I don't know how i waited so long to watch this show. Directed by Jane Campion and starring the always amazing Elisabeth Moss, the show is really worth watching. The director herself must be reason enough to watch but the story, also written by Campion, the actors, the location (New Zealand and Australia) and the photography are exquisite. And the second season was not far behind.
The mini serie's first season aired in 2013 and the first choice for detective Robin was none other than Anna Paquin, with whom Campion worked in her most acclaimed and beautiful film, 'The Piano', making Paquin the youngest actress ever to earn an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. And while it would had been nice to see her reuniting with her onscreen mother on that film, as Holly Hunter appears in this first season, she had to quit after she was pregnant. But Elisabeth Moss in this role is so excellent that i can't picture anyone else playing this complicated character.
Located in New Zealand, the story centers the mystery of a 13-year-old girl who tries to commit suicide by drowning herself in a haunting lake of the area and the story gets entangled as the episodes go by bringing out a zillion emotions by Robin. And her character is the key to the whole show, because you go deep into her deepest fears, her past nightmares that still very much present and her complicated persona.
These past fears still haunt during Season 2 in 'Top of the Lake: China Girl', and this time there's the case of the murder of an unidentified Asian woman in Sydney where brothels are legal and there's a large amount of young Asian women who come to the country to make a living of their bodies. And while the first season is better, the new one gets you hooked on the show like mad. If only to watch Nicole Kidman and Gwendoline Christie on it as well. And they're both brilliant, just like Moss. And there's also the young talent of Alice Englert, Campion's own daughter–about who i already talked here, so we have a fantastic female cast.
I can't tell more about the show without being spoilerish so, as a treat, i'm posting below the trailer of 'Jane Campion's Own Stories', a retrospective survey that the Film Society of Lincon Center will do about the filmmaker and that looks as beautiful as all her movies are. And you can also take a look at some gorgoeus stills of both seasons after the cut!
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