It centres on the deeply flawed character of a brilliant Sydney barrister, Cleaver Greene, an alcoholic, sexaholic, drug addicted womaniser and compulsive gambler. His marriage has ended, though he finds it hard to admit it. He tries desperately to be a good father to his teenage son whom he genuinely loves -- but just doesn't have the ability to do so.
What is clear in episode after episode is just what a mix of the good and bad can coexist in a person. Cleaver is passionately committed to the law, to the pursuit of justice particularly for those who are being given the rough end of the stick by the system. He'll go to any ends, however dodgy, to achieve that. And all the while his personal life staggers from one crisis to another. He knows how to give, but not how to accept the help he needs from those who love him. Cleaver is both a blessing and a curse to those around him.
RAKE is a parable. It is told in bold strokes, its characters painted bigger than life to make a point. Just as the Lord's parables of the Prodigal Son, the Lost Sheep and the Unfaithful Servant were similarly exaggerated lest we miss the point.
We should never write anyone off. However much of the bad we see, it may well be hiding from us the redeeming grace of the good struggling to be set free. Who knows but what a helping hand rather than a condemning word might achieve? RAKE reminds me powerfully that God never gives up on any one of us, however flawed!
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