4 out of 5

Created by: Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan

covers season 1

Drolly funny mystery series are, like, the property of the BBC, so I don’t want to imply that Deadloch – an Aussie, 8-episode, police procedural-adjacent comedy drama – is the first of its kind, but it’s also not droll, and not slapstick (e.g. Touch of Cloth; Police Squad!), and not a kind of pantomime farce (e.g. Clue, Knives Out), and not necessarily a straight comedy drama, either. It’s definitely a mystery first, focusing on a growing line of fairly grisly killings in the fictional, titular Tasmanian town of Deadloch, which puts it on one side of all the various other related genre buckets – the side which makes sure you can hang on to the story itself (and not just the accompanying antics) and still be quite interested. But it’s also certainly very, very funny, achieved by making sure its humor isn’t derived from antics, but rather by examining the reality of the potential people in this tale and… pitching them up, ever so slightly. An easier read is that you’re surrounding straight-laced lead detective Dulcie (Kate Box) with crazy characters, like her “partner” Eddie (Madeleine Sami), or her completely oblivious girlfriend, Cath (Alicia Gardiner), or diminutive copper Abby (Nina Oyama), and so on and so on, letting us chuckle at smalltown charms, and again, that’s not an untrue take by any means, but it’s an oversimplification of how unique the show really feels: it takes its mystery seriously. It takes its characters seriously – even if many are plugged in to represent one specific attribute – and it takes its comedy seriously.

Kate has moved to Deadloch from a big city detective job at the behest of her girlfriend, Cath, and as a step towards a quieter life of settling down. But she puts that on hold – maybe willingly – when a body drops in the quiet town, with markings of being a very purposeful murder. The townies are perhaps a bit unused to handling such things, but Kate goes at it; she is then stymied when her higher ups deem this business too big for her shoulders and send down an assisting detective – Eddie. Problem is: Eddie seems to want to solve the case as quick as possible, leading to her pointing the finger at the most obvious (but also most obviously incorrect) targets.

So, again, we have a template to work with: a buddy cop series. Kate and Eddie butt heads as an odd couple, the former quite reserved and the latter making constant references to her vag, never remembering anyone’s name, walking around in Hawaiian prnit shirts and sandals, and really lax on, like, procedure. But again again, Deadloch doesn’t sink into norms of bringing these two to common ground, ’cause maybe they’re great detectives when they work together. Rather, Kate keeps trying to find clues, Eddie keeps trying to force clues, and any progress (personal or with the case) is tossed out the window when another body drops.

Deadloch is ready for bingeing. Each episode definitely stands on its own, but will leave you with such compelling whodunnit questions that you’ll want to at least peak at the next ep to see how it’s explained, and then you’re pretty hooked. Deadloch’s production sets it up as a sleepy town that gets you comfortable with the wet and cold environs, but it avoids going too broad and making it into a fairy tale land – there’s enough reality pumped in to allow the murders and investigation to have weight.

And the actors, across the board, nail it. Gardiner’s role is ridiculous, but there’s somehow also a human ticking behind it. Her balancing act of this is the most difficult one to achieve, but it’s true for the others’ parts as well. That said, you’ll spot some frustrations along the way, with the writers (led by co-creators Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan) not having enough room to fully tend to some of their commentary on sexism, classicism, and racism, leading to “let’s just say our point out loud” moments that stick out, and the character of Cath, in particular, is one-dimensional in a way that’s too clearly a shortcut to encourage Kate to dive into her work – it unfortunately never really registers why these two might be together in the first place.

These softer spots seem to necessitate a final episode “all’s well that ends well” cleanup that’s a bit cheap, but that’s truly the final minute coda, so if we never get to see these characters again – which would be a shame! – I can understand wanting to draw all their stories to a close as best as possible. And I’d probably extend that sentiment to the mystery’s resolution, as well, which circles through every red herring nigh-exhaustively, trying to keep all of the show’s more beloved characters safe… but by the time we start to get there, the writers and directors are smartly able to loosen the leash on tone somewhat, so we can lean more in to the comedy or drama as needed, to keep things feeling focused.

So by just saying that Deadloch is a comedy mystery series, yeah, you have definitely seen that before. And you might be ticking off some of those boxes when the first body is discovered, and the investigation starts, but when Eddie waddles into the squadroom, vulgar and haphazardly taking over and mixing up vocabulary and also, I dunno, where’s her soda?, you’ll get a sense of the show’s uniquely tonally mixed approach, and soon get drawn in to that web of weirdness as the hooks of the story itself dig in deeper.