Getty Patrick Brammall, the star of Glitch.
You can’t blame fans of the supernatural Australian/Netflix series, Glitch, for wanting to book a trip to the Australian Outback. Such is the quaint charm of Yoorana, Australia, the rural town that welcomes The Risen in the show. Stop reading if you don’t want to run across spoilers.
That has some viewers wondering: Is Yoorana, Australia real? Unfortunately, the answer is, no. Yoorana is a fictional community that’s about as real as the possibility that a cop’s wife could crawl out of her grave and come back from the dead. But you never know, right?
Glitch, a gothic mystery, is “set in the fictional country town of Yoorana,” reports TV Tonight. According to TV Tonight, Glitch filmed in “Melbourne and around Victoria.” Indeed, the made-up town of Yoorana is supposed to be set in Victoria.
The show wasn’t a Netflix original, although its two seasons are now available through the online streaming service. “Glitch is produced by Matchbox Pictures with the assistance of Screen Australia, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Film Victoria and NBCUniversal. The series is being sold internationally by NBCUniversal,” TV Tonight reports.
According to The Daily Beast, “Glitch is new only to American audiences, as it originally premiered on Australian television in July 2015—although as was recently announced, Netflix has already signed on to not only be its exclusive global home, but to co-produce its (greenlit) second season.” Season 2 is now available to stream on Netflix.
In case you haven’t seen it, in a nutshell, Glitch opens with the Yoorana town cop, James Hayes, compellingly played by Patrick Brammall, stumbling upon six people emerging from their graves in the local cemetery.
It turns out that each person died years ago, including James’ own wife, Kate (Emma Booth). They don’t look like Walking Dead zombies, though; they look like they used to, only they’ve lost most memories of their lives and remember nothing about being dead. In season two, Patrick and The Risen begin to unravel the mystery of their revival. More than a zombie show, Glitch also is part Harlequin novel or Lifetime movie, as James struggles to balance his feelings of love for the lost and now returned Kate with the new love he’s found with her best friend, his heavily pregnant second wife. Is it possible to love two people? Or must he choose? These become the pressing questions in the lives of the characters.
Each of the characters – some murdered or dead for more than 100 years – ends up in a personal melodrama, delivering an emotional impact that is as addicting as the science.
The backdrop for all of this is Yoorana, and the Australian town’s history takes front and center through the eyes of the characters who’ve been dead the longest, especially. An interracial romance between the town’s first Risen mayor and an aboriginal woman leads him investigate the strands of his present-day family and awakens even more interest in the viewer about the Australian town, with its war statues and history and antiquated hotel.
However, a visit to Yoorana is not to be, sadly, save for through the computer or television screen. You could always visit Victoria, though. Here are some of the best things to visit if you do.