When Jane Campion's Top of the Lake finished up its first season a few years ago, I worried that it was too self-contained, too reserved, to attract enough audience to warrant a second one. Fortunately, I was wrong and SundanceTV ordered up a second season, Top of the Lake: China Girl, which again finds Elisabeth Moss' detective Robin Griffith investigating the criminal underbelly of her small New Zealand hometown.
Boasting a starrier cast this time with Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones) and Nicole Kidman, fresh off her amazing run on HBO's Big Little Lies, this season finds Robin returning home to Sydney to lick her wounds following recent revelations about her. Rather than a moment to relax she is instead pulled into the investigation of the murder of an Asian girl washed up on the beach.
Expect Campion and co-writer Gerard Lee to deliver another quietly powerful effort about the cruelties done to women, and Moss another gut-wrenching performance. I'm intrigued by Kidman, though, as her character seems slightly off. And there may be something more to the relationship between Moss and Christie's characters than just investigative partners. The first season's going to be tough to top, though. Top of the Lake: China Girl airs this September.
