Underbelly was a critical and ratings success, being described as "Australia's best ever crime drama". The opening double episodes, which aired on 13 February, attracted an average of 1,320,000 viewers nationally, minus Victoria.Every episode of the 13-part series was soon made available for download on a range of sites, with the Nine Network saying it was considering legal action.[11] The legal DVD of Underbelly was released on 8 May 2008, a day after the final episode was aired on television. Due to the legal suppression, the release was not able to be distributed through any retail or rental outlets in Victoria or on the internet. The Nine Network has aired two prequels to the series, Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities and Underbelly: The Golden Mile.
[Underbelly is a fictionalised account of the events behind the Melbourne gangland war that lasted from 1995 until 2004. In the first episode, the Carlton Crew crime syndicate is introduced, comprising stand-over man Alphonse Gangitano (Vince Colosimo), Domenic "Mick" Gatto (Simon Westaway), loanshark Mario Condello (Martin Sacks), retired bank robber Graham Kinniburgh (Gerard Kennedy) and drug-dealing siblings Jason and Mark Moran (Les Hill and Callan Mulvey) and their father Lewis (Kevin Harrington). Jason Moran's seemingly harmless and half-witted driver Carl Williams (Gyton Grantley) is also introduced, along with two police characters; Steve Owen (Rodger Corser) and Jacqui James (Caroline Craig), the most prominent members of Task Force Purana.
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