About the show
The show centres around four main characters who are members of an elite taskforce in Auckland combining police and customs officers. Despite being an elite force, they are, as their commander Ron Maddock (Stephen Hall) remind them, underfunded, under-resourced and under the hammer. Because of this the Roughies (as they are called) have to make sure that they perform exceptionally well to avoid being canned, as they are, after all, an experiment. The Roughies are Detective Sergeant Danny Wilder (Nicholas Coghlan), Senior Customs Officer Jane Durant (Zoe Naylor), Detective Constable Zach Wiki (Mark Ruka) and Noel Bullerton (Nick Kemplen).
Each episode concerns a police or customs enquiry carried out by the taskforce, often of a high-risk nature.
The first episode deals with child trafficking from China. Jane decides to adopt one of the trafficked children, Tao Li, but several episodes later Tao is taken back to China, leaving Jane once again childless. There is also a romance that gradually develops between Danny and Jane, culminating in a kiss discovered by Maddock.
The first season ends with Jane being taken hostage by a homosexual Greek criminal and being shot in the stomach. It is uncertain whether she survives. Danny manages to track down the shooter in Melbourne and kills him.
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