Top_of_the_Lake

<i>Top of the Lake</i>

Top of the Lake

Australian television series


Top of the Lake is a mystery drama television series created and written by Jane Campion and Gerard Lee, and directed by Campion and Garth Davis. It was broadcast in 2013, and the sequel, entitled Top of the Lake: China Girl, in 2017.[3] It is Campion's first work for television since An Angel at My Table in 1990.

Quick Facts Top of the Lake, Genre ...

Series 1 follows Detective Robin Griffin (Elisabeth Moss) and deals with her investigation of the disappearance of a pregnant 12-year-old girl in New Zealand. Series 2, China Girl, is set in Sydney five years later, as Detective Griffin investigates the death of an unidentified Asian girl found at Bondi Beach.[4]

Top of the Lake was co-produced for BBC Two in the UK, BBC UKTV in Australia and New Zealand, and Sundance Channel in the United States.[5] It has been generally very well received.

Cast

Elisabeth Moss plays the central role of Robin Griffin, a Sydney detective specializing in sexual assault, in both series. Additional cast members are as follows:

Top of the Lake

Main

  • David Wenham as Al Parker, an old-school and well-liked detective sergeant, based in Queenstown, who also manages a café where young offenders are given a second chance.
  • Peter Mullan as Matt Mitcham, a Scotsman and head of the Mitcham family. He is the informal leader of the town, feared by the townspeople, but with a complex inner life.
  • Tom Wright as Johnno Mitcham, Matt's estranged youngest son, and Robin's teenage sweetheart. He recently returned to Laketop after serving eight years in Bangkwang, a Thai prison, for drug possession.
  • Holly Hunter as GJ, an androgynous Swiss spiritual leader, arriving at Paradise with a group of troubled women, who hope GJ and Laketop will help them rediscover themselves.

Supporting

  • Kip Chapman and Jay Ryan as Luke and Mark Mitcham, Matt's brute sons.
  • Jacqueline Joe as Tui Angel Mitcham, Matt's 12-year-old daughter who disappears after it is discovered that she is five months pregnant.
  • Robyn Nevin as Jude Griffin, Robin's mother, who is suffering from cancer.
  • Calvin Tuteao as Turangi, Jude's Māori boyfriend, who has a violent temper.
GJ's community
Matt's men
Tui's friends
  • Luke Buchanan as Jamie
  • Sam Dickson as Jase
  • Connor Olivia Moore as Kayla
  • Layne Opetaia as Daniel
  • Alice Ward as Gemma
  • Sydney Telfer as Teegan
The Southern Lakes Police Department
Residents of Laketop
  • Edward Campbell as Putty, the "village idiot".
  • Lauren Dawes as Mandy, Johnno's girlfriend.
  • Erica Englert as Narelle, Matt's housekeeper.
  • Mirrah Foulkes as Simone, Jamie's mother.
  • Dra McKay as Delia, Tui's teacher.

Top of the Lake: China Girl

Main

  • Gwendoline Christie as Miranda Hilmarson, a 35-year-old constable in the Sydney Police Force, who becomes Robin's partner.[6]
  • David Dencik as Alexander "Puss" Braun, a 42-year-old charismatic German, who owns a building in Sydney he rents to a brothel. He is also Mary's boyfriend. Puss's grooming of Mary frightens Robin, Pyke and Julia.[7]
  • Ewen Leslie as Pyke Edwards, a successful lawyer and Mary's adoptive father. Mary resents him for his passivity in his relationship with Julia.[8]
  • Alice Englert as Mary Edwards, Robin's 17-year-old daughter, whom she gave up for adoption at two days old. Suffering from anxiety and low self-esteem, Mary has begun to act out, due to the separation of her parents.[6]
  • Nicole Kidman as Julia Edwards, Mary's overbearing adoptive mother. She has recently become estranged from her husband and daughter, due to having an affair with a female teacher from Mary's school, with whom she now lives.

Supporting

  • Clayton Jacobson as Detective Sergeant Adrian Butler, Robin's boss.[9]
  • Kym Gyngell as Bootie, who owns the Silk 41 brothel in Sydney, in space rented from Puss.[10]
  • Ling Cooper Tang as Dang, Bootie's Thai-born wife and madam of the brothel.
  • Geoff Morrell as Ray, the police pathologist.
  • Liv Hewson as Michaela, Mary's best friend at school.
  • Christiaan Van Vuuren as Stally, a police constable interested in Robin.
  • Lincoln Vickery, as Brett Iles, a young computer science student in love with a missing brothel worker, Cinnamon.

David Wenham returns as Al in one episode. Kip Chapman, Jacqueline Joe, Byron Coll and Cohen Holloway also reprise their Top of the Lake roles in a flashback sequence, with Mark Leonard Winter appearing as Johnno.

Production

Top of the Lake

Jane Campion originally offered the role of Robin to Anna Paquin, who had worked with her on The Piano (1993), but she declined due to her pregnancy.[11] The role then went to American Elisabeth Moss.[12]

The series was originally intended as a co-production with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. But after Moss was cast as Robin, the network pulled their funding before production began, citing a prior agreement to put an Australian actress in the lead.[13] Australian-based channel UKTV, owned by BBC Worldwide, filled the funding gap left by the ABC.[14] Philippa Campbell was the New Zealand-based producer.

Filming took 18 weeks and was shot entirely on location in Queenstown and Glenorchy, in Otago, on the South Island of New Zealand. While Queenstown is referred to during the series, Glenorchy doubles as the fictitious town of Laketop. The scenes in the women's commune were filmed at Moke Lake.[12]

Top of the Lake: China Girl

In early 2013, co-creator Jane Campion said that Top of the Lake comes to a distinct ending, and there would be no additional series.[15] Despite this, it was announced in October 2014 that the series had been renewed for a second season.[16] China Girl began shooting on location in Sydney in December 2015.[17][18]

Campion returned as co-writer and co-director. Gerard Lee returned as co-writer. The original co-director, Garth Davis, was replaced by Ariel Kleiman due to scheduling conflicts.[19] Philippa Campbell returned as producer. Actress Nicole Kidman joined the cast for China Girl, which is the second time she has worked with Campion. Kidman "plays an Australian mother, Julia, whose story dovetails with that of Detective Robin Griffin", played by Elisabeth Moss.[20] Gwendoline Christie, a fan of Campion's The Piano, joined the cast in a role written especially for her[21] after sending a letter through a mutual friend.[22]

Release

Top of the Lake was screened in its entirety at the January 2013 Sundance Film Festival, in a single seven-hour session with one intermission and a break for lunch. This was the first such screening in the history of the festival.[23] Top of the Lake was additionally shown at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival.

The US premiere was on the Sundance Channel on 18 March 2013,[24] in Australia on BBC UKTV on 24 March 2013,[25] and in New Zealand on 25 March, also on BBC UKTV.[26]

China Girl was screened in its entirety at the May 2017 Cannes Film Festival.[27] In the UK, it premiered on BBC Two on 27 July 2017.[citation needed] In the US, it premiered in September 2017, on Sundance TV,[28] and each episode will be available on Hulu the day after its screening on SundanceTV.[29] In Canada, China Girl premiered on 25 October 2017, on CBC Television.[30]

Episodes

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Series 1

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Series 2: China Girl

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Reception

Reviews of the first series of Top of the Lake have been positive, referring to it as "masterfully made", "beautiful", "mysterious", "riveting", and "a masterpiece".[33][34][35][36][37]

Rotten Tomatoes reported a 95% approval rating with an average rating of 8.9/10, based on 42 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Absorbing and deeply atmospheric, Top of the Lake takes edgy, disturbing content and delivers powerful performances with lasting impressions."[38] Metacritic assigned a score of 87 out of 100 based on 27 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[39]

There were also some less positive reviews. Mike Hale of The New York Times criticized the "elaborately introduced plotlines" and described Tui's disappearance as "less a story element than a metaphor for the kind of armed resistance to male hegemony that constitutes the central idea of Ms Campion’s body of work."[40]

Top of the Lake was praised[41] for exploring rape culture,[42] gender dynamics and the experiences of single women.[citation needed]

China Girl received more mixed reviews. Rotten Tomatoes reported a 72% approval rating with an average rating of 6.9/10, based on 61 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Top of the Lake remains impressively idiosyncratic and ambitious in its second season, even if the plot of this six-episode arc isn't quite as tightly wound as its predecessor's."[43] Metacritic assigned a score of 73 out of 100 based on 21 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[44]

Awards and nominations

AACTA Awards

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British Academy Television Craft Awards

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Critics' Choice Television Awards

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Emmy Awards

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Golden Globe Awards

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Golden Nymph Awards

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Screen Actors Guild Awards

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New Zealand Film Awards

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Screen Producers Australia Awards

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Equity Ensemble Awards

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References

  1. "Big Victory For Composer Veljo Tormis". Vaba Eesti Sõna. 6 July 2015. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  2. "Top of the Lake (TV series) (2013)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 28 November 2013. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  3. "Top of the Lake and Two Mothers selected for the Sundance Film Festival" (Press release). Screen Australia. 4 December 2012. Archived from the original on 24 March 2016. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  4. "Top of the Lake: China Girl First Look Photos". www.sundance.tv. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  5. "BBC – Top Of The Lake: China Girl – Media Centre". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 29 July 2017.
  6. Taffel, Jacqui (26 August 2017). "Jane Campion gave Clayton Jacobson the role of his life in Top of the Lake: China Girl". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  7. O'Brien, Kerrie (29 September 2017). "Kim Gyngell on Top of the Lake, Jackie Chan and being a father at 65". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  8. "Elisabeth Moss, Top of the Lake interview". Vulture. 25 January 2013. Retrieved 31 August 2014.
  9. "David Wenham: "Top of the Lake is ABC's loss"". TV Tonight. 5 March 2013. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  10. Robinson, Joanna (16 November 2014). "Top of the Lake Season 2". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 9 March 2015.
  11. "Sundance: Campion's Seven-Hour Top of the Lake". Vulture. 12 February 2014. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  12. "Top of the Lake: Sundance Review". The Hollywood Reporter. 21 January 2013. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  13. "UKTV announces air date for Top of the Lake". Foxtel. 14 January 2013. Archived from the original on 29 March 2013. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  14. "Jane Campion: Lady of the lake". The New Zealand Herald. 16 March 2013. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  15. Rubin, Rebecca (23 May 2017). "SundanceTV Releases New Photos of 'Top of the Lake: China Girl'". Variety. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  16. "CBC announces fall 2017 broadcast premiere dates for new and returning television series". CBC Radio-Canada. 16 August 2017. Retrieved 6 September 2017.
  17. "Weekly Top 30's". BARB. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  18. "Next on (2)". BBC. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  19. "David Bianculli's take on Jane Campion's new TV drama: Top of the Lake". NPR Fresh Air. 18 March 2013. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
  20. "Top of the Lake – first look review". The Guardian. 9 February 2013. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
  21. "Review: Jane Campion's Top of the Lake a riveting long-form mystery". Hitfix. 18 March 2013. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
  22. "Top of the Lake: Season 1". Metacritic. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  23. "Can We Talk About How Damn Good Top of the Lake Is?". Jezebel. 5 August 2013. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  24. "Top of the Lake: A Non-Watered Down Depiction of Rape Culture". Ms. Magazine blog. 18 April 2013. Retrieved 1 February 2014.
  25. "Top of the Lake: Season 2". Metacritic. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
  26. Littleton, Cynthia (8 January 2018). "'Big Little Lies' Team Says Female-Focused Stories Are 'Good Business'". Variety. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  27. "Goalpost Pictures Awarded Media Super Production Business of the Year". Screen Producers Australia. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  28. Knox, David (27 May 2014). "Equity Ensemble Awards 2014: winners". TV Tonight. Retrieved 5 April 2015.

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