Sundance Polishing Up 'Scrublands: Silver' for May Premiere

No one can deny that one of the significant appeals of historical series is the sweeping vistas and landscapes, not to mention the ancient architecture and buildings. This is also true of contemporary series; for instance, Death in Paradise is all about getting to stare at the Caribbean in the middle of February. More recently, there has been a general push for series and movies to film outside the usual locations and bring productions to picturesque towns with struggling economies, not just in the U.S. or the U.K., but also in New Zealand and Australia. The latter did just that for Scrublands Season 2, called Scrublands: Silver.

The Scrublands series has thus far been based on Australian author Chris Hammer's best-selling series, with Season 1 following the opening book, and Season 2 taking its cues from the follow-up novel, Silver. The first season was set in the Outback and featured long shots of the vast sky and endless desert. However, the second book follows the protagonist, journalist Martin Scarsden, back home to a tiny port city on the country's western coastline, an area that rarely appears in regular Australian TV series, let alone those distributed internationally.

Australian star Luke Arnold (Black Sails) returns as Scarsden, with co-star Bella Heathcote (The Man in the High Castle) as Mandy Bond, with whom he got together at the end of Season 1. The two may think they're getting away from murder and mayhem, but wherever you go, there you are, so of course, there's a body before they're even finished settling in.