# Underbelly (2008)

> A six-season Australian true crime anthology dramatizing real organized crime stories, each season a standalone account of criminal rivalries and violence.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/12861

## Facts

- Seasons: 6
- Episodes: 68
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama
- Network: Nine Network
- Cast: Rodger Corser, Emma Booth, Caroline Craig, Firass Dirani, Gyton Grantley, Wil Traval, Kat Stewart, Cheree Cassidy
- TMDB rating: 8.0/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1119176/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: brutal
- Tone: gritty, tense, sombre, bleak, unflinching

## Synopsis

Underbelly (2008-2013) is an Australian television true crime drama series created for Nine Network. Each season is a standalone story dramatizing real-life criminal events, so the cast changes from one installment to the next. Rodger Corser plays Steve Owen and Emma Booth plays Kim Hollingsworth in the early series, while Gyton Grantley takes on Carl Williams and Firass Dirani plays John Ibrahim, with Caroline Craig providing narration across the run. The engine of each season is a gang war or police investigation rooted in the Melbourne underworld: drug trafficking, territorial feuds, and the human cost of ambition and betrayal. Episodes are hour-long and built around escalating confrontations, interrogations, and shifting alliances. The six-season run spans thirteen-episode and eight-episode installments, moving through the criminal history of one city across years. It is a grim, procedural, and largely unflinching portrait of organized crime, with a gritty, sombre tone. Fans of Gomorrah and The Sopranos will find resonance in its mafia dynamics and morally compromised figures.

## Shows like Underbelly

- [Monster (2022) (2022)](https://ember.film/tv/1105034)
- [Deep Water (2016)](https://ember.film/tv/59831)
- [Dirty John (2018)](https://ember.film/tv/71047)
- [Bay of Fires (2023)](https://ember.film/tv/136056)
- [Inside the American Mob (2013)](https://ember.film/tv/50908)
- [Κόκκινος κύκλος (2000)](https://ember.film/tv/45924)
- [Top Boy (2011)](https://ember.film/tv/38347)
- [Troppo (2022)](https://ember.film/tv/108023)
- [A Thousand Blows (2025)](https://ember.film/tv/130735)
- [Mr Inbetween (2018)](https://ember.film/tv/69638)

---

Site overview: https://ember.film/llms.txt