Watching – Deadloch

I went looking for something light to play in the background while working on projects.

Deadloch was one of the things that came up.

I don’t think I would call it a light hearted farce or anything like that, but it did have it’s brief moments bordering on farce and more than once those awkward and absurd moments of character interaction that endear them to us for being far less than polished and perfect. They’re broken people trying to keep it together long enough to find the murderer.

TLDR – 8 episodes, two detectives thrown together to solve a murder in a small town on the eve of it’s folk festival.

It contains frequent swearing, some nudity, and of course several dead bodies. The comedy isn’t in slapstick or satire but in the characters. It’s about murder and damaged people, but even at the darkest moments, it doesn’t make one despair for humanity like say True Detective or various gritty shows with a bleak cast of self destructing characters. It’s far closer to The Brokenwood Mysteries in many ways. Overall, I enjoyed it.

Some of the characters …

• Dulcie Collins – the by the book former detective, struggling to balance work and home life.
• Eddie Redcliffe – the coarse loose cannon cowboy detective from Darwin assigned to the case with troubles of her own.
• Abby – Enthusiastic rookie deputy that appears as that bit of fluff but reveals her depth over the case.
• Margaret Carruthers – Matriarch of the town Deadloch, rich, influential, and some serious Wickerman meets Martha Stewart energy.
• Sven Alderman – that local deputy who really doesn’t have any cop energy but has his moments of surprising effectiveness.
• Many other typical small town personalities like aspiring footy player teenagers, the rich guy who throws his weight around demanding justice for his dead friend, the mayor who doesn’t want the murder to spoil the event that puts her town on the map – the FEAST-ival …

It’s like a Tasmanian Cabot Cove – the murder of the local sports coach leads to dark secrets being revealed and many more bodies piling up before the series is done.

The initial meeting of Collins and Redcliffe is combative and the abrasiveness of Redcliffe almost turned me off, but I stuck through and was glad I did. Within a few episodes the two detectives settle reluctantly into a partnership and actually make progress and building a grudging respect for the other.

Other things that held me included the soundtrack (lots of 80s and 80s covers) and two actors that I recognized from the theatre sports show, Taskmaster (Madeleine Sami and Nina Oyami). Side note – if you aren’t watching Taskmaster UK, go watch it. Series 4 is perhaps my favourite due to Noel Fielding (most episodes of Taskmaster can be found on Youtube).

It looks like there will be a Series 2 of Deadloch and I’ll probably watch it. I expect there to be a mix of the old crew and the new crew to solve the murder of (SPOILER).