Saturday 24 August 2013

TV Review: TOP OF THE LAKE/THE MILL/SOUTHCLIFFE

This article was originally published in The Courier on 24th August 2013.


TOP OF THE LAKE
Saturday, BBC2

THE MILL
Sunday, Channel 4

SOUTHCLIFFE
Sunday, Channel 4

Paul Whitelaw

Over a month of gruelling misery came to a close last weekend, with the climactic instalments of three cheer-shy TV dramas. The first to disappear was TOP OF THE LAKE, writer/director Jane Campion's uneven journey into the blackened heart of a remote New Zealand community.

Anyone hoping for surprises would've been disappointed by its underwhelming conclusion. Admittedly more of a psychological thriller than a conventional whodunnit, it still felt inevitable that sleazy police chief Al was orchestrating a subterranean paedophile ring, and therefore the cause of Tui's pregnancy and disappearance. Horrifying subject matter, obviously. But Campion undermined the impact by playing her hand too early.

As the series progressed it became gradually more apparent that Tui's monstrous father, played by a rivet-gargling Peter Mullan, was a psychotic red herring. And anyone paying attention would've already sussed that he was Detective Robin's real father. Likewise, Al's undisguised corruption, children's scholarship scheme, immigrant-staffed cafĂ©, and desperate need for Robin to “redeem” him, made it all too obvious who the culprit was.

Meanwhile, the sub-plot involving the commune for abused women went nowhere. Yes, that was the point – you won't find easy answers by escaping to paradise, especially when Hell is on your doorstep – but it felt too insubstantial to allow such ambiguities.

Instead, Campion's overriding theme of violent female exploitation found its most potent voice in Robin, played impeccably – wandering accent and all - by Mad Men's Elisabeth Moss. Alas, this often implausible and lethargic drama, as atmospheric though it undoubtedly was, rarely equalled Moss's intelligent, powerful, nuanced performance.

Also impressive in a similarly demanding role was Kerrie Hayes as Esther, the serially victimised cotton worker in THE MILL. Having been torn through, well, the mill during this engrossing series, the indomitable rebel finally found her vital sense of identity in a poignant, rabble-rousing climax.

Everything BBC1's terminally dull The Village should've been, this factually-inspired period piece may have flirted with melodrama and borderline comedy-bleakness, but it ultimately succeeded as a compassionate and convincing evisceration of British slave labour during the Industrial Revolution. Writer John Fay hopes to follow the inhabitants of Quarry Bank Mill through subsequent generations. Come on, Channel 4, you know what to do.

Finally, fleetingly, SOUTHCLIFFE, the best British TV drama of 2013. If you missed it, I urge you to immerse yourself in this sensitive and devastating account of the aftermath of
a spree killing in a fictional English market town. Miserable as sin? Yes. Gratuitously so? No. It's haunting, it lingers. I promise we'll have more fun next week.

ONE TO MISS

CHICKENS
Thursday, Sky1, 9:30pm

Not even the usually welcome presence of Barry Humphries can save this uninspired sitcom from erstwhile Inbetweeners Simon Bird and Joe Thomas. Together with co-writer/star Jonny Sweet, they play young men avoiding service, for various reasons, during the First World War. Apart from its dearth of decent jokes, it suffers from Bird and Thomas' fatal lack of range. Even if they were cast as flamboyant Colombian assassins, they'd still deliver the same student-sarcasm performance. Watching the Inbetweeners bicker witlessly in an Edwardian setting is about as enticing as a poisoned egg. 

No comments:

Post a Comment