Third Underbelly focuses on Sydney's sleaze

Brimming with strip clubs, standover men and dirty cops, Nine's Underbelly is back with a third series that is both slick and entertaining.

Set in the heart of Sydney's sleazy nightclub district of Kings Cross, the popular underworld series appears to have settled at last in its natural home and follows the rise and rise of colourful identity John Ibrahim in the 1980s and 1990s.

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The first episode of Underbelly: The Golden Mile opens in dramatic fashion with a 17-year-old Ibrahim gushing blood from his chest after being stabbed.

Ibrahim is played by the virtually unknown Firass Dirani, who appeared in last year's independent Australian film The Combination and is sure to be one of the breakaway success stories of the series.

Full of on-screen charisma, Dirani portrays a charming and cheeky young Ibrahim who simply can't wait to finish school and exploit the opportunities of the Cross where the streets are "paved with gold".

Taken under the wing of racing identity George Freeman (Peter O'Brien) who declares him "too pretty and too small to be the toughest, but smart enough to be the smartest", Ibrahim soon owns his own nightclub despite not being old enough to drink a beer in it.

The second episode introduces the desperate and innocent waitress Kim Hollingsworth, played by rising star Australian model turned actor Emma Booth.

Viewers are sure to warm to the vulnerable Hollingsworth as she turns to prostitution to escape an abusive relationship.

Booth, who starred in Clubland and is set to appear alongside Sienna Miller in Hippie Hippie Shake, is a real casting coup for Nine and makes a compelling character.

Old faces from previous series also make an appearance, including former teenage soap star Dieter Brummer, who plays Det-Sgt Trevor Haken and is seen cruising down the main drag of Kings Cross collecting wads of cash from drug dealers in a lunchbox.

The usual topless strip club scenes and brutal incidents of violence are all present in the latest series, but the latest offering feels no more or less sensational that its predecessors.

Underbelly: The Golden Mile promises to set a faster pace than A Tale of Two Cities and may just bring back the spark of the explosive first series set in Melbourne's underworld.