Operation Buffalo (Australian TV series)


Operation Buffalo is an Australian television comedy-drama series written and directed by Peter Duncan that screened on ABC TV from 31 May 2020.

Synopsis

The series is inspired by true events of British nuclear bomb tests in the 1950s at remote Maralinga, in outback South Australia. Major Leo Carmichael, an Australian Army engineer and World War II hero, has to keep the secret military base functioning smoothly. His job of testing the most dangerous weapon in the world is made no easy task, with his absent-minded General, “Cranky” Crankford, new meteorologist Dr Eva Lloyd-George, who starts asking questions, and the federal government and press watching his every move. Despite the land being deemed 'uninhabited', Leo is faced with the arrival of a family of Aboriginal Australians who are curious about the giant clouds that explode occasionally.

Cast

Episodes

Production

The six-part series is filmed in South Australia. French distributor and production company APC Studios helped fund the project and provided worldwide distribution.

Critical reception

The series received mixed reviews, attaining a score of 5.0 on IMDb. Luke Buckmaster from The Guardian gave the series three stars out of five and described the series as, "much more fickle: sometimes funny as a comedy, sometimes effective as a drama, but rarely satisfying as a combination of both". Wenlei Ma from News.com.au thought much better of the series, writing: "as much as sombre images of death and destruction can evoke emotional reactions, nothing hits the point as hard as the glaring judgment of satire done well – which is exactly what Operation Buffalo is".