Has Jonathan LaPaglias portrayal of Anthony Perish in Underbelly: Badness frightened off TV viewe
IT'S the most terrifying and critically-acclaimed role of his career but is Jonathan LaPaglia's villianous turn on Underbelly: Badness literally scaring audiences away?
While ratings for Channel 9's crime franchise remained a respectable 990,000 people nationally on Monday night, the show has continued to slip away from the series' record returning drama launch figure of 1.78 million viewers.
Gallery: See the best pics from Underbelly: Badness
With audience figures settling down in the post-Olympics TV arena, some have suggested the grizzly nature of the latest Underbelly chapter has turned some viewers off.
And looking ahead to the series' climax - as detective Gary Jubelin (played with great intensity by actor Matt Nable) and his Strikeforce Tuno close in on their target, the murderous drugs boss Anthony Perish (LaPaglia) - the brutality will reach a new level with a child victim which will surely test some viewers.
Gallery: See the best pics of the original Underbelly series
Not so for true fans of the true crime genre, who have flooded fan sites praising Badness as the adrenalin shot needed to resuscitate the Underbelly brand (following the disappointment of Razor and The Golden Mile).
Gallery: See the best pix from Underbelly 3 - The Golden Mile
LaPaglia's performance soars on his ability to hypnotise with one chilling, unblinking glare, rather than inflict most of the bodily harm himself - a menacing gaze which will mark him in Underbelly history as perhaps its greatest villain.
See the best pics from Underbelly Razor
Is this the Underbelly to rule them all? Who is the baddest villain of them all? Join the debate below.
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