Starts off really good but becomes crap in the last episode. The cinematography is gorgeous though.

I started this in the late afternoon and ended up viewing each of the six one-hour episodes in a single marathon. If this were a theatrical film, I believe it could be my number-one favorite of 2013, and it is a shame it is going to lose every major award it is nominated for because it will always contend against the higher profile Behind the Candelabra, which, let's face it, won them the second it began production.

It is co-directed by one of my most beloved film artists, Jane Campion. She directs episodes one, four, and six, while the others are credited to Garth Davis, whose relatively limited previous credits include short films and television series. For Campion, it is her first project set in her native New Zealand since The Piano. The story turns on Robin Griffin, a female detective with a haunted past and an estranged fiance. She is played with a precise blend of determination and fragility by Elisabeth Moss of Mad Men fame. Upon her return to the small town she once left behind, Robin becomes involved in an investigation focused on a 12-year-old found standing in ice cold water, largely unresponsive, and later discovered to be five months pregnant. The pregnant minor is the daughter of a menacing local drug dealer who runs the town with an iron fist and holds sway over much of its police force. He is portrayed by Peter Mullan, in his comfort zone and perfectly cast as a volatile figure whose surface charm and grit easily gives way to brutality.

The six episodes play both as a detective story, one which twists and turns and includes frightening explosions of violence, and as a provocative portrait of the town's population, including their complicated relationship with concepts such as family, justice, masculinity, and sexuality. Shot in and around Queensland, the awe-inspiring natural landscapes, misty and vast, give the story, and its catalog of flawed characters, a hypnotic atmosphere and a mythic component it could never achieve in a more conventional urban location.

A

This was amazing. It blew my mind. Horrific, disturbing, heart-wrenching, and so intriguing. Elisabeth Moss is exceptional, and the rest of the cast is great as well. Atmospheric, slow-burning, and totally involving; the story gets under your skin, and the final twists are eye-opening. Wow. I can't stop thinking about that ending.

I thought it started off good. But it became a bit boring towards the end. I still haven't watched the last episode.