Top of the Lake. Mmmm....

[partystress]

Weird but has me hooked. Anyone else watching?

[rootypig]

you're welcome

Lots of good stuff on that site though of course never use myself as is probably illegal

[blueberryupsidedown]

Thanks SO much!

[rootypig]

//Www.tubeplus.me - yes it's in 7 episodes but you'll be able to find where you were.

[blueberryupsidedown]

I am fuming. I was in the process of watching all the Top of the Lakes on bbc iplayer (I was up to episode 4) but now they have taken all the programs off and only available to purchase on DVD!!! Grrrrr..... I will be lost won't I? The next episode is what, episode 6?

[clangermum]

I feel I want to watch it again to pay more attention to all the cafe scenes

[MostlyLovingLurchers]

Maybe it was because Tui wasn't meant to be there? The others had been chosen by Al's 'clients' (when in the café), whereas Tui decided to go along with her friends after Al visited the women's camp with the other kids in the car.

[rootypig]

I wondered about Tui being left asleep upstairs on the sofa. But that could be explained by the fact she'd just had a child, not exactly child porn material for a while :(

[Asheth]

I've just caught up on the last two episodes as well. I think Matt was the father of Tui's baby and the test results were correct. His denial that Tui could possibly be pregnant and his shock when he saw the baby was strange and maybe sometimes he just couldn't face what he'd done to his daughter and preferred to live in denial.

His grovelling and punishing himself at his mothers grave was never explained unless he had done something really terrible. So at the times he did face what he'd done he truly hated himself. Maybe the guilt also caused his impotence.

Assuming Al was getting the drugs from Matt would he really use them on Matt's daughter? At the end when the other children were downstairs being abused, Tui was left upstairs asleep on the sofa. Perhaps even with Matt dead Al didn't go back on that arrangement.

I do think Al was brilliantly portrayed. For most of the time he was charming and likeable. Then you got the glimpses that he wasn't honest. But right to the end I thought he was just weakly turning a blind eye to the corruption that existed in the community. A bad cop, but not totally a bad man. I suppose it shows how easily evil can be disguised.

[Oblomov]

Finally watched the last 2 episodes. Feel very odd. We all knew Al was a baddie, but some things just don't add up. Assuming they aren't supposed to.
Not even sure if I enjoyed it.

[Merguez]

But the fact that Matt refused to produce a sample for DNA isn't relevant - they could have taken the DNA from his dead body.

But I do think the audience was supposed to infer that the DNA results were faked, and Al was the real father of the baby.

Deleted series from recorder as soon as I finished watching it (didn't want dc finding it) and now wish I hadn't because I'dlike to watch it all over again to see if it makes more sense.

Some good comments on Guardian blog too ...

[MostlyLovingLurchers]

Yes - i think that a combination of Matt's failure to provide a sample, his impotency and Al's need to cover his tracks all leads us to believe that the dna results were fake, and that Matt was not the father of Tui's baby, though of course enough room is left for it still to be possible. I don't think that Johnno was Matt's son though. At one point (I think when Johnno rescued Robin from the boat) Matt said to him 'you are no son of mine'. I wondered at the time if this had greater significance.

[valiumredhead]

I think the fact we didn't see the mother much showed just how neglected Tui was in general and there for an easy target.

[rootypig]

Merguez interesting re Jonno's DNA, when Robin found out she was Matt's child she seemed willing to carry on their relationship regardless ("hello, brother"). It seemed from the scene with her that Tui's mother was totally cut out, but then I don't think Campion wanted to make room for any women on the inside, iyswim, or particularly wanted to explore that part of the story

The ecstasy scene was so funny womma! especially to those who have taken it

I missed the roadblock scene mostlyLoving, I wonder if that's what should tip us into understanding Al falsified the DNA, along with Matt's ED, though that is ambiguous, since he says he can get it up with drugs...

[MostlyLovingLurchers]

I was confused about the dna. When Matt was stopped at the roadblock he refused to give a sample, so how do they know who he fathered? Or did they take a sample posthumously and I missed it?

Don't know what I think about it all to be honest. It was compelling and I had to keep watching, and it has stayed with me now that it has finished, but i'm not sure I could say I enjoyed it.

[Merguez]

I have revised my opinion and think that Matt definitely was not the father of the baby. DNA test for Jonno deliberately ambiguous.

One thing is bothering me - we met Tui's mother in an early episode, but haven't seen her since. Surely she would have got involved in the final stages of the search for her daughter, and wanted to see her grandchild? Or is there a detail that I missed/forgot about?

[valiumredhead]

For not got

[valiumredhead]

The naked romp with johnno and Robin was even worse, that had to win the award got most awkward unbelievable love seen ever!

[womma]

Did anyone think the scene with Matt and Anita taking Ecstasy in the woods was hilarious? I nearly fell off the sofa.

[valiumredhead]

I think the fact Matt couldn't get it up without drugs showed the baby want his as he want abusing her.

[Merguez]

At the end Robin was washing the blood out of her top - symbolic.

Matt was going to kill the baby because he knew it was his and he would be implicated by the DNA. He also wanted Tui to stay a child.

The men in Al's house were making porn films with the drugged girls - that's probably where Al got most of his money from.

Thought it was very good and well done. Elisabeth Moss brilliantly cast - right combination of toughness and vulnerability. Rather like her role in Mad Men.

[rootypig]

naice I thought the kids did seem traumatised though, they might have known - Campion makes Jamie (and others?) literally mute - they felt powerless or were too damaged to say anything-?

VR I thought the whole thing was reminiscent of what Margaret Atwood calls speculative fiction. Not fully grounded in reality, but terrifyingly real.

[valiumredhead]

The whole story was ridiculous, Robin's character was so unbelievable it was almost nonsense

[NaiceHamIsNaice]

But they would wake up somewhere they didn't remember going to sleep.
At Al's place? Outside? He couldn't just drop them home, asleep, and get them into their beds.

[valiumredhead]

Iirc that drug causes memory loss so what would they know? They are young and inexperienced,Tui didn't even know how a baby would get out of her, she wouldn't be thinking 'hang on a moment I feel a bit sore/smelly etc,I might have been raped.'

[NaiceHamIsNaice]

I do have one small issue though.
No way could person after person be drugged and raped in that way without their knowledge, wake up from it and do/say nothing.
All the kids going willingly to Al's house? They would all have stories to tell of waking up there after falling asleep: that in itself is totally weird and would have been talked about.