4 out of 5

Creators:  Jane Campion, Gerard Lee

So here’s the rarity: a show that uses a plotting hook to catch the viewer and then mostly ignores the hook in favor of character focus… but does so in a completely satisfying way that somehow makes the eventual ‘meh’ resolution acceptable.  ‘Top of the Lake’ is funny, strange, true to life, lightly insightful, and at times even frightening… all attributes portrayed intentionally and professionally, meaning it is well written and well directed TV, only dropping into genre fluff for one or two super, super brief missteps.  But is it about the impregnation and then disappearance of a 12 year old girl?  Not really?  Nor is it about anything, though.  Top of the Lake succeeds – could have succeeded – almost solely on the strength of its character interactions between detective Robin (Elizabeth Moss) – who’s in town visiting her sick mum but has her stay extended by the crime – and the odd bunch of locals she’d long left behind.  Campion / Lee touch much on the gender politics of a dowdy girl trying to stake a claim amongst the boy’s club, and it’s given more and more weight as the series progresses and we learn about her history and the hierarchy of the city, with the lead officer and the disappeared girl’s father filling seemingly opposing but equally pointed ‘masculine’ corners of the evolving shape of things.  And we have Holly Hunter’s ‘gj’ the ‘leader’ of a type of safe haven for spurned women.  The skill here is that it never feels like we’re getting one side of a gender argument.  Plenty of foolishness is allowed to poke through on all sides, and as things careen into and out of violence, there’s a sobering view (expressed somewhat through gj) of this general ebb and flow of life that cannot be controlled.  But again – none of the ‘hooks’ are required for this.  It’s an excuse to get Moss to town and give her a reason to stay, and the poorly telegraphed conclusions to these elements are almost insultingly tossed in… except that the majority of the series has been represented so well that you give it a pass, maybe even thankful that they didn’t draw it out longer.  The slow tone of the series will be familiar to any BBC crime fan, but those seeking real mysteries will probably be a bit miffed.  Campion and Lee’s ‘Top of the Lake’ doesn’t necessarily bring forth any ground-shaking revelations about the nature of things, but it remains a very solid, entertaining and believable study of past and present and secrets.