Rake

Rake

2010
Rake
Watch on
Rake
Watch on

Rake

8.5 | TV-MA | en | Drama

Cleaver Greene is not about politics or morality or even justice. Cleaver Greene is about the law. And it is his passion for the law that drives him to use his formidable intelligence to defend people whom society and the justice system might otherwise convict without a fair trial. He uses his encyclopaedic knowledge of human nature and the Byzantine intricacies of our legal codes to guarantee that his clients get what is theirs by the law; the right to a diligent defence.

View More
Watch Now
AD

WATCH FREEFOR 30 DAYS

All Prime Video
Cancel anytime

Watch Now

Seasons & Episodes

5
4
3
2
1
SEE MORE
SEE MORE
SEE MORE
SEE MORE
SEE MORE
8.5 | TV-MA | en | Drama , Comedy | More Info
Released: 2010-11-04 | Released Producted By: Essential Media and Entertainment , Easy Tiger Country: Australia Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/rake/default.htm
Synopsis

Cleaver Greene is not about politics or morality or even justice. Cleaver Greene is about the law. And it is his passion for the law that drives him to use his formidable intelligence to defend people whom society and the justice system might otherwise convict without a fair trial. He uses his encyclopaedic knowledge of human nature and the Byzantine intricacies of our legal codes to guarantee that his clients get what is theirs by the law; the right to a diligent defence.

...... View More
Stream Online

Stream with Netflix

Cast

Richard Roxburgh , Matt Day , Adrienne Pickering

Director

Ian Collie

Producted By

Essential Media and Entertainment , Easy Tiger

AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

All Prime Video Movies and TV Shows. Cancel anytime.

Watch Now

Trailers

Reviews

blanche-2 Rake is an Australian TV show about an attorney, Cleaver Green, played by Richard Roxburgh, who is - no other way to say it - a complete mess. He's in terrible tax trouble and has been for a while, and has come up with every excuse as to why his records aren't available, so he keeps delaying. Meanwhile his secretary is stealing from him, which he knows, and they come to an agreement that she can only steal 10% instead of the usual 30.Green is divorced, and his main squeeze is a prostitute who later leaves the profession and winds up married to a politician. As far as his friends, he creates complete chaos in their lives just by showing up. When he finally gets permission to re-enter the home of Tom and Scarlet, he destroys their child's birthday party when he gets into a fight with the clown.On top of all of this, Green is an excellent attorney and really has some challenging cases - cannibalism is one; in another, a terrorist sets off a bomb and his wife is accused of buying the materials to make it, but she claims they are for her beauty business. "Hydrogen peroxide," the Judge says. "Bleaching hair," she says. "It seems like an awful lot," the Judge says. "Well, I don't want to be vulgar, Judge, but there are other places on a woman's body that have hair," says Green.At one point, he has to defend his own loan shark (who has had him beaten up several times).I recently found out that the U.S. did this series with Greg Kinnear. No way. I like Greg Kinnear but he doesn't have Richard Roxburgh's edginess and mercurial delivery or energy. Also I don't think some of the language - so prominent in the dialogue - would be permitted on American TV. Roxburgh is fabulous; the character needs to be not only super-smart but outrageous, and he brings it.The scripts are very well written, and I love the dialogue.Great series.
purrlgurrl Not being Australian and completely unfamiliar with Australian TV, I came to Rake without any expectations or preconceived notions. I find the show is hilarious and mesmerizing at the same time, in no small part due to Roxburgh's performance. He's terrific as a cad with a heart of 14K gold plated brass.In some ways, Rake is reminiscent of, but doesn't imitate, the great Robbie Coltrane series, Cracker, with both lead characters brilliant in their professional lives, yet exasperatingly self-destructive train wrecks once they're off the clock.The show's been Americanized by Fox, starring Greg Kinnear (an actor of whom I'm a big fan), but I'm avoiding the Fox series because I've been told the edge of the Australian original was sanded down for American audiences. But, it's the sharp edge that I enjoy. If you can get your hands on the OZ version of Rake, you ought to watch it. It's really good TV.
xhidden99 I was thinking how this was an even darker version of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Sure, Cleaver is a pr^ck, a drunk, a user, a misanthrope, misogynist and all around thoroughly corrupt bast^rd but the sad fact is that quite nearly everyone around him is a pathological narcissist who will do literally anything to anyone to suit their own aims. He's an antihero surrounded by utterly self unaware gleeful sociopaths. You can't fault his bitter nihilism in the face of it. From his ex wife to his solicitor to his solicitor's wife to his girlfriends and girlfriends other lovers his crazy bookie to the judges and officials and hacks and clowns they're not even lying to themselves about how shallow and awful are they truly do not know and never will. It's a modern day version of Alexander Pope's "Dunciad"
boogittie This show is really great, it makes you laugh, & smirk, but all the time it is showing just how corrupt & laughable the entire legal system is. Even though the main character is a lawyer himself he is constantly being victimized by the very same "System" he is part of. Richard Roxburgh plays his part to perfection, as the real underdog, doing what ever he can to fight against the tide of whoa that never seems to end. But he also shows how frail we can all be & how the world can get on top of us, no matter what we try to do to fight it. We all have hopes for how things will turn out in our life, but the reality is we have no control over any of it, & even a Lawyers life ain't easy .......