Top of the Lake

Top of the Lake
Genre	Drama
Created by	Jane Campion Gerard Lee
Written by	Jane Campion Gerard Lee
Directed by	Jane Campion Garth Davis Ariel Kleiman
Starring	Elisabeth Moss David Wenham Peter Mullan Thomas M. Wright Holly Hunter Gwendoline Christie David Dencik Ewen Leslie Alice Englert Nicole Kidman
Composer(s)	Mark Bradshaw
Country of origin	Australia United Kingdom New Zealand[1]
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	7 (Sundance) 7 (BBC) (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Emile Sherman Iain Canning Jane Campion Jamie Laurenson
Producer(s)	Philippa Campbell Libby Sharpe
Location(s)	Queenstown, New Zealand Sydney, Australia
Cinematography	Adam Arkapaw Germain McMicking
Editor(s)	Alexandre de Franceschi Scott Gray
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	45 minutes (Sundance) 60 minutes (BBC)
Production company(s)	See-Saw Films
Distributor	BBC Two BBC UKTV SundanceTV
Release
Original network	Sundance Channel
Picture format	HDTV
Audio format	Surround
First shown in	United States
Original release	18 March 2013 (2013-03-18) – present (present)
External links
Website	www.sundancechannel.com/series/top-of-the-lake
Production website	www.see-saw-films.com/television/top-of-the-lake-china-girl/

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. Its first series aired in 2013, with the second series, titled China Girl, airing in 2017.^[2] It marks Campion's first work for television since An Angel at My Table in 1990. The series follows Detective Robin Griffin (Elisabeth Moss), and Series 1 deals with the investigation of the disappearance of a pregnant 12-year-old girl in New Zealand. Series 2 is set four years after the events of Series 1 and set in Sydney, as Robin investigates the death of an unidentified Asian girl found at Bondi Beach.^[3] 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.^[4]

Cast

Series one

Main

• Elisabeth Moss as Robin Griffin, a Sydney detective specialising in sexual assault who is visiting her remote New Zealand hometown of Laketop, agrees to investigate the pregnancy and disappearance of a local 12-year-old girl, Tui Mitcham. Her ability to empathise with Tui's circumstances is based on a horrific event during her own teenage years.
• 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. 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 caring Māori boyfriend, who has a violent temper.

Series two: China Girl

• Gwendoline Christie as Miranda Hilmarson, a 35-year-old Constable in the Sydney Police Force, who becomes Robin's partner.^[5]
• David Dencik as Alexander "Puss" Braun, a 42-year-old charismatic East German, who is associated with a brothel, known as Silk 41. He is also Mary's boyfriend. Puss's grooming of Mary frightens Robin, Pyke and Julia.^[6]
• Ewen Leslie as Pyke Edwards, a successful lawyer and Mary's adoptive father.^[7]
• Alice Englert as Mary Edwards, Robin's 17-year-old daughter, whom she gave up for adoption. She has begun to act out, due to the separation of her parents.^[5]
• Nicole Kidman as Julia Edwards, Mary's 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.^[2]

Production

Series 1

Actress Jennifer Ehle auditioned for the role of GJ, which went to Holly Hunter. Jane Campion originally offered the role of Robin to Anna Paquin, who had worked with her before on The Piano (1993). Paquin declined due to her pregnancy, and the role went to Elisabeth Moss.^[8]

The series was originally intended as a co-production with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. But after American-born Elisabeth Moss was cast, the network pulled their funding before production began, citing a prior agreement to put an Australian actress in the lead.^[9] Australian-based channel UKTV, owned by BBC Worldwide, filled the funding gap left by the ABC.^[10] 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.^[8]

Series 2

In early 2013, series co-creator Jane Campion said that series one of Top of the Lake comes to a distinct ending and there would be no additional series.^[11] Despite this, it was announced in October 2014 that the series has been renewed for a second series.^[12] Series two will be set and filmed in Sydney, Australia,^[13]. Shooting began in December 2015.^[14]

Jane Campion returned as co-writer and co-director. Gerard Lee returned as co-writer. Garth Davis, co-director of Series 1, was replaced by Ariel Kleiman due to scheduling conflicts.^[15] Philippa Campbell returned as producer. Actress Nicole Kidman joined the cast for Series 2, 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.^[16]

Release

The first series screened in its entirety at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, in January 2013, as a miniseries. Sundance screened the series as a seven-hour program with one intermission and one lunch break; it was the first miniseries ever screened at Sundance.^[17] Top of the Lake was additionally shown at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival.

The series premiered on the Sundance Channel in the United States on 18 March 2013,^[18] in Australia on BBC UKTV on 24 March 2013,^[19] and in New Zealand on 25 March, also on BBC UKTV.^[20]

Top of the Lake: China Girl was screened in its entirety at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival in May 2017.^[21] In the UK, China Girl premiered on BBC Two on 27 July 2017. The entire series was released on the BBC iPlayer following the premiere^[22] In the US, it will premiere on SundanceTV in September 2017.^[23] Each episode will be available on Hulu the day after its screening on SundanceTV.^[24]

Episodes

Series One (2013)

Series Two: China Girl (2017)

Reception

Reviews of Top of the Lake have been positive, referring to the series as "masterfully made", "beautiful", "mysterious", "riveting", and "a masterpiece".^{[28][29][30][31][32]} It received a score of 86 out of 100 from Metacritic^[33] and a score of 93 per cent from Rotten Tomatoes.^[34]

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."^[35] That said, Top of the Lake has also been lauded by feminist critics for its explicit effort to analyse rape culture^[36] as well as its radical construction of narratives entirely foregrounding the experiences of single women.^[37]

Awards and nominations

AACTA Awards

Critics' Choice Television Awards

Emmy Awards

Golden Globe Awards

Golden Nymph Awards

Screen Actors Guild Awards

New Zealand Film Awards

Screen Producers Australia Awards

Equity Ensemble Awards

References

External links

• Top of the Lake at the SundanceTV
• Top of the Lake at the BBC
• Top of the Lake on IMDb
• Top of the Lake at Rotten Tomatoes
• Top of the Lake at Metacritic