'Bruce' is the darkly funny web series taking on Australia's convict past

Growing up in Australia, there was a certain deference when learning about the first European settlers in the country at school. Even though it was likely a nasty concoction of death, filth, swearing and orgies.

That's a combination you'll get in Bruce, anyway. It's a dark comedy that doesn't hide away from the brutality and absurdity in the life of the first convicts of Australia. The new web series follows the story of hapless Bruce, who follows his soulmate to Australia by getting himself arrested, but fails to rekindle their love.

Instead Bruce has finds himself in a maniacal hell hole led by incompetent navy officials, sharing a camp with public mastubators and rat eaters. Let's just say your primary school teachers won't be impressed.

"We all know that the English didn't send the smartest guy halfway around the world to create a penal colony that Captain Cook found 50 years earlier ... it's ripe for comedy," producer Jason Byrne told Mashable.

"You only need to read the history to see the absurdity in what we've been taught at school, so Bruce is a really great way to lampoon it."

While the redcoats and convicts are totally buffoonish, it's the Gadigal people of the local Indigenous nation that are the real heroes.

"They're a bit cooler and more comfortable than the convicts and redcoats standing in heavy woollen tunics in 35 degree heat," Byrne said.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Byrne partnered up with director Tony Rogers for Bruce, following on from their 2014 hit How To Talk To Australians. It's the intention for both series to get picked up by a television network.

"Both those projects look to be made in the traditional form, which is to aim for free-to-air support. We turn to web series as a way for proving that both these projects are good and have footing," Byrne said.

"We've been developing stuff for quite a few years now, and an online platform gives us a chance to get it out there front of an audience. And also assess it, basically telling us whether it's any good or not," Rogers said.

Bruce also has a pretty top notch Aussie cast, featuring Angus Sampson (Mad Max: Fury Road, Fargo), Richard Davies (Offspring, Bed Of Roses) and Dave Lawson (Utopia, The Heckler).

You can check out the series here on YouTube.