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'Top of the Lake' Finale Recap: State of Emergency

Television

Certain episodes of television stand out not only within the course of a series, but within the course of a year. In 2012, it was the eleventh episode of “Mad Men,” titled “The Other Women” (incidentally also featuring a stunning performance from Elisabeth Moss). This year, the finale of “Top of the Lake” achieves that same skin-tingling, harshly heartbreaking, core-shaking status.

By Beth Hanna
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April 16, 2013 2:27 PM
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8 Comments

Television

How do the characters in “Top of the Lake” communicate with each other, and how quickly do they choose to divulge information? This is a central question in this week’s episode, which finds significance in both a harrowing, complex monologue and the two most basic written responses in our language.

By Beth Hanna
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April 1, 2013 11:00 PM
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3 Comments

Television

While last week's two-hour premiere of "Top of the Lake" dealt with the blunt one-two shock of a pregnant pre-teen girl and then her disappearance, this week's episode deals with the classic detective-story trope of obsession with a missing person. As is often the case, an obsession with the missing brings out an obsession with the dead.

By Beth Hanna
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March 25, 2013 10:00 PM
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0 Comments

Television

“Top of the Lake,” the new Sundance Channel miniseries created, written and directed in part by Jane Campion, is a masterfully twisty creation that floats just out of the reach of comfortable comprehension. Its characters, united in the search for a missing girl against an ominous backdrop of awesome scenery and local misogyny, move through scenes that are at once anchored in the real and yet have a dreamlike quality.