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 café, 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.
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