While attempting to do double duty the other night, flipping back and forth between the 2013 Emmy Awards and the Steelers/Bears game for all its fantasy football implications (For those curious, I did win this week.), a name continued and continued to stick in my mind. No, it wasn't the Pittsburgh Steelers' Antonio Brown. (Though, he was awesome.) It was the 2013 miniseries, Top of the Lake, created by Jane Campion, director of the 1993 Academy Award winning drama The Piano.
Filmed and set in New Zealand and airing earlier this year on the Sundance Channel, Top of the Lake tells the story of a detective (Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss) investigating the disappearance of pregnant 12-year-old girl. Needless to say, I was already intrigued by the fleeting glances I was able to snatch in between Ben Roethlisberger interceptions. It was as mysterious to me as the strange, Twin Peaks-esque award show clips and the critical acclaim only bolstered my need to see it. "How could this have slipped under my radar?" I asked myself. "This sounds exactly like something right up my dark, twisted alley!" I had to know more. And, as luck would have it, I would get just that chance. Glancing at my Twitter feed to see everyone's thoughts on various Emmy-related events, I caught a tweet from Netflix Instant stating how wonderful Top of the Lake was and linking to its page on their godsend of a website. "They have the whole thing!" I exclaimed silently in my head.
So here we are. And all of this was just a long, drawn out way of saying that I'm going to watch it and I'm going to tell you what I think about it. It may take a week or more to get a post up for every episode, but that's exactly what I plan to do. Maybe you'll even watch them along with me (or maybe you've already seen it) and will join me in the discussions. Either way, I hope this proves to be a fruitful excursion to the land under the land down under and I hope it's a journey you'll all make with me. So let's get cracking!
Immediately from the opening credits, with their weirdly wonderful watercolors and haunting piano, I knew my assumptions were right... kinda. The basic framework is clearly borrowed from David Lynch's early 90s cult classic - a lush setting, small town "invaded" by an outsider detective, lots of big secrets and a dead body washed ashore to boot. But this is not Twin Peaks. While there is a variety of eccentric local color, it is not abstract or Lynchian. (Save for maybe Holly Hunter as a grey-haired guru who speaks mainly in philosophical adages to her makeshift commune of troubled and/or damaged women.) What would have been strange or quirky in Twin Peaks, Washington gives way to an unnerving air of hostility and violence personified by the young girl's menacing father and his rabid but obedient sons guarded in their gated and surveilled fortress of a compound. No, this is not Twin Peaks. What Ms. Campion and her writing partner Gerard Lee have created is more akin to a feminist neo-noir, where its expansive scope of women (the detective, her cancer-stricken mother, the aforementioned commune, and perhaps most importantly the young victim) must struggle to navigate, survive and hopefully flourish in this society dominated by violent and dismissive alpha-males.
From the haunting opening scene of young Tui slowly walking into the lake, the level to which all women in this society are judged and what a sense of utter hopelessness that can breed within them is as clear as the water she finds herself in. As she stands there, shoulder deep clenching her tiny fists, the despair she feels is heartbreakingly palpable. But she is rescued by another, older woman and taken back to her school for an examination. There they find that she's pregnant and thus begins the statutory rape investigation. Robin makes some progress with Tui, but before she can follow up on literally the only scrap of evidence she has - a piece of paper that Tui has scrawled the words "No One" after questioned about the baby's father - Tui vanishes.
Near the end of the first episode, Robin (Elisabeth Moss' detective) has a quick, but important conversation with her mother that captures this dynamic. "You're a long way from any help," her mother says concerned. "I am the help," Robin replies. Not only does she have to take on the immense responsibility of being the lead on a rape/missing persons case, she must also attempt to traverse the incredibly misogynistic landscape both inside and outside of the police headquarters. Whether its being written off or insulted by officers both above and below her in rank or dealing with these (out)backwoods roughnecks who neither respect her authority nor the veracity of crimes committed against women, she is constantly forced to withstand a level of harsh judgment that would be unspeakable for a male in her exact situation.
Besides her iffy-at-times New Zealand accent, I can't think of many people more suited to play Robin than Elisabeth Moss. Her time on Mad Men have shown her commanding ability to be a strong enterprising woman. The fact that Top of the Lake is set in modern day and not in the 1960s also gives her more freedom to express her confidence and intelligence. In fact, the hostile environment in which she finds herself demands she do so or be destroyed. But, like Peggy Olsen in Mad Men, Robin's motivations remain as large a mystery as Tui's disappearance. She is driven primarily by unseen (to this early point in the series) forces and plagued by unknown vulnerabilities and her ability to elicit sympathy from the audience makes for a deep and nuanced lead that seems more than capable of carrying the series run.
The pestering sense of potential conventionality is undeniably present in this first episode. This being said, Top of the Lake looks to be an increasingly interesting whodunnit with more to say outside of what appears to be its police procedural format. If nothing else, it seems much more sure of itself than other recent productions with a similar feel such as AMC's recently cancelled The Killing. And with an intriguing central mystery (along with the promise of other reveals along the way), strong performances, and the combination of spectacularly gorgeous landscapes and impeccable cinematography, it's hard to believe Top of the Lake will simply be yet another procedural that fades into obscurity.
Until we meet again, what did you guys think?
