Link to the n*de photos
Population 11, on Amazon Prime, stars Ben Feldman as a guy searching for his father in a paranormal-ridden Australian outback. He teams up with The Girl, of course -- not once in a series like this does the guy team up with a guy. But hey, Feldman is cute, it's Australian and there's paranormal.
Prologue: An old guy walks through the dark by a gigantic baobab and into a circle of giant termite mounds. Suddenly he is illuminated by light -- from above! He runs, stumbles, falls, screams. Abducted by aliens? I'll bet it's just a tease.
Scene 1: Andy (Ben) drives through the outback on the wrong side of the road, almost hitting a cop car! The lady cop makes it very, very clear that she wants to date him. Her innuendos are extremely vulgar: "Breathe into my mouth, hot stuff...harder...harder..." Not The Girl: slightly overweight.
After she gives him her phone number and answers the question "Can I go now?" with that annoying "I don't know, can you?", he continues on his way through the desert to Bilgudgee, population 12. It has a park, a Chinese restaurant, and a pub in what looks like an old garage. A community board advertises trivia night and "Outback UFO Tours," hosted by the guy who was abducted by aliens earlier: "guaranteed sightings!"
It's Andy's dad with a new scam!
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A race car zooms in, almost hitting him. Resident #1 is the lady who runs the pub/hotel. Not the Girl: middle-aged.
Resident #3, a German-speaking guy named Cedric, doesn't mind: he has nothing to confess.
Andy claims that he came to town for the UFO tour, run by Hugo...not mentioning that Hugo is his dad.
They haven't seen him in a few weeks, but they take Andy to his house -- horribly run-down, with a lot of alien memorabilia. Nobody home. Why not just say you're his son? Then you could go inside and investigate.
Scene 2: The Sundew Caravan and Campground. A caravan is a trailer in the U.S. Usually you bring your own to the campground, but sometimes you can rent them.
Andy goes to the office-trailer and asks Residents #4 and #5, a lesbian couple or mother-daughter, if they've seen Hugo. No, they don't speak with him, because "Mom's a drama queen."
Next Resident #6, a bearded guy with a neck brace (Rick Donald), wonders if he's an FBI agent. Andy says no, but the guy doesn't believe him, thinks he's a suspect, and starts yelling "I won't go down for this!" Um...Australia is rather out of their jurisdiction. Maybe he's with the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, ASIO.
Residents #7 and #8, an older guy with muscles (Steve Le Marquand), and his young wife or daughter, tell him that Hugo is a pain in the arse, but that's part of his charm.
So when is Andy going to meet the Girl of His Dreams? He hasn't even been identified as heterosexual yet; that usually happens by Minute 2. Could he be....no way. I absolutely am not going to get my hopes up.
More after the break
Scene 3: Noel's General Store and Post Office.
Resident #9, Noel (Stephen Curry, left), claims not to know him. "But you're the postmaster general, and the town has 12 residents." "I don't know him." Uh-oh, Hugo was full of secrets.
Scene 5: On to Audrey's Chinese Restaurant and Bakery. How does she stay in business? It's too far in the outback for tourists. She'd have to have everybody in town eat there five times a day.
Resident #10, a middle-aged woman (not the Girl), offers to sell him one of her horrible meat pies. If he tries one, she'll tell him where Hugo is. He takes a bite -- "No idea." Har har.
I guess Hugo is Resident #11, and Resident #12 has not yet been introduced.
Scene 6: Night. Andy sneaks into Hugo's house -- the door is open, and examines his stuff. In the refrigerator he finds a VHS tape labeled "Play Me." I checked -- this tv series was released in Australia in March 2024. A VHS tape? How long has it been in that refrigerator?
It's Hugo saying "If you're watching this, something has happened to me."
Ulp, there's a scraping sound outside. Andy investigates: It's the Priest and Cedric, taking the stuff Hugo borrowed and never returned. Andy comes clean about being Hugo's son. They all go inside to watch the tape.
"I've been abducted by the Azyarn species, from just beyond Kepler-1606B." A planet with conditions that could permit life. 2870 light years from Earth. It has five times the mass of Earth, so those aliens would have close to super-strength. Andy sighs; this is not useful information.
Wait -- "I'm dead!" he exclaims. Plot twist: he's not just concerned about his father, he HAS to find him. He asks the guys to leave so he can "figure some stuff out."
Hey, do you think that Cedric and the Priest are boyfriends?
Scene 7: Flashback to the young Andy asking his Dad how long he'll be in Australia. "Not long, just gotta do a few things, see a few people." He promises to bring him a toy koala. Aww, a loving father, for a change.
Cut to Andy asleep on the couch in his Dad's house. A car approaches. The engine revvs, it flashes its high-beams, and drives away.
Morning: The phone rings. Andy's boyfriend back home (Christopher Kirby) wants to know "Have you found him, and more importantly, the money?"
"He and it aren't here."
"Oh no, we're going to jail -- or worse! These people don't fool around! And we're running out of time."
"Be calm. I promise I'll find him."
The dude lives alone and has a cat named Mr. Biggles. Definitely gay.
Cut to Andy putting up fliers offering $5,000 for any information about Hugo. And getting bit by a giant venomous snake and collapsing!
Scene 8: He awakens to all of the townsfolk, happy to see that he's better. The snake is Old Rex, who had his venom glands removed so he could be the town mascot.
Now that there's a reward, they all have useless information about Hugo, but the Vulgar Cop shooes them out. She wants a date -- and the reward money, because she found Hugo's shoe. Andy wants her to open a police investigation into his disappearance instead, so she gets mean, orders the house cordoned off as a crime scene, threatens to arrest him for breaking and entering, then gives him her phone number again -- and leaves
Scene 9: At the bar, Resident #1 has rooms to rent, for double the price listed.
Cedric tells him that everybody in town is from somewhere else -- they come here to run away.
"What are you running away from"?
"Same thing as you, myself."
Scene 10: Andy is in bed, trying to sleep, when the car with the revving engine and high-lights approaches again. He runs out to investigate, but it goes away. He follows into the outback, almost hits a kangaroo, and crashes into a rock. But he follows the car on foot to where the occupant is digging -- and finds his Dad's other shoe -- or rather, his foot. And gets clobbered with a shovel! The end.
Beefcake: Some shirtless shots, like the Constable on a date with the Vulgar Cop
Heterosexism: Andy meets The Girl, Cassie, in Episode 2 (why couldn't a guy have picked him up when he was hitchhiking?) . They have a bickering relationship going on, but at the end of the crisis they hug, and then separate. Cassie goes back to Melbourne. Just a phone call asking "When are you going to come visit?", as if they are good buddies.
In Episode 3, Cassie is giving Noel the General Store manager a makeover, and asks "Is there a special lady in your life," unaware that gay men exist.
Gay Characters: Maybe the ladies at the caravan. One calls the other "Mom," but they look to be about the same age.
According to the Google AI, Gareth (Chai Hansen, below), who hasn't appeared yet, is gay, but in a clip, he's flirting extensively with Cassie. Maybe they mean the actor.
Will I Keep Watching: I've already watched Episodes 1-3. It's rather addictive, with a cliffhanger at the end of each episode to keep you clicking on the next.
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