The Cut is a new sports management comedy drama currently showing on the ABC network in Australia. The six part series follows the adventures of Sports Agent ‘Wild’ Bill Telford, who has recently been hospitalized due to a bomb blast whilst on holidays in Bali. Upon his return to Australia and waking from his coma, he discovers that his son, Andrew, has been handling affairs in his absence. What his son discovers is that Bill has been running a shady operation. In the opening episode we discover that Bill and his star client, Falcons player Jason Kerslake are involved in match fixing that could bring down the entire football club. Other issues explored so far include performance enhancing drugs and sexual assault. As you can probably tell this series focuses on the murky side of Athlete Representation.
Wild Bill is played by legendary Australian actor John Wood, who fits the role perfectly. Bill is a selfish character who is motivated by money, and this is further proved by his gambling addiction. His son is clean cut, and has ditched the opportunity of working for the U.N. to help his family.
The show itself does not provide the best representation of the business, as it over dramatizes many stereotypes associated with sports management. Bill has no accounting records and as far as you can tell no accreditation to represent in specific sports. He is also the sole representative of athletes over a multitude of sports, something that would be near impossible to do. The show takes all of the worst possible situations with a positive ending.
However, as they say, never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
The show is fun, and unpredictable which makes for a good show. There’s no million dollar parties, Maserati’s or flashy diamond rings – instead there’s Ford Falcons, Pokies and Pub meals. The show is set in Sydney, which provides a fantastic landscape for the series.
So overall I recommended The Cut, if anything, about what not do in the Athlete Representation business, as Wild Bill is no Angel.
The ABC website has some episodes available for streaming through their iView feature, so check it out here.