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Top of the Lake
Binge watched this over the past few days. It's a mystery show so it's pretty much impossible to talk about this without giving away MAJOR SPOILERS so don't read any more if you haven't seen it. I thought it was very good, a perfect short, intriguing show for binge-watching with excellent direction and solid performances. I did have a few problems though.
My biggest one was that i pretty much figured it out early on and i thought i may be just thinking what the writers want me to think and there'll be a big surprise. But nah, it was basically what i thought which felt a bit anticlimactic. It wasn't all about the mystery of course it was still a bit of a letdown anyway. From the start it was obvious something was up with Al; he just gave off a weird feel at first then as i went on more and more things seemed to confirm my theory. First of all was his amazing mansion which Robin mentioned in one of the last episodes, long before she mentioned it in one of the first episodes the one where Robin passes out, i thought to myself no way a small town policeman could afford this. Then there was his ties to Matt, even then both could be explained by Al being corrupt and taking money from Matt yet not having anything to do with Tui. Coupled with his youth work/cafe and the pathologist guy mentioning that this town was a millionaire's playground and that he believes there's a pedophile ring which had crossed my mind made it seem like it had to be that. The time that there was no turning back was at the end of the penultimate episode when he's meeting what looks like businessman in the cafe when Robin walks in. Even at that point i thought there could be a last minute twist after Robin shoots him, she saw Tui asleep on the couch and i thought maybe it'd turn out he hadn't done nothing and Robin was just being paranoid which i'm not sure if i would've preferred or not. Anyway not a terrible resolution just way too predictable. The scene when Robin discovers the pedo room was horrifying, really turned my stomach.
Another thing was it turning out Robin went through pretty much the same as Tui except when she was a bit older at 16. I'm in two minds about this, on the one hand it added extra layers to her character and made this alot more meaningful for her, it also led to some powerful moments like her crying and saying "good girl" when she first discovers Tui is alive. On the other hand while it makes sense that someone who had to go through that would want to help abused/troubled children as a profession, it felt too contrived that during her brief time back in this town this case with so many paralels to her own ordeal would pop up and that she'd be allowed to head up the case. I mean i think the stuff with Matt being her father was clearly introduced by him and Matt to get her off the case yet i'm sure he could've denied her the case in the first place or even taken her off later saying it was too personal for her. Then there's Al bringing her back onto the case after she attacked Sarge, just makes no sense that he'd allow a clearly dedicated detective like her on or back on the case when the rest of the department were shown as bumbling idiots who were clearly never going to figure him out.
Then there's Matt. I thought Peter Mullan was excellent but i really don't get alot about Matt to the point where i'm not sure if i somehow missed stuff. He must have been delusional/mentally ill and my guess abused by his mum as a kid which explains his weird relationship with her which partially led to him abusing Tui, both of which he's in denial about. I mean Matt definitely did abuse her, even if Al somehow falsified the results the brothers confirmed that they saw him abuse her. Yet he is clearly deeply offended by the suggestion and to me came across like he honestly didn't believe it and that he really did miss Tui. I don't think he was going to harm the baby at the end, i think that was the point of him asking the baby what it wants; i think he had just completely snapped and wasn't really thinking when he was pointing the gun at it. I mean obviously he shouldn't have been anywhere near the baby or Tui but i do think that's what is supposed to have happened. Then there's the fact that he sent hunters in after her and had helicopters looking for her; it's pretty clear that he isn't going to harm her at that point as he threatens the hunters. All of this seems to suggest that he is in denial and doesn't remember/believe he abused her but then why in the first episode in the scene where Tui points the gun at him did he say "At least you didn't talk"? That suggests that he was talking about her not talking about his abuse or that he knew about the pedo ring. But the second is contradicted by the fact that Tui clearly didn't have a clue what was being done to her at Al's because she clearly said to Jamie "i don't know how it (the baby) got in there", and she is fine even eager to go with Al plus the roofies, so how can she talk about something she doesn't even know? So it has to be the first, my only explanation for that is that he had a breakdown after she ran away.
Anyway this seems like i didn't like it with all this moaning, but i really did which is shown by me getting so interested in the story i think. Holly Hunter was great too. Her character did seem to spout some nonsense at first but it mostly made sense. Very good show.
