs.
3 stars
passionfilm 