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Snakes In The Ball Pit => How I choose to spend my time => TeeVee => Topic started by: chai tea latte on October 03, 2013, 06:00:22 am

Title: [TV] Top Of The Lake
Post by: chai tea latte on October 03, 2013, 06:00:22 am
Logline: A detective investigates the disappearance of a 12-year-old pregnant daughter of a local drug lord.

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/af/Top_of_the_Lake_title_card.jpg)
Top Of The Lake a spectacular 7-episode miniseries. A bunch of people who know what they're talking about with regards to TV have drawn very favourable comparisons to Twin Peaks, which if you've not seen Twin Peaks is a seriously ringing endorsement. But it's also not just Twin-Peaks-but-different; director Jane Campion weaves an actually pretty incredible tale and the performances by the actors (especially lead Elisabeth Moss, holy shit if nothing else the entire show is worth it just for her work alone) are across-the-board fantastic, as is the cinematography (New Zealand is gorgeous as heck).

If you have an SA account, the TVIV thread (http://orums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3539515) has a pretty good writeup in the OP (and eventual replies with potential spoilers, so watch for that too). The plot summary is especially good so I'm going to excerpt it here:


Top of the Lake, which has already aired in New Zealand and even screened at the Sundance Film Festival, centers on an investigation into the pregnancy of Tui, a 12-year-old girl living in a small New Zealand mountain town. Called in to assist is Robin Griffin (Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss, sporting a solid Kiwi accent), a Sydney-based sex crimes specialist who happened to be in town visiting her ailing mother. There are, as expected, a couple of wrinkles; for one thing, Tui's father Matt Mitcham (Peter Mullan) is a violent drug lord who holds some sway with the local police, including Robin's temporary partner Al Parker (David Wenham).

For another, shortly after Robin's initial talk with Tui, she goes missing. The ensuing Hell that breaks loose propels Robin into a direct confrontation with the demons she's lived with all her life as she throws herself into the search for the girl.

And watching from the sidelines is GJ (Holly Hunter, reuniting with her Piano director), a woman running a commune called Paradise that Matt Mitcham will stop at nothing to snatch away.



NB: The way tumblr treats trigger warnings is fucking awful but nevertheless this show is definitely a lot about rape and child abuse so, uh, be mindful of that. Also the American re-cut turned six one-hour episodes into seven 50-minute episodes so sometimes episodes end at weird places. It's still good, though.
Title: [TV] Top Of The Lake
Post by: chai tea latte on October 03, 2013, 06:05:49 am
Also, it's on Netflix (http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Top_of_the_Lake/70267274?trkid=2361637&leid=534).