The bar has been lowered. Criminal barrister, Cleaver Greene, is reckless, brilliant, self-destructive, funny and bloody minded as ever--and that's just his private life. Features all four series of the award-winning Australian drama. SERIES 1: On any single day, Cleaver Greene is described as many things. Whilst his ex-wife may call him 'unreliable', his son will call him 'a mate'. To his learned friends at the bar table he is 'a real wag', to his jurors he is 'hilarious' and to most judges he is 'an outrage'. To the Tax Office, he is 'a defendant'; to a certain brothel owner 'a legend' and to his former cocaine dealer, 'a tragic loss'. The clients he loves the most - the cases that thrill him--are those that appear to be utterly hopeless. There's something about being on the wrong side of conventional wisdom that feels right to him, be it at the bar table or the dinner table. He does whatever it takes to defend and save life's truly lost souls. And at the same time, he will struggle to save himself falling back into the abyss that has characterised most of his self-destructive adult life thus far. SERIES 2: In the second season of Rake the bar gets even lower. Sadly that epi-centre of chaos, Cleaver Greene, has learned nothing from disaster. He is in the midst of a wild affair with a woman whose position makes her a very dangerous liaison. A powerful enraged husband joins Harry-Sorry-David (Matt Day) and the still furious Scarlett (Danielle Cormack) on the list of sworn enemies of Cleaver. His deepening debts require an onerous payment plan with another dangerous woman. Not entirely convenient, as ex-wife Wendy (Carolyn Brazier) may be warming romantically. And then there's Missy (Adrienne Pickering) gone, but with an undiminished capacity for surprise. Cleaver pushes the loyalty of Barney (Russell Dykstra) and Nicole (Kate Box) as he defends suicide bombers, psychotic schoolgirls, a pedantic chameleon, an international pariah and a serial bobbitter allegedly. SERIES 3: In Series Three, Cleaver languishes in prison, facing the consequences of his crimes and misbehaviours, while he awaits the outcome of his appeal. When the conviction is quashed at last, he discovers his world has grown even more chaotic in his absence. The proliferation of Royal Commissions, inquiries and corruption trials requires so many barristers, even Cleaver can find work. Over the series, Cleaver Greene finds himself inadvertently at the heart of a billion dollar moral, political and criminal dilemma. SERIES 4: Last seen dangling from a balloon drifting across the Sydney skyline, Cleaver Greene crashes back to earth--literally and metaphorically, when he's propelled through a harbourside window into the unwelcoming embrace of chaos past. Twisting and weaving the stories of the ensemble of characters we've grown to love over three stellar seasons, Season 4 of Rake continues the misadventures of dissolute Cleaver Greene and casts the fool's gaze on all levels of politics, the legal system, and our wider fears and obsessions.
