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Telly addicts

Top of the Lake. Mmmm....

263 replies

partystress · 13/07/2013 22:17

Weird but has me hooked. Anyone else watching?

OP posts:
NaiceHamIsNaice · 18/08/2013 07:51

I don't think Matt could have known about the drugging-and-raping kids scene. For all he was an utter shitbag, he was not into that at all, and especially not if it involved his daughter: remember he was part of the posse who got the men who raped Robin.

Also, remember the woman from Paradise who had a fling with him, and he confessed his impotence? It was a long-term thing, I got the impression. He wasn't Tui's baby's father; I bet it was just some random sleaze bag who'd been buying services from Al.

By the end he'd gone absolutely fucking nuts, I think he took the baby just not knowing what was going on or what he was going to do with him.

I wondered if they put the rather offhand bit in about Matt not being Jonno's father because we still can't really cope with the idea of incest as an audience, or to give the impression that Jonno, Robin and the baby would end up together as a family, or what...? It was pretty unreliable coming from Al. (I cheered when she shut the door on him trying to get in, btw. She didn't even hesitate.)

NaiceHamIsNaice · 18/08/2013 07:54

Janek, the crazy ladies (the one with the money, anyway) bought the land really fast: they wanted it because GJ had decided that's where they should be - pin in the map - and the owner, Bob wotsit who was drowned at the beginning, wanted shot of it because he knew Matt was going to be after him very soon and he was selling up and going to move to be with his wife.
They offered him double what Matt had offered so he took it and was about to run, but Matt found out and killed him.

valiumredhead · 18/08/2013 08:05

But how did it end please? Robin was washing something...then what?

alpinemeadow · 18/08/2013 08:07

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alpinemeadow · 18/08/2013 08:10

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valiumredhead · 18/08/2013 08:41

Thanks alpineGrin

Wrt DNA testing, the police ordered them because of the search, all men were tested in the town, remember the road block?

clangermum · 18/08/2013 12:13

Photos of abuse ring were found on bob's computer though, so I presumed he was involved. Maybe it was finding out that Tui was involved so he thought Matt would seek vengeance, hence selling the land and wanting to get out

clangermum · 18/08/2013 13:03

And on a previous comment, robin's mum was said to be horrified when jonno arrived at the door as robin's prom date. I suppose she would have moved away soon after the rape so the mum thought there was no chance of them seeing each other.

Also explains why Matt may have been so keen to punish robin's attackers, knowing she was his daughter

susiedaisy · 18/08/2013 14:02

Well that's that then, what a strange but compelling story, think I quite enjoyed it come the end although it dealt with some disturbing issuesHmm

Nancy66 · 18/08/2013 14:17

My take is that Matt supplied the drugs that drugged the teens - so all were complicit.

rootypig · 18/08/2013 15:10

Woohoo theories!

beaches / clanger I don't think Pratt was involved in the abuse ring - his estranged wife said he'd seen something appalling in the town, presumably the abuse, and that's why he sold in a hurry to Bunny, to get out. She offered twice as much as Matt was gong to pay. Maybe Bob had taken the pictures as evidence, to cover himself? Or seen the pictures onlin and recognised the kids?

alpine presumably the DNA testing was a criminal matter, to determine Tui's rapist. Though it does seem pretty casual for the police chief to just turn up with results. I think the results could have been forged or not.....remember the pathologist saying that there was no trace of semen in April's vagina, implying the gang was careful. And surely Campion wants us to believe that Matt really isn't Jonno's father, so he and Robin can have their happy ending?

I wondered whether Matt was abusing Tui separately from the ring...the scene with the sons accusing him was interesting, and his bizarre reaction to Tui's disppearal - first total indifference, then determined to get her back, almost like a lover. But then he was so weird about his mother, why not his daughter. I think Matt's drug operation was to make the money to buy Paradise, I don't know if he knew about the abuse ring. The money / drugs passing between him and Al could have been for Al to look the other way on the drug operation. In a weird way, I think Matt had some bizarre moral code. His reaction to Jamie's mother seemed like genuine dismay, and his reaction to his son's accusations true outrage. impressed I think you're right, that Robin's theory about 'no one' was right.... And I think that it was when she shared that with Al that he targeted her. I think he roofied her (not sure if he raped her, in a weird way I think he wanted her properly, and his marriage proposal was genuine) then accused her of embarrassing herself to throw her off the scent, make her unsure of herself.

But I really like the ambiguity we're left with. To me, Campion makes the entire community complicit. Even Jonno in Robin's rape.

Favourite moments: Robin stabbing Sarge, Tui shooting Matt and Jonno (the shooting of Jonno I think was interesting, he was ostensibly innocent but Campion makes no apology for it in later scenes), Robin shooting Al. Yeah! I loved that the women got their own revenge, and bloodied their hands.

The only thing I didn't like, was the scene with Bunny's daughter playing guitar in the last episode. It just jarred with the nuance of the storyline I thought.

Sorry, essay! Blush I am going to watch it all again! I think the way Campion builds it all up is masterful.

rootypig · 18/08/2013 15:13

Naiceham good post, that's what I was trying to say! Blush

NaiceHamIsNaice · 18/08/2013 16:36

Rooty Smile
Yes it was interesting that it was the women who did all the hurting/killing/retribution at the end.

I think Campion wanted Jonno shot because it left the girl/woman to close the scene. Robin didn't even go to him, did you notice? Her lover has been shot and she didn't flinch. Interesting.

Ditto when Robin leaves him with the baby to go after Al. Normally the man would find a way to tag along and it would be written so that he helps to save the woman somehow.

The men (in the main, and excepting Jamie of course) are shown to be nothing but worthless, lying, deceitful, needy, abusive, criminal shits, with the exception of Jonno, and even he doesn't get to be the hero.

I wouldn't want to live in a world where that's true (although some women do live with shitheads like that all the time) but it is really something to see that on mainstream TV. No concessions made to male heroism whatsoever.

NaiceHamIsNaice · 18/08/2013 16:41

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.

valiumredhead · 18/08/2013 17:24

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 · 18/08/2013 18:28

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 · 18/08/2013 18:48

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

rootypig · 18/08/2013 19:43

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.

Merguez · 18/08/2013 22:39

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.

valiumredhead · 18/08/2013 23:01

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

womma · 18/08/2013 23:12

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

valiumredhead · 19/08/2013 00:36

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

valiumredhead · 19/08/2013 00:36

For not got

Merguez · 19/08/2013 10:10

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?

MostlyLovingLurchers · 19/08/2013 10:16

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.