The first season of Top of the Lake graced American audiences in 2013, a good while ahead of the present wave of acclaimed limited series and prestige small screen mysteries. A full year before even the first season of True Detective, Jane Campion’s colossally eerie detective story mastered what so many projects have endeavored since: a dense and colorful whodunnit, a palpably haunting vibe, and characters rich enough to care about even in their off hours. In other words, to recreate the magic of the genre kingpin, Twin Peaks, but without seeming like you’re trying to ape David Lynch’s early ’90s masterpiece. All boxes checked for Top of the Lake, which, though very much its own entity from top to bottom, certainly filled the Twin Peaks void in the era before its return even seemed plausible.
Four years later, with everything from Big Little Lies to Riverdale to Wayward Pines to Stranger Things at our disposal, Top of the Lake: China Girl‘s first trailer reminds us just how ahead of the pack Campion’s brainchild remains. A direct follow-up to the original season of the program, China Girl picks up with Elisabeth Moss‘ Det. Robin Griffin, settled back in Sydney though ostensibly carrying the weight of everything that went down in Laketop, at the precipice of another big mystery.
Though China Girl will deprive us of much of Top of the Lake‘s original supporting cast–Holly Hunter will be missed above all–the inclusion of Gwendoline Christie as Robin’s apparent right-hand woman and Nicole Kidman as the adoptive mother of Robin’s biological daughter should be more than sufficient in filling out the barracks.
Even with Twin Peaks itself on the horizon with new episodes, I can’t help but dole most of my excitement for this second outing into Top of the Lake. Haunting, touching, weird, severe, and imaginative, the first season was everything prestige mystery television wants to be and so seldom is. And from this brief glimpse, China Girl looks no less stunning.
Images: BBC
Get ready for Stranger Things to get darker in season two!
