Rush

Rush (2008-2011, 70 episodes), Channel Ten.

Catherine plays: Kerry Vincent.

Finishing its four season run in 2011, Rush is a police drama which centres around the lives of the men and women who work for a Tactical Response Unit in Melbourne. Their job is to try and defuse crimes before they happen, rather than chasing the criminals after a crime has been committed. In the early days of Rush in particular, it was criticised a little for using a handheld camera during its action scenes, which would often result in the picture being 'shaky'. While it could be somewhat off-putting at times, I got used to it as the first season progressed, and by the very last episode, I never noticed it at all.

It would be fair to say that out of the four seasons of Rush, season one will always remain my favourite. I have never been 100% sure of why this is - whether it's the fact that it was something new to watch at the time, or the storylines and characters were all new, or something else. One thing I do know for sure is that it was season one where I have probably liked Catherine's character Kerry the most. She can be rude, arrogant and aggressive, but underneath it all, she is a smart woman with a good sense of humour and funnily enough, a good heart. Kerry's somewhat obvious little 'crush' on Lawson Blake (Rodger Corser) is also an interesting aspect throughout the season, particularly from about episode three onwards. Their (sometimes combative and sometimes flirty) banter is rather funny to watch - perhaps it is one of the reasons why season one is my favourite. For some reason, the following seasons had very little banter between them which was disappointing.

In season two, the character of Kerry is given a life changing storyline: she accidentally hit and killed a cyclist with her car. Perhaps a bit of a life lesson to those viewers watching not to use your mobile phone while driving, what was really weird about this whole thing is that Kerry 'got together' with the dead man's brother, Boyd (Paul Ireland). I'm not exactly sure what the writers were thinking when they wrote this back in 2009, but it was, and still is, very strange to watch, despite Rush probably being known amongst its fans for doing the unexpected with their storylines and characters. There was a small article in TV Week magazine at the time, which hinted at a different love interest for Kerry, so perhaps the storyline with Boyd wasn't their first idea.

Season three finally introduces Kerry's much talked about son James (Ian Meadows) to the screen. He returns from New York after a number of years living there. Her happiness of having her son back in Melbourne is turned upside down though, when she finds out that he is a drug addict. Kerry being Kerry decides to deal with things on her own, and buys James drugs to help him get through the withdrawal before she can get him some help. Of course, Lawson and Christian (Kevin Hofbauer) see her leaving a drug house, and when questioned by Lawson about it, Kerry eventually admits what is happening with James. I must say that this is the first time I have seen Ian Meadows act in anything (he was in Home and Away previously - I don't watch it), but I am now a fan of him! He is an amazing young actor. Catherine's performance too, as a mother worried about her child, was great, and she was nominated for a Logie Award in 2011.

In the fourth and final season, Kerry is made head of taskforce Cicero, and promoted to Superintendent (she was previously an Inspector). She is also forced to bring in a new officer into Tactical Response, Charlie Lewis (Antony Starr), who is senior to Lawson. This causes some tension between Kerry and Lawson, though I think that Lawson knew deep down that it wasn't Kerry's decision to bring Charlie into the squad (even though it wasn't technically said on screen). She is also targeted by suspects in a murder investigation, but things go from bad to worse when James becomes the target instead, and is dumped outside Kerry's house with his finger cut off. In the last few episodes of the season, Kerry and the Tactical Response team race to find a bomb somewhere in Melbourne. When it is finally found and disarmed, everything seems to be in order until Kerry gets a phone call from someone saying that there is another bomb. The entire series finishes with Kerry looking over the Melbourne docks. I must admit I wasn't too keen on the open ending when I first watched it on television, but having watched it again, it is not actually too bad.

I have enjoyed watching Catherine play Kerry over the past few years. While I didn't always liked the storylines her character was given (such as those in season two), she was always terrific to watch.