Can Shanika save Tyson – whatever the consequences?

Let’s cut to the chase… or perhaps not.

If you were expecting a rip-roaring, action-packed finale to the excellent Firebite, then arguably, episode eight, Rise Of The Fallen, doesn’t deliver.  Having said that, is it still a fitting conclusion to one of the best small screen genre TV series of the last two years? Emphatically yes.

Series creators Warwick Thornton and Brendan Fletcher have made the boldest of bold choices in opting for a slow-burn finale that focuses on character, race politics, and our investment in the growth of Shanika as the proud kick-ass Bloodhunter to lead the way in the blistering season 2 I can barely wait to see.

Oh, and to whom it may concern, if there isn’t a second season of Firebite then someone definitely needs to turn AMC off and turn it back on again to make sure that it does happen, because any other outcome would surely be a glitch in the matrix and/or a crime against television.

Arguably the burn is just that little bit too slow, as Shanika gathers a posse to head into the mines to ‘save’ Tyson, but I was still utterly gripped, not least because the iconography that leads us there – that of slavery and forced assimilation – is so disturbing you keep having to remind yourself that this is driven by a creative team rooted in the indigenous communities whose struggles it depicts.

The sight of our First Nation hero, chained by the neck, rendered voiceless, his identity and his memories stripped away, treated little better than a dog answering commands, is truly shocking, all the more so for creeping up on us in the guise of a Mad Max style vampire romp.

Kudos to Thornton and Fletcher for not copping out, for not giving the audience any easy answers – and kudos to the whole cast for believing so hard in their world that they’ve given us the most immediate and plausible vampire reality I can remember. Rob Collins’s Tyson – ‘hero, Bloodhunter, dickhead’ as Shanika describes him – has been a charismatic joy throughout, and Shantae Barnes-Cowan is surely a star in the making.  Hers is a gutsy, selfless performance. I can’t think of another female actor who has given us a dirt-under-the fingernails portrayal of this quality, utterly truthful, making no concessions whatsoever to the shallow patina of TV glamour.

Unlike many other shows, the set-up for season 2 feels organic and earned. This story definitely isn’t over. As the old Bloodhunter Jalingbirri intones: ‘The thirst of the colonisers is never ending; the only thing that can stop it is a stake through the f***ing heart’. I have no doubt he is absolutely right and I’m already counting the days until season 2. 9/10

Martin Jameson