A seven-episode TV series set in rural New Zealand, Top of the Lake is a real treat. It stars Golden Globe award-winning Elizabeth Moss–the Mad Men actor rocking a very plausible Kiwi accent–as a police investigator returning to her hometown and getting involved in a mystery involving child abuse, abduction and drug dealing. In Campion’s capable hands, it feels like the mutant offspring of Twin Peaks and Silence of the Lambs: there’s real rot and darkness in here, but we also get healthy doses of humour in Holly Hunter’s new age doyenne, leading a group of middle-aged women on a spiritual retreat, rubbing wrong Peter Mullan’s terrifying local badass. At the end of the day it’s really Moss’ show–you’re not going think of her as Peggy Olson after this.
This article appears in Mar 20-26, 2014.