Top Of The Lake

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Season 2
Season #: 2, 1
Metascore
73

Generally favorable reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 21
  3. Negative: 2 out of 21
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Critic Reviews

  1. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Matthew Gilbert
    Sep 6, 2017
    60
    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.
  2. CNN
    Reviewed by: Brian Lowry
    Sep 8, 2017
    50
    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.
  3. Yahoo TV
    Reviewed by: Ken Tucker
    Sep 8, 2017
    40
    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.
  5. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Margaret Lyons
    Sep 7, 2017
    40
    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.
  6. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: Matt Zoller Seitz
    Sep 6, 2017
    40
    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.

Awards & Rankings

77
#77 Best TV Season of 2017

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 37 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 37
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 37
  3. Negative: 9 out of 37
  1. DamnedThing
    Sep 13, 2017
    2
    Having Elizabeth Moss in a show is usually a good sign that it's something worth investing a bit of time in, add in Jane Campion and it reallyHaving Elizabeth Moss in a show is usually a good sign that it's something worth investing a bit of time in, add in Jane Campion and it really ought to be interesting at he very least. I loved the first series - it was odd enough to be interesting and good at slowly unravelling the story in a way that was compelling. S2 starts off in a similar vein, but it's not long before the detective work starts playing second fiddle to an increasingly dumb and soapy drama. It's just awful. Nicole Kidman is utterly wasted in a role that wouldn't be missed if it ended up on the cutting room floor. Ditto for Gwendoline Christie's character's arc involving pregnancy - really, it's not enough to have a cop story about people smuggling surrogate mothers with the lead cop having daughter issues then being partnered with another female cop who's got her own pregnancy story with her and Moss's boss. No? Okay, throw in nearly every male character being needlessly misogynistic, some terribly clunky dialogue and wooden acting. There's usually a point in every long running soap opera where a killer is on the loose and a few favourite characters need culling because they cost too much and the network wants to stir things up. This is like those few episodes, except with better cinematography and a higher caliber of actor phoning it in.
    Moss is almost the best thing in it, but it's David Dencik who steals the show as the seedy Puss -
    he's the only one remotely believable as a character following his own destiny while everyone else makes dumb decisions because the plot needs them to. Pretty much everything else about this sucks.    … Full Review »
  2. temptershell
    Sep 14, 2017
    9
    Lighter mood with more sunshine and better-defined characters. Great and more recognizable actors and a very overwhelming investigation. I wasLighter mood with more sunshine and better-defined characters. Great and more recognizable actors and a very overwhelming investigation. I was waiting for a continuation long time and it was really worth it. It’s not only top of the lake, it’s top of crime series of XXI century.… Full Review »
  3. geewah
    Jan 23, 2021
    6
    There is a good story to be told here, but it gets lost amongst the implausible screenplay.
    Disappointing
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