Mad Men’s Moss stars in dark police miniseries
As one screen-weary TV critic once said, “A cop show is a cop show is a cop show.” And, once, that was true. Open on a grisly murder scene, add some suspiciously good-looking cops, and pop in some high-tech gobbledygook. Sunglasses and wry one-liners optional. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Now, there’s Top of the Lake. From Sundance Channel, and airing on Bravo in Canada, the seven-part miniseries stars Elisabeth Moss, who makes a startling aboutface from her quietly determined copywriter character Peggy Olson on Mad Men.
As Det. Robin Griffin, a beaten-down child-protection specialist, Moss has returned to her small town to care for her mother. She’s soon dragged into the disappearance of a 12-year-old pregnant girl and is dogged in her pursuit — and soon many of the town’s longburied secrets come to light.
The cryptic story is set in New Zealand and comes from Oscar-winning writer-director Jane Campion (The Piano). It’s unflinching and tense: in one scene, Robin attacks her childhood rapist; in another she witnesses a dog being killed.
There’s incest, molestation, sex and murder. Top of the Lake is difficult yet gripping, menacing yet beautifully shot. Already, Moss and the show — which also stars Holly Hunter and Peter Mullan — are garnering Emmy Award buzz. (Saturday, 9 p.m., Bravo)
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Yes, it’s preachy. heavy-handed. And Yes, yes, it’s it’s structurally questionable. But Aaron Sorkin’s TV drama/ soapbox The Newsroom dares to wear its heart on its sleeve as it probes the workings of a fictional 24-hour news channel and its outspoken anchor Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels).
Like The West Wing, Sorkin’s political manifesto, it’s an exercise in idealism. Long monologues, didactic plot points and sometimes all-out disdain fill the scripts (witness Will’s vitriol as he confronts a gossip columnist in Season 1).
Based on real-life events and with a retrospective air about it, The Newsroom is like an old man grumbling about the good ol’ days: annoying and crotchety but, in many ways, he’s right. And people are tuning in. The Newsroom’s firstseason finale drew 2.1 million U.S. viewers.
This season, it will welcome a handful of new actors. Marsha Gay Harden plays Rebecca Halliday, a self-satisfied lawyer. Hamish Linklater is Jerry Dantana, who replaces Jim (John Gallagher Jr.) while he’s covering Mitt Romney’s U.S. presidential campaign. Grace Gummer is headstrong Hallie Shea, and Constance Zimmer is Romney campaign spokesperson Taylor Warren.
Seemingly aware of his missteps in Season 1, Sorkin has retooled some of Season 2 and HBO has cut the episode count to nine.
“I doubt HBO’s going to be happy with my telling you this, but I got off to a false start with Season 2,” Sorkin admitted to The Hollywood Reporter, saying the first three episodes would’ve been problematic for the rest of the season.
“With my hat in my hand, I went to HBO and said, ‘Would it be all right if I started again? I know it’s going to cost time and it’s going to cost a lot of money. Other networks would have said no.”
In the revamped première, the News Night crew comes under fire for a story they aired, and Will makes an onair remark that has him pulled from 9/11 anniversary coverage. (Sunday, 10 p.m., HBO)