The life of Melbourne gangster Mark 'Chopper' Read will be turned into popular culture... again. Credit:Simon Schluter It was the year Australian television was about to get a ground-breaking new series called Underbelly. There hadn't been anything like it on TV for years. Not since Blue Murder had Aussie TV hosted a crime show that wasn't hammy or far fetched. The exploration of Melbourne's gangland wars, based on a series of books by Fairfax journalist John Silvester and his former colleague Andrew Rule, was well made, well delivered and Australia loved it. The off-screen antics were almost as exciting as the series itself. Injunctions sought from the Department of Public Prosecution and Supreme Court hearings that eventually found the series couldn't be shown in Victoria.

Colosimo was nominated for a silver Logie for his portrayal of Melbourne gangland figure Alphonse Gangitano in Underbelly in 2008. Bootleg DVDs for sale in Melbourne carparks, pirated copies of the show on the internet… there were even rumours that certain Melbourne pubs were showing locked-in screenings of the show so hungry Victorians could get their fill of the drama the rest of the nation was talking about. But like everything in Australian television, if something works the life must be squeezed from it as quickly and fiercely as possible Things started to go pear shaped from Underbelly: Golden Mile. The credits had barely finished rolling before Nine and the show's producers, Screentime, were scratching their heads like an ice-addict on a bender, trying to come up with the next iteration.

A Tale of Two Cities came next, exploring the drug trade in the regional New South Wales town of Griffith, followed by The Golden Mile, which took us to Kings Cross. Then things went weird and desperate and we went back to the 1920s to take a look at the Razor Gangs and Squizzy Taylor with a little trip to more recent times in Underbelly: Badness and the antics of Anthony Perish. Nine has resuscitated the Underbelly franchise. As Nine desperately grasped for fresh ideas for the Underbelly franchise, viewers desperately grasped for just about anything else to watch. If you missed those last three, you weren't alone. As Nine desperately grasped for fresh ideas for the Underbelly franchise, viewers desperately grasped for just about anything else to watch.

Gyton Grantley as Carl Williams in Underbelly. Credit:ghassall@fairfaxmedia.com.au When the curtain fell on Squizzy Taylor in 2013, Nine decided to rest the show with 2014 arriving without a new Underbelly. Nine's golden goose appeared to be cooked as they sunk their energy into a revolving schedule of reality television. Despite a stellar performance from Danielle Cormack, Underbelly: Razor failed to match the success of earlier seasons of the franchise. Credit:Nine But now we are left asking ourselves whether, when they rested Underbelly, they should have allowed it to rest in peace.

On the weekend the network announced the defibrillator pads had been applied to the franchise and Underbelly would be resuscitated. Four years after we last endured the tits and ass the series was notorious for, Aaron Jeffrey will cut off his ears (not actually, hopefully) and play Australia's most notorious gangster-cum-visual artist Mark 'Chopper' Read. "But wait!" I hear you say. "Hasn't Chopper been extensively canvassed in that iconic Australian movie Chopper, already?" Why, yes it has. The film, which starred Eric Bana in one of his most memorable performances, gave us 90 uninterrupted minutes of Chopper fun using Mr Read's own autobiography as its touchstone.

The film was released in 2000 and, since then, old Chopper didn't do an enormous amount of criminal activity to my understanding. In fact, he seemed to have spent the last few years of his life painting and doing speaking tours, which is quite different to crime. Unless you have heard any of his speaking engagements, in which case you may think he is committing a different sort of crime. But nonetheless, Nine insists this is "Chopper as you've never seen him". And you know what. I am prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt here. Despite the Melbourne gangland violence being extensively poured over in the media, Nine's telling of it was, indeed, extraordinary.

While they probably didn't introduce any new information, the first series was incredible television and managed to not overcook a fairly well-cooked time in Australian history. And they had five more series to make their mistakes and four years to learn from them. While it could be seen as a cynical ploy to fulfil their Australian content quota with a brand that still carries some fans, I would like to believe Nine actually does want to invest in a drama that recaptures the magnificence of the original series. In Australian television, where barely an original idea is ever had and everything old is new again, if the networks must recycle something from the past isn't it better to at least recycle something that was good? Rather than peering over at their neighbour's homework and copying what they have before popping a new title on it (Seven Year Switch and Married at First Sight, MasterChef and My Kitchen Rules and that dreadful crack Nine had a few years ago, The Block and House Rules and Renovation Rumble), wouldn't we prefer to them to go and grab an old assignment that earned an A+ and rewrite it a little to get the same grade again?

While it would be preferable to come up with new ideas (Love Child, Wanted and Offspring being fine examples from each commercial network on how original ideas can be hugely successful) the less cynical grabs for viewers eyeballs, by offering a bland diet of exactly what everyone else is having, the better. And while we all might have let out a collective groan when Underbelly: Chopper was announced, just remember, it might be as good as the first one. Let's cross our fingers.