At the center of the gritty but hypnotically binge-able Top of the Lake: China Girl is an ocean-bound suitcase stuffed with Cinnamon, a young Chinese prostitute. That rather grisly object/container, which fails to sink as planned but instead surfaces on the beach, becomes the “Rosebud” of this limited series on Hulu, a nasty but entertaining saga in Sydney stretched tautly over its six-hour duration. In pursuit of solving the “china girl” mystery, we’re led through thickets of complicated family and sexual dynamics, police investigational roller coasters (which include plenty of interprecinct intrigues), a Travis Bickle-esque brothel encounter, and other plot-juicing reasons to stay tuned.
Rest assured that, in this second series after the acclaimed 2013 Top of the Lake series for the BBC, we’re again in good directorial and conceptual hands. New Zealand–born writer/director Jane Campion (Sweetie, An Angel at My Table, The Piano) was an early adopter among respected filmmakers who have heeded the call to bring their large ideas to the small screen of the new, improved, and more creative licensing world of television. Campion showed her aplomb in the original TV series and extends that magic and uncompromising touch to the next installment of the life, work, and travails of police detective Robin Griffin (Elisabeth Moss, in a role radically different than her turn as Peggy Olson on Mad Men).
It bears noting that Campion is the only female director to date to have won the prestigious Palme d’Or prize at Cannes, for her best-known and accoladed film, The Piano, which also won her a Best Screenplay Oscar and a nomination for Best Director. Themes of gender-related conflicts, male-domination politics, and power plays between the sexes have recurred in and been a hallmark of her work.
