MPSIB

Elsewhere: IMDb

The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this series is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

A police unit in Australia tries to solve missing persons cases. The show focuses on three officers working from an office.

datedslowseriousmelodramaticconfusedstageyheavy-handedcontrived

What happens

MPSIB is an Australian television series that aired on ABC in 1982-83. It featured Michael Preston, Peta Toppano and Barry Quin as officers in the Missing Persons Special Investigation Bureau (or Branch). Reception of the opening episode was negative. The Sydney Morning Herald's Susan Orr wrote "A fairly superficial and confused drama but some convincing acting from the leading characters, especially Mike Preston" Jacqueline Lee Lewes of The Sun-Herald wrote "The script is over-plotted and contrived, the dialogue heavy-handed, the action stagey and the acting shallow." Michael Shmith of the Age was also critical but wrote "MPSIB may well mature into a fine series as the weeks go by. It may well be that this first episode has been designed as a familiarisation course, and the characters might be less obviously detailed in future episodes. We shall see ..." Mike Carlton later wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald "The ABC drama department in Sydney has unwisely produced this little number and even more ill-advisedly actually decided to screen it, after the news on Fridays." In The Sydney Morning Herald it made Denis O'Brien's list of worst three shows for 1982. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.