Jane Campion - TOP OF THE LAKE

This is dope

do the american actors in this do kiwi accents?

Elizabeth moss does, its pretty good! Meanwhile a nz actor that i recognise does an american accent

Everyone loves jane campion right? She is the best

yeah i totally love her. excited for this.

she's done enough good stuff that I can forgive The Piano.

have been informed that her Keats movie is mad underrated - confirm/deny?

Definitely not underrated from my perception of it...it's justly highly rated as I see it. And so many nominally un-film people that I've known have raved to me about it.

it's amazing. pretty unique!

The BBC annoyingly still haven't announced a premiere date for this even though they co-produced it. They've had a "coming soon" holding thing on their site for almost 6 months. Why would they not go day-and-date with the States in this day and age?

cool thread title. everyone who searches for 'campions' is gonna be richly rewarded

campions, campions, ol, ol, ol

After 2 episodes I'm hooked. Moss, Hunter and Mullan all bring it and GJ is hysterically funny at times.

have been informed that her Keats movie is mad underrated - confirm/deny?

the reviews were excellent, and, yes, it's her best after TPOAL.

underrated in the popular 'hey I saw a great movie recently' discourse - it did seem to go under the radar a bit in the UK

although Davek has directly contradicted that upthread so what do I know

This is great!

<3

yeah this is good

Everyone loves jane campion raymond right?

episode and commercial breaks seem pretty un-TV-ish, just dropped in at the required moments in time.

Dikembe Mutombo commercial insert so sudden that my wife and I briefly thought it was part of the show ("why is he bothering the cops?!?!")

Such a great show. This week's episode, and the scene between Robin and Al in particular, was devastating.

schwantz knows.

really is no one else watching this???

I am still trying to work out how the beeb co-produce a classy joint like this and IT ISN'T EVEN ON THE FUCKING TELLY. Might as well divert my TV license money to the torrent sites you fucks.

Last episode was amazing. Easily the best show on TV right now.

Edge of seat on Johnno non-reveal. Just incredible acting on this show by pretty much everyone (love that Campion got the lead from Sweetie back after all these years too).

so many great scenes in that episode

i've been recording it but haven't watched any of it yet.

I'd suggest waiting till it's done and marathoning it.

MUST WATCH IN HD. I only get Sundance in SD on TV, but it is in HD On-Demand, and it's night and day. Such beautiful photography and scenery.

^good tip, yea id been a lil disappointed w/ it's murkiness in SD

im not over-the-moon on this like the rest of yous, but i do like it

The BBC annoyingly still haven't announced a premiere date for this even though they co-produced it. They've had a "coming soon" holding thing on their site for almost 6 months. Why would they not go day-and-date with the States in this day and age?

― She Got the Shakes, Saturday, March 23, 2013 12:31 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark

BBC are infuriatingly enigmatic when to comes to telling you when a show is airing. It's like they want me to pirate their shows

Show feels so out of nowhere to me. The Sundance Channel? New Zealand? Really digging it, though marathoning the first three in a row left me rattled at the end.

The beeb are fucking idiots. It is great is this series and four episodes in, only people who use torrent sites have seen it in the UK.

if enough ppl were watching this i would make this a poll (from wiki p)

Consistent images and themes in series

Dogs
Mounted deer heads
Water
Family
Good versus evil in an "end of the world paradise"[8]
Guilt
Objectification
Parenting
Religion
Violence against women

elizabeth moss is v good in this, im sad the finale is nxt wk apparently

cool thread title. everyone who searches for 'campions' is gonna be richly rewarded

― turds (Hungry4Ass), Saturday, 23 March 2013 00:49 (2 weeks ago) Permalink

I still lol at this whenever I scroll past it

now on netflix instant

feel like maybe it needs to say 'police procedural tv show' in the title of the thread, then ilx might be on board

(also could do with an apostrophe)

jesus christ @ the last like 10 mins of this

I called it. Not too early though.

MASSIVE SPOILER

So Al or one of his pedo friends was really the father of Tui's baby, right? The DNA results were just him trying to wrap things up nicely for Robin. They don't spell it out, but that's the obv implication?

Yes.

I could have gone for a little decompression/denouement time after that set of reveals at the end.

yea agreed. it also felt a little cut too fast for me in places throughout, i wonder if they had time problems

I'm also under the impression that it was originally edited in six parts, but was re-edited into seven? Can't seem to confirm that, though.

Are we to assume that Al raped Robin when she was passed out after he drugged her? Or did he think he was being better than that?

I thought she was going to realize what happened when she drank a bottle of vodka and was still somewhat lucid, but had passed out from some wine at Al's.

I was sure before that when she went to the cafe and al was showing off the kids to the visitors.

Definitely some open questions at the end (not that that's a bad thing). Not sure why Al would lie about Matt NOT being Johnno's father, but yeah, Matt wasn't Tui's rapist.

I like the big bottle labeled ROOFIES on Al's countertop.

I also like GJ all-of-a-sudden getting interested in the stock market and bailing on all the "crazy bitches."

All told, though, a really powerful show. Had me in tears a few times, the photography was so gorgeous, and all of the characters were fascinating.

Are we to assume that Al raped Robin when she was passed out after he drugged her? Or did he think he was being better than that?

I don't think he did because only somebody capable of doing that kind of evil would make an issue out of not doing it on one occasion. If you had a friend staying around you wouldn't say 'you were in a state last night, but kudos to me I never raped you'. But he has made a biggie out of the fact he didn't rape her on a couple of occasions which almost suggests he wished he had or it was his usual MO.

I like the big bottle labeled ROOFIES on Al's countertop.

I suppose that is an allusion to how complacent institutional abusers tend to be? They are authority figures and will never get caught.

Good series J Campion.

have they announced a dvd release?

thanks for the netflix heads up; i was having trouble figuring when i'd see this. yay early streaming!

At first I thought the ROOFIES bottle was ridiculous in a bad way, then I thought it was ridiculous in a good way. Kind of like them talking about Blue Velvet. The show had a strange sense of humor. When Robin found Jamie's bottle, it said rohypnols. No reason this one couldn't also. I feel like it was a case of them being like "look how nonchalant and blatant this is".

Al's performance in the final scene was just amazing. I felt like he walked this line of being totally high and cocky and confidant in his strength and inability to get caught while also realizing it was now over and there was only one way it could end.

It was ridiculous in the same way that a 12 year old girl giving birth in the woods by herself and then looking totally perfect 5 minutes later is ridiculous.

watched first ep, hooked. who was in the tent with the dude at the end of the ep?

this was so great

i liked this but more for the acting and atmosphere and occasional weirdness (esp. the holly hunter scenes) than the plot. the twists and overall mystery resolution were so telegraphed.

That didn't bother me. Crazy blindsiding plot twists usually feel forced to me anyway. I LIKE that we could figure out what was going on along with Robin.

thank the lord this thread title no longer torments me

yr wlcm

agree that first ep was all atmosphere and mystery and by the second we're given standard fare: obvious suspect, gunplay, men not listening to women in authority, etc. still worth it though.

cool thread title. everyone who searches for 'campions' is gonna be richly rewarded

― turds (Hungry4Ass), Saturday, 23 March 2013 00:49 (2 weeks ago) Permalink

I still lol at this whenever I scroll past it

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Thursday, 11 April 2013 00:24 (1 month ago) Permalink

almost done watchin these and the series is great and all but the old title and the h4a post kind of ruined everything for me because every now and then while watching this I just think "campions"

totally missed that this thing even existed, glad it's on netflix, queued up

We just finished this, liked it a lot. I mostly agree with this:

i liked this but more for the acting and atmosphere and occasional weirdness (esp. the holly hunter scenes) than the plot. the twists and overall mystery resolution were so telegraphed.

But I think the plot and the twists had some interesting choreography, which had to do with the weird specifics of geography and culture. Everything is so raw, civilization on the edge of barbarism, so things that would seem implausible in other settings -- like sort of suspecting someone might be a murderer one day, but then hanging out drinking with them the next -- seem like just part of the way of life. And it's a very restrained show. It keeps threatening to build up to big explosive payoffs, but then turns aside. And when the payoffs come, they're often matter-of-fact and sometimes implied as much as shown.

Also, I want Holly Hunter's character to just start popping up in random TV shows and movies to make enigmatic pronouncements and tell people to stop being shitheads.

this is right on the edge of being GOATV and the speedy dispatch of the ending felt like it leeched a lot of the steam out of it. Still wonderful and worth recommending a dozen times over but lacking a bit.

watched it in one super fast run though, so that probably impacts the effect... i did see the ending coming about three hours away unfortunately.

I'm not sure it's supposed to be any big surprise at the end. The whole last episode for her is a series of confrontations with things she's suspected but didn't want to believe. I think that's why the show underplays the suspense except for a few scenes, it's working with a different kind of tension, which is really to do with her coming to terms with herself. The mystery is just a vehicle for that.

yeah, i generally agree with you there: i'm not saying it's a failing of the piece that the ending was obvious or that i'm a supergenius for seeing through the headfake. my issue is that the rush to sew up everything didn't leave me with time to get closure with the characters or the setting and it all felt jumbled and rushed after so much thoughtful langor. I needed about an extra hour and i think campion kind of did too.

thought this was pretty great! yeah, the ending, as is usually the case with this kind of thing, was slightly a let down, but most of it was really well done. hunter was awesome, I thought, so was elizabeth moss.

I'm not going to read this thread yet cos this is only just airing here, but this series is amazing. Up to Episode 3, best one yet. The drug sequence! The bottling! That creepy fucker Al! jesus christ

This was good, but agree that the ending felt rather compressed.

Overall I liked the lurid noir "twin peaks played straight" style of it. Holly Hunter rules.

Thomas Wright (Johnno) is currently on The Bridge, with a very odd "American" accent.

I don't want to read whole thread because spoilers, but how is the lake so dangerous?? Is the water acid? Are there vapors? I m confuse

I think it's just cold?

lol uh yeah

but also acid

Oh. The realtor died in less time than a person possibly could afaik from cold or drowning, and no one else shivers or turns blue when they go in, so I couldn't tell.

I have swum in that lake without event.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8986017/Sam-Neills-son-in-law-assaulted-bouncer

I love the mom from Outrageous Fortune. I like to think she joined the Paradise group after leaving her own crime syndicate family to fend for themselves.

i love her too, always have.

finished this last night, end was def pretty blah. I felt the same way about Broadchurch. You only have six or seven episodes, you'd think they could end these things with more than a wimp noodle! but it was mostly pretty good and had it's share of fucking weirdness that I liked (whipping at the grave, holly hunter).

Yeah, I thought the end was drippy and pointless. And when I started it, I didn't even get into the story or adjust to the pacing for a couple episodes, so the meat of the series for me was all in the middle.

holy shit this was amazing. the ending may not have been intentionally as compressed as it turned out to be but imo was possibly one of those (un)happy accidents that made the denouement even better and more horrifying - a glimpse of this/did i catch that right?/is he still lying at this point? i didn't see the ending coming at all though. i'm just awed by j campion's talent.

I think you saw something else in the ending but I'm not sure what.

man i am apparently the only person in the world who thought this was terrible

you and mike hale

I am 3 episodes in and I am not too into it. Plus I really don't like Elizabeth Moss.

I loved Žižay, made the whole series worth it.

that was the holly hunter character right? she was amazing. wish there was way more of her. or a sequel about what she gets up when she ditches their asses.

yeah. I thought there was just enough of her. Everything out her mouth was so cutting and severe as to make her seem metafictional, an alien on the show. As for the rest of the series, I'm always up for a bout of "all men are bullshit" so I loved it too.

i totally thought holly hunter's character was just too much, just wasn't credible, until http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/jul/06/jane-campion-this-much-i-know

the character's name is G.J. but it took me a while to catch that.

some dumb shit in his review but i do agree with quite a bit of it

i think i was ruined by expectations -- if i had read this thread first rather than all the exclamations of MASTERPIECE ALERT GOLDEN AGE OF TELEVISION STRIKES AGAIN i'd be able to appreciate it a tiny bit. then again i'm pretty sure campion thinks it's a minor masterpiece so

er, that was about mike hale's NYT review, forgot to ctrl-v max's post i guess

tbh I haven't seem much fawning praise for this, certainly not compared to true detective, which is similar in a lot of ways and which I also love so fat

so fat

http://i.imgur.com/m4XOF.jpg

otm

this showed in one sitting at Linc Ctr last weekend, I will opt for my couch sometime soon

even just watching the first four eps in one sitting was exhausting. best with breaks.

this kind of never hooked me. the drifty campion-ness and a cop procedural are both fine but together it didn't really gel

if i was 'hooked' it was bcz the arbitrary forced ep breaks would come at the worst possible moments and create unintentional cliffhangers

i am across the road from the side of the lake, it is ridiculously beautiful.

i really enjoyed this. i would like to watch again; i think there are probably things i missed the first time through, especially in some of the early episodes. it took me a while to get into the weird non-rhythm.

i wish we lived in a world where this got half the acclaim and attention of true detective

we nearly live in that world, if say, this had been on hbo and TD was on sundance channel or wherever

irrc last ep of this at least as problematic as TD! but yeah this was real good.

Really liked the ending. The (SPOILER) clichéd death of the big baddy being almost immediately undercut by the reveal of the true evil.

http://i.imgur.com/bHjalw7.png

just finished this last night after traversing it over three nights. Really liked it a lot. Not a masterpiece, not quite, but excellent and probably worth a rewatch.

Holy crap the lady bankrolling the Paradise retreat was Sweetie? Mind blown. That was my first Campion movie eons ago.

This had something I really love when I come across it in films or series which is a wayward tone that doesn't come across as trying too hard to be wayward. When this kind of thing falls off the fence it can be just quirky but when it has that ineffable 'life does not behave' refusal to be any one thing, I really dig that a lot.

Al, to me, looked like Jamie Lannister after giving up combat for 20 years.

A cliche note that annoyed: must all mega-evil european monsters always be listening to opera or classical music? As a non-monstrous lover of CM, I'm pretty sick of this trope ffs.

first three EPs good not great IMO but enjoying moss and the slowness and mullah.

I didn't like it until the middle episodes, then I got really invested and was disappointed by the ending.

i like parts of this well enough, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth after it was all over. the plot had so many, not holes exactly (though there were a few major ones) but just credibility problems. it's like the filmmakers were so focused on subtext-become-text that they couldn't care much about the mystery plot.

it eventually became difficult to believe the characters after while, which is a crucial thing for a series so obviously character-driven. but i also am just sensitive to failures of form, and this had plenty of them. it clearly wasn't really conceived as a TV series, since the individual episodes had little structure, and the placing of the episode breaks really broke up some of the narrative rhythms. why would you make a TV series and put so little effort into structuring it serially?

it was nice to see a TV show with some visual style that at times was actually subtle and sophisticated and not just showy.

the show had a ton of virtues, no doubt, but i guess i felt like the filmmakers had so little interest in the mechanics of the mystery plot that eventually it just translated as contempt for their audience to me...

but you know i kind of felt the same way about in the cut.

http://i.imgur.com/bHjalw7.png

and yeah this is a good example of a moment where i was just like, "jesus christ! try a little harder."

also since al was lying about everybody else does that mean the elizabeth moss character and johnno _are_ indeed half-siblings? and are going to go on fucking each other? if that was meant to be some kind of disturbing lingering thing then the pacing of the last episode fucked it way up.

no i'm pretty sure those two are supposed to have their legit happy ending together which is just as dumb

not because they don't deserve awwww happiness hearts but because it's like the biggest "try a little harder" in the whole show

this could be a poll

i'd be most impressed if they found out there were, indeed, half-siblings and were like, "whatever." but the fact that the show failed to resolve this--not necessarily in a satisfying way, just in a formally coherent way--is symptomatic of its problems IMO.

since incest is a major theme of the show, dealing with this plot point in a way that suggest the directors/writers were on top of things—as opposed to letting their plotting get away from them—would seem kind of important.

again, since i fear i'm unclear above: if we were supposed to infer that al was lying about them not being half-siblings (but why would he bother?), and if so the fact that unbeknownst to the elizabeth moss and johnno characters (or not?) they were committing incest -- this could be some kind of statement about how the rot that patriarchy produces is persistent and thereby refuses the "happy ending" (surely such a statement would be consistent with the series as a whole). but my not making this plot point the least bit clear, they muddled it.

on the other hand, if we're supposed to take al's revelation at face value (johnno is NOT elizabeth moss's half-brother), then it's a real, and real clunky, deus ex machina that has no anchor in anything that's come before in the series. so basically either way they fucked it up.

endings are important.

Bottom line for me is that i was sure the funding for this was curtailed and that the final ep was supposed to be two, maybe three additional eps. The pacing is so smart and methodical for so long and then it gets ridiculous at the end and falls apart

funding would not likely have been curtailed in the middle of production of a mini-series. unlike with series TV, they almost certainly were not working on later episodes as early ones were aired. i'm sure it was all in the bag before broadcast. anyway, usually funding is secured before hand. unless you have some evidence to support that, i'd assume that the rushed and muddled quality of the later episodes was due to creative failures.

my point about not working on later episodes as earlier ones were broadcast was to say that they weren't necessarily working on the ending if/when funding were reduced (which is, in any event, probably not what happened). all other things being equal, producers usually prefer to film the ending later or even last of all, but all things are seldom equal on a film/TV set. generally scenes are shot in whatever order makes it less difficult, i.e. more efficient.

i guess i usually roll my eyes when critics (or laypeople) say things like, "the ending seemed kind of rushed, i guess they ran out of money" as though they just make the film by starting at point A and proceeding to point B until they can't afford more film (or caterers, or extras). usually if the ending is rushed it's a screenwriting problem, almost as often it's also a directing problem. or an editing problem. but not a financial problem.

The series was recut for American broadcast - yay commercials! - so that probably has quite a lot to do with pacing problems.

i didn't know that. for some reason I thought it was on HBO.

Yeah it wasn't. And this layperson didn't think that they were in the midst of filming and then had to suddenly rush the ending. I am suggesting that the original treatment was likely more leisurely and considered but to get it on the air her contract required X episodes fewer than her original plan. It is ostentatiously rushed; it is not the same craftsmanship she brings to the rest of the series. Something unwanted happened.

And incidentally, most of the murricans on here, myself included, didnt watch this recut, we watched it torrented or streaming on netflix.

i watched it on netflix fwiw

I watched it torrented, but that was also the recut version. If there is seven episodes, it's recut.

I really don't think they ran out of money. The last episode seems rushed because it starts a really weird place, give it ten minutes more and it would breathe.

yeah the netflix version is recut hence the ridiculous episode framing in the middle

finished episode 4 of 7

if i wanted 7 * 48 mins of "all white men are mindless rutting beasts" i could just take 12 mins break from this place every hour for one shift.

pls don't make me defend this shitty show

heh

still rly enjoying moss performance.

I'd assumed the 7 episode version was the better one, is that the case?

s1ocki otm, and lols forever at Mike Hale and anybody who thinks Campion doesn't write male characters well.

I don't recall any non-mutilated female characters in True Detective except for "the harlot that split the bros apart" and "make flowers in me pls"

yep, and it was a not insignificant ilx (and elsewhere) criticism iirc

I'm not criticizing True Detective, I love that series. I just find it interesting, the parallels between these two (basically) progressive, anti-patriarchal detective series. Campion kicks from the outside, Pizzolatto, Fukunaga et al. kick from within. The moment that Mike Hale described GJ as a proxy for Campion herself made me think "hm, I wonder who he'd describe as Pizzolatto's avatar? if anyone."

has anyone pointed out that matt or Anita could as easily be paralleled with gj, or am I miles out there

the way it's mined the women of paradise for mostly laughs so far seems.....off? too....

definitely going to finish it, tho the characters are becoming less well realised with detail IMO. still a welcome addition to the shelf.

lol o look a baby

lol o look the kid is now an alien lol

lol o look this chick has a song again

this is turning out farcical tbh

that baby could legally purchase alcohol in the six counties

One thing I wasn't clear on is whether we're meant to take GJ seriously. I found her irritating. It was notable to me how all the women at Paradise whose stories we know anything about were seeking solace from frustrating relationships with emotionally distant men (or, uh, male animals), and the woman they turn to is an emotionally distant peddler of pseudo-profundity who calls them all bitches.

Anyway, I liked the show. Didn't mind the rushed ending, in fact I thought it was pretty exciting, all the more for how it stood out against the pacing of the rest of the show. And it was a reminder that, for better or for worse, I never catch on to mystery plots. Everything clicks into place for me right as its happening on screen or not long before. I both do and do not envy the sort of viewer who puts it all together in advance.

agree ^ the whole paradise subplot was unsatisfying though I love Holly Hunter and am obsessed by cults. but the scene where Matt (aka Willie Nelson's evil twin) charges the gates of paradise was priceless. totally pumped for the second season.

i actually really liked the rush of the ending as well. i found it a total buzz. i felt like we were discovering the secrets at the pace Elizabeth Moss's character was, i thought it was very effective. although i hadn't guessed the denouement in advance either so i guess it hinges on that.

One thing I wasn't clear on is whether we're meant to take GJ seriously.

What I took from the series is that the explicitly female-dominated space (Paradise) and the male-dominated one (Peter Mullan's house/drug compound) are both corrupt, albeit in completely different ways and to different levels - an expression of skepticism on Campion's part towards militant or isolationist feminism, or perhaps just to the notion that matriarchal power is/would be inherently "pure" or virtuous. (The fact that GJ is styled around Campion herself adds a level of levity to the commentary imo.)

There's going to be a second season?

Yup! http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/top-of-the-lake-season-2-starts-shooting-this-year-elisabeth-moss-returns-20150723

Wasn't expecting a second season. I'll happily watch it, but it will be an entirely different show if it's not set there. (Plus the title will make no sense, but w/e.)

I guess it can be like CSI. Top of the Lake: Sydney

people really thought GJ / paradise was that bad, huh? weird

would happily watch moss in this role again tbh

huh, that's a surprise.

ive just watched this show over the last two days and i absolutely loved it. weird vibe to it with amazing performances and i liked the feminist slant to the story. BBC really dropped the ball in not giving this a bigger push.

i didnt mind the ending either tho it was obvious. as someone said upthread blindsiding rugpulls are forced and fake anyway.

“Nicole Kidman is reteaming with her Portrait of a Lady director, Jane Campion, for the second season of thriller Top of the Lake,” reports Deadline‘s Nancy Tartaglione. “Kidman’s participation has been the subject of on-and-off rumors, with the BBC confirming the casting today as the actress arrived in Sydney to begin filming with series star Elisabeth Moss.”

http://deadline.com/2016/06/nicole-kidman-confirmed-top-of-the-lake-season-two-jane-campion-elisabeth-moss-bbc-sundance-hulu-1201771609/

hmm. I could do without Kidman tbh.

otm

The Portrait of a Lady was an excellent performance, so...

Fairly easy to act like a portrait

ho ha hee

Hmmm this has started off reallllll clumsy

Top of the lake 2 obv

Our lead character and perf still great tho

ahhhhh didn't realize this was back!

haven't watched it yet, but this is the first time my license fee is presenting something to me, before it is on the torrent sites.

Wish we could just see the aftermath of robin without a big crime story background.

Fuck me, Gwendoline Christie is a very bad actress. Like, embarrassing. I guess it doesn't matter a fuck in a pseudo medieval dragons thing but it does here. Really.

I just finished watching season 1. I kind of liked the meandering nature but the Broadchurch-worthy cliches weren't good (let's go after the resident paedo first until he has an alibi). Anyone who's ever watched Neighbours knows what it means when a mother really doesn't want her daughter dating a particular boy.
Who were the peeping toms videoing Robin and Johnno on their phone (who had video evidence of Tui)? What was the point of that pathologist guy? Why can I never identify Lucy Lawless in anything?

I forget tbh.

Campion seems like a real misanthrope y/n?

who isn't these days

New season is rubbish

Men = evil creeps
Women = victims

That was totally a feature of season one!

It's clumsy alright. But so was season one!

Ok just saw that scene in episode three and I'm out. This is just fuckin preposterous

Enhhhh, I haven't seen s2 yet, but I think one of the key features of s1 was how the "male" space (the family drug compound) and the "female" space (Holly Hunter's commune) were in clear opposition but both pretty fucked up places with damaged people inhabiting them. xp

Aye deems. So stupid. I'm done

Yeah but the spaces in between were clumsily drawn and the characterisations were forgivably misanthropic but unforgivably lazy and it's all coming back to me now and if you last beyond episode three of the new one then you're seeking punishment imo

Xpost Simon H doing the job of explaining why S1 was better

I don't really buy Campion-as-misanthrope either (again having not seen s2 yet), I can't reconcile that with Bright Star for instance

Using TOTL as evidence.

Don't remember a single likeable character in it.

Certainly is nobody in the new one.

Wow, this is garbage. I'm on episode four and wondering if I should go on since I'm intrigued, not about the stupid plot with ridiculous-on-ridiculous coincidences but rather ia'm intrigued by how bad this work can get. This may be the worst thing by a well regarded filmmaker I've seen and I've seen late Wim Wenders' films.

Yep.

https://www.theringer.com/tv/2017/9/10/16281488/top-of-the-lake-china-girl-jane-campion-interview

This is, without a doubt, the worst and stupidest thing I've ever watched & by a considerable distance. Honestly, I could write 2000 words minimum about how bad this is but what would be the point? Actuallly I might because it's hysterical how bad this is. You think that the wheelchair attack with the the choking and the curtain-fire in episode three was beyond the pal? That's nothing compared to the set up where the main geeky guy who loves cinnamon has, somehow, buried himself in the sand and, somehow, placed an empty beer box over his head lying in wait for the cops to arrive ( I know , it doesn't make any sense) then shoots the big lass ( I know , it doesn't make any sense) - She ends up in a coma but it's never mentioned again then some other stuff happens and.... I don't have a clue.

Worst TV show ever made.

For what it's worth, we don't find out what happened to cinnamon, they just ignore that, for some reason.

Oi no spoilers

jk nobody is finishing this

wow, I've never seen something so roundly slagged and hated. Will avoid. I liked Season 1, kind of.

I really liked season one even tho parts annoyed me it was haunting and compelling etc

But this oh my

i will still prob try this tbh but my main chick joyce carol oates is also down on it on twitter

@JoyceCarolOates Greatly admire Jane Campion's work but we were baffled by atrocious script & acting, overwrought plot, silly "comic relief" of new Top/Lake

@JoyceCarolOates Wondering how many viewers winced as we did at the ungainly, unfunny, insulting (?) comedy hinging upon an awkward rookie female officer

@JoyceCarolOates First season of "Top of the Lake strained credulity at times but one cared about the characters, to a degree. New season, no. Have given up

i'm amazed by how many positive reviews it's had. this is otm:

http://www.theartsdesk.com/tv/top-lake-china-girl-bbc-two-series-finale-review-torpor-not-trauma

julie swetnick? justice kavanaughty? jesus christ