Hope and Wire - clear headed review

Dear Friends who are of Maori descent,

I am sorry for somehow forgetting about that fact in last nights traumatic unloading! I sat there thinking, hang on, almost every major character is Maori. I live in christchurch, and I don't think I have any maori friends - aren't we 'supposed' to be the 'whitest' city in the country? I scanned through everyone I know and thought - nope, I am a horrible Chch stereotype, I have no indigenous friends. So, lovely maori friends - of which you are surprisingly many - Feel free to smack me with your Taiaha when we next catch up! (I'm joking, please don't).

Hope and Wire was, at best, an attempt at a documentary, trying to make you feel something for the characters and then perhaps feel something for them when the fake-quakes struck.

Unfortunately, those quakes were poorly executed - not enough noise during, not enough silence after, but I guess we shouldn't expect too much from an auckland production.

I was angry at how the (I assume) Merivale or FendAlton family were portrayed, I felt slighted by the extraordinary display of poshness presented by the mother of that family. I think we were supposed to be feeling something for her once her son got hurt, but I didn't. I was just annoyed by her hair.

The best and most believable characters in the show are the little maori family from Bexley. The mum in particular was by far the most relatable and convincing on the show. Her emotions were raw, her trauma and her anxieties spot on. Her character wasn't actually there for the Feb Quake, but it was her character that I felt the most for when it happened.

People are talking about all the focus on the christchurch stereotypes that were rife - anti asian, skin heads, drinking, property tycoons vs the tenants, teenage girls in health clinics and uni students being activists. It didn't make any sense. Who are they trying to reach with these stories?  I feel like they tried to appeal to everyone at once, and in doing so, have completely failed to connect with anyone.

I think it would have been better to focus on one family - the Bexley Family, and to focus on how they survive before, during and after. That would be a programme worth watching. That would do the earthquakes and the people a justice they are otherwise being denied as this programme tries to be both poorly done soap opera, and ground breaking not-quite documentary. No pun intended.