TV review: Wentworth Prison

So when Wentworth Prison (the new re-imagining of Prisoner) debuted last night it had to shake off the shackles (to excuse the pun) of the cult Australian series with a powerful pilot.

Channel 5 had marketed the show as a 'no-holds-barred drama' in a 'violent, pressure cooker environment of a contemporary women's prison', which explained the 10pm start.

The story centres around Bea Smith played by Donna Cormack, who enters Wentworth Prison on remand while charged for the attempted murder of her abusive husband.

While the name Bea Smith may be familiar to Prisoner fans of old, what had been a character portrayed as a top dog of the correctional centre is now a frightened newbie caught in the headlights of her incarceration.

The opening scene emphasised this as Bea was transported in handcuffs in the back of a police van, looking on enviously at the outside work and struggling to spit out her name to her 'van mate'.

Shown around the prison by prison guard 'Miss Bennett' and introduced to her new cell she found temporary prison top dog Franky Doyle in a compromising position. And such scenes and dialogue so early on only reaffirmed that Wentworth Prison is no longer Prisoner: Cell Block H.

Still traumatised by her arrest, Bea is easily manipulated by the charismatic Franky. Caught by canny prison governor Meg Jackson carrying a package of crystal meth for Franky, Bea refuses to betray her fellow inmate.

It's during the drug transaction with Franky's contact where we see Wentworth Prison at its best. Asked to meet a drug dealer she has never seen before, she makes a rookie mistake in greeting the wrong man which soon raises the suspicions.

Eventually finding the 'correct' drug dealer, who instructs her to 'try and look like she's enjoying' a kiss as he transfers drugs to her on the sly, we are given an insight into the sacrifices Bea is willing to make to deal with her time inside.

It was during this scene you think 'finally! Bea is human after all!' until then Bea had been colder than the bars on her cell window.

It also sets the programme up for the remainder of the series and shows that it won't be long until Bea is feeling comfortable in her new found environment.

The failed drugs deal earns her a spell in solitary but also the respect of her unit, especially young mum Doreen and peer worker Liz Birdsworth.

Worse was to come for Bea. To pull Franky back into line, Meg releases Jacs Holt, the smart, ruthless matriarch of a criminal family and Wentworth's reigning top dog, back into the compound. Jacs loses no time in testing Bea's mettle.

It's after this we get an insight into the events that have brought Bea to be in prison as a black and white flash back shows her beaten by her husband and then attempting to stage his suicide.

The brutality and the suffering Bea has endured is shown in detail in this scene and it's where Wentworth Prison is at its darkest and grittiest.

As a viewer you hope moments like that are more frequent as opposed to the cringeworthy one liners such as Meg's 'we don't negotiate with prisoners' and the painful-to-watch 'Gangs of New York' styled knife fight in the prison yard at the end of the episode.

As a drama Wentworth Prison delivered enough to leave you thirsty for more, but left a bitter taste that Bea's personal hardship may be let down by the obligation for cliché storylines.

If you want to see a female protagonist struggle with the reality of life in jail, then Wentworth Prison is for you.

If you want to see the cold hearted brutality of prison politics you could be left disappointed . . . but there is life in this series yet.

Adam Thompson