Top Of The Lake
Sundance Channel | SundanceTV | Release Date: March 18, 2013
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
81
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 48 Critic Reviews
Positive:
40
Mixed:
6
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Boston GlobeMatthew GilbertSep 6, 2017
Season 2 Review: It’s a shame the story doesn’t fully work, because some of the acting in Top of the Lake: China Girl is top of the line. I love the cast, even when the script fails them and they’re forced to make illogical scenes work. Read full review
50
CNNBrian LowrySep 8, 2017
Season 2 Review: Top of the Lake isn't among the cream of that crop. For starters, the plot hinges on strained coincidences and hackneyed relationships, and there's really not much of a mystery surrounding the central storyline. Read full review
50
The New York TimesMike HaleMar 18, 2013
Season 1 Review: Most of the elaborately introduced plotlines fizzle out (or simply vanish), and the final surprise is the worst kind of twist ending, arrived at arbitrarily and seemingly presented for its shock value. Read full review
40
Yahoo TVKen TuckerSep 8, 2017
Season 2 Review: China Girl takes a few plot twists to keep the murder mystery going, but it becomes obscured by the constant insults and injuries suffered by Robin. ... Moss gives a terrific performance, but it’s not enough to keep this Top of the Lake afloat. Read full review
40
The New York TimesMargaret LyonsSep 7, 2017
Season 2 Review: China Girl is a more hollow simulation of that style [in the first season], a re-enactment of mood without the potency of an actual mood. The rural mystique and literary flare of Season 1 are replaced with urban brutality and sad nonsense. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Matt Zoller SeitzSep 6, 2017
Season 2 Review: This one lacks the original’s intuitive sense of rhythm and organization, and often seems more scattered and digressive than multilayered. And instead of letting feminist themes emerge organically from its situations, it stuffs them into every nook and cranny of every scene, mostly via dialogue instead of the sorts of hypnotically intense, even primal images that distinguished the original. Read full review
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