Jane Campion doesn't make "easy" television. If you walked into the Top of the Lake show expecting a standard police procedural where the clues fit together like a Lego set, you probably felt a bit sick by the end of the first hour. It’s heavy. It’s beautiful. Honestly, it’s one of the most abrasive things ever put on a screen, and that is exactly why people are still obsessed with it over a decade after it premiered.
Set against the jagged, almost extraterrestrial landscape of Laketop, New Zealand, the first season follows Detective Robin Griffin. Played by Elisabeth Moss in a performance that basically redefined her career post-Mad Men, Griffin returns to her hometown to care for her dying mother. Then, a pregnant twelve-year-old named Tui Mitcham walks into the freezing waters of a mountain lake and vanishes.
The plot sounds familiar. It isn't.
The Weird, Gritty Reality of Laketop
Most crime dramas treat the setting as a backdrop. In this show, the land feels like a predator. Campion and co-creator Gerard Lee used the Otago region not for its "Middle Earth" beauty, but for its isolation. It’s a place where secrets don't just hide; they fester. You have this incredible contrast between the majestic mountains and the absolute squalor of the "Paradise" campsite, a shipping container settlement where a group of traumatized women live under the guidance of a silver-haired, cynical guru named GJ (played by Peter Mullan).
It’s an odd dynamic. On one side, you have the hyper-masculine, terrifying world of Matt Mitcham—Tui’s father and the local drug kingpin. On the other, you have this commune of broken women trying to find some kind of peace. Robin Griffin is stuck in the middle, forced to confront her own past trauma while trying to find a girl who might not even want to be found.
Why the pacing feels so different
People often complain that the show is "slow." That’s a misunderstanding of what Campion is doing. She isn't building a clock; she’s painting a mood. The camera lingers on a flickering light or the way the wind hits the tall grass for a reason. It builds a sense of dread that stays in your chest.
There’s no "killer of the week." There are just people making terrible choices in a place that offers them no escape.
Elisabeth Moss and the Weight of Robin Griffin
We need to talk about Robin. She’s not your "strong female lead" archetype. She’s messy. She’s vulnerable. She makes mistakes that make you want to yell at the screen. But that is the brilliance of the Top of the Lake show. It refuses to give you a hero who is bulletproof.
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When Robin faces off against Matt Mitcham, played with a bone-chilling stillness by Peter Mullan, it isn't a battle of wits. It’s a battle of wills. Mitcham represents a specific kind of patriarchal rot that Campion has explored throughout her entire filmography, from The Piano to The Power of the Dog. He is the "king" of this small, dying kingdom, and he treats the women around him as property.
The show gets dark. Very dark.
- It deals with statutory rape.
- It explores systemic misogyny in the police force.
- It looks at how trauma is passed down through generations like an inheritance.
If you’re looking for "comfort TV," this is the opposite. It’s uncomfortable by design. It forces you to look at the things most shows look away from.
China Girl: The Divisive Second Season
A lot of fans were surprised when the show returned for a second installment, Top of the Lake: China Girl. The setting shifted from the rugged New Zealand wilderness to the humid, crowded streets of Sydney.
It felt different. It looked different.
This time, Robin is investigating the death of an unidentified Asian girl whose body washes up in a suitcase on Bondi Beach. It’s a story about the commercialization of the female body—surrogacy, sex work, and the "disposable" nature of marginalized women. Adding Nicole Kidman to the cast as Julia, a prickly, intellectual mother in the middle of a messy divorce, added a new layer of complexity.
Kidman is unrecognizable. She’s got a grey wig and a jagged temperament. Her scenes with Gwendoline Christie (who plays Robin’s eager, towering partner Miranda) provide a strange, almost comedic relief to the otherwise suffocating atmosphere.
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Is Season 2 as good as Season 1?
Honestly? It depends on what you want. Season 1 is a masterpiece of atmosphere and location. Season 2 is a more sprawling, intellectual look at motherhood. Some people hated the shift. They missed the mountains. But if you look closely, the DNA is the same. It’s still about how society fails its most vulnerable members.
The "Campion Style" and Why It Works
Jane Campion doesn’t follow the rules of TV. In a world where Netflix shows are designed to be "bingeable"—which often just means they are repetitive and easy to digest—Top of the Lake show demands your full attention.
The cinematography by Adam Arkapaw (who also did the first season of True Detective) is legendary for a reason. He uses natural light in a way that feels raw. You can almost feel the cold coming off the screen.
The show also avoids the "twist for the sake of a twist" trap. When revelations happen, they don't feel like "gotcha" moments. They feel like inevitable tragedies. You realize the clues were there all along, not in the dialogue, but in the way characters looked at each other or the way they stood in a room.
Real-World Impact and Reception
Critics loved it. The first season holds a massive 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. It won Emmys. It won Golden Globes. But more than the awards, it started conversations about things that were still largely "taboo" in 2013. It tackled the "incel" mindset and the toxic nature of isolated male communities long before those terms were part of the daily news cycle.
It’s a show that respects the viewer's intelligence. It assumes you can handle ambiguity. It doesn't wrap everything up in a neat little bow because life doesn't work that way.
Common Misconceptions
People think this is a "feminist show" in a way that means it’s only for women. That’s a mistake. It’s a human show. It’s about how power is used and abused. It’s about the scars we carry and how we try to heal them in a world that keeps picking at the scabs.
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Some viewers find the ending of Season 1 polarizing. Without giving away spoilers, it’s not a "victory." It’s a survival.
How to Watch It Today
If you haven't seen it yet, or if you only saw it once years ago, it's worth a re-watch. The nuances you'll catch the second time around are staggering.
- Watch Season 1 as a standalone film. It’s six hours of television that functions perfectly as a complete story.
- Pay attention to the background. The "Paradise" camp is full of secondary characters with incredible backstories that are only hinted at.
- Give Season 2 a chance. It’s a slow burn, but the payoff regarding Robin’s daughter, Mary, is deeply emotional.
The Legacy of Top of the Lake
There is a direct line from this show to later "prestige" crime dramas like Mare of Easttown or Sharp Objects. It proved that you could take a "dead girl" trope and turn it into something profound and artistic. It proved that a female lead could be difficult, unlikeable, and brilliant all at once.
The Top of the Lake show isn't just a mystery. It’s an autopsy of a community. It’s a look at what happens when the "civilized" world ends and the wild takes back over.
If you're going to dive in, do it when you have the mental space. It's not background noise. It's an experience.
Next Steps for the Viewer:
- Audit the landscape: Watch the first episode and pay attention to how the "Lake" is framed. It’s essentially the main character.
- Track the color palette: Notice how the colors shift from the cold blues and greys of New Zealand in Season 1 to the sickly yellows and harsh sun of Sydney in Season 2.
- Research Jane Campion's "The Piano": To truly understand the themes of the show, seeing Campion’s earlier work provides a lot of context on her fascination with the "frontier" and female autonomy.