I watched Top of the Lake in one sitting. It is so stunningly beautiful and initially unconventionally shot that I was enraptured. It was The Red Riding Trilogy meets what Bates Motel tried to be meets Lone Star. I found the gender dynamics to be a bit much–generally all the guys were bad & all the women were victimized or deep down good & trying to heal. Only one guy gets to be good as the love interest of the heroine, but honestly he kept having to save her & her instincts understandably eroded as the series unfolded that I was ready to toss her as the main character & shift the focus of the show on to him. There are some really neat, but not heavy-handed Biblical & pagan references–almost like there is a kind of butchering of innocence & death specifically surrounding this location. Not a must see, but if it sounds appealing, you won’t regret watching it. Warning: everyone speaks English, but you may need subtitles to understand what they are saying.