Top of the Lake - Top of the Lake – China Girl

If it weren't for Kidman, I wouldn't be coming back to the series. She may have matured and purposely chosen a rather interesting counter-role this time as a bisexual adoptive mother in an unusual mask, but someone like her doesn't need television - she's just lending her personality to a project that needs a kick to the backside after all these years. The extremely slow pace of the first series did not leave a good impression. The beautiful landscape of New Zealand was replaced by a more routine Australia and the detached crime drama could continue. While I'm glad that the basic story of the once-raped police officer Robin Griffin was finished, watching the drama with surrogate mothers and the manipulation of minors was again very challenging. Top of the Lake has once again left me with many questions about the modern family, motherhood, marriage, guilt, and forgiveness, but I sincerely hope that if there is ever another series, I won't be a part of it. The mentality on this side of the world is too different. (18/04/2019)

I have only seen the 2nd season and it is quite possible that the first season of Top the Lake is significantly better - after all, the quality of the scripts of Westworld seasons 1 and 2 is divided by at least half a galaxy - but after a disappointing experience with China Girl, I don't have the slightest courage to risk a collision with something so clumsily written. It is a mystery to me how the series deserves such wide publicity because when watching the series characters, I felt as if Saga Noren's psychiatric diagnosis from The Bridge series was a contagious disease and an epidemic broke out among the antipodes. I practically always had a feeling of inappropriateness, and the behavior of the characters lacked internal logic and their emotional reactions were strange, as if influenced by drug intoxication. Jane Campion is not a skillful storyteller, but everything cannot be attributed to stylistic flaws. During the attack of the wild wheelchair user, I had the impression that the creative tandem openly made fun of me. Of all the feminist works of the last decade, which conjugate gender in every way, China Girl appears to me to be unquestionably the weakest and fails as a crime thriller as well as a social drama. The only bright spot was the presence of the likable and unique Elisabeth Moss in the lead role. With a different script, her casting could have meant a victory. Overall impression: 25%. (17/10/2018)