There isn’t a lot of Australian produced streaming content around but occasionally things pop up. On Amazon, I’m six episodes into a small-town-murder-mystery series set in Tasmania. Written by comedians Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan (their very funny YouTube shorts ‘The Katering Show” from several years ago are still worth watching) the show’s premise was apparently ‘Broadchurch but funny’. It’s not rib-tickling funny more dryly amusing with some funny ideas but it makes a serious effort to deliver a decent murder story.
The (fictional) town of Deadloch in Tasmania was once economically dependent on the twin industries of logging and fishing. Times have changed and with house prices in the big cities of mainland Australia going through the roof, the town has had an influx of middle class urbanites looking for a different pace of life in more bucolic surroundings. The town now has a demographically surprising number of notable lesbian couples (including the local police chief and the local vet). Meanwhile, the wealthy widow who represents the town oldest (and most land-owning family), the town mayor, and prodigal scion of the town who is now a notable chef are all attempting to turn the town into a cultural food-destination.
Inevitably, the peace of the town is thrown into disarray when the body of a man washes up on a beach. In particular, this shatters the quiet life of local cop Dulcie Collins (Kate Box – not everybody in Australia is called ‘Kate” just lots of people connected to this show). Collins is an ex-Sydney detective who moved to Tasmania for a better work/life balance and the corpse on the beach is set to disrupt that. To add to Collins’s problems her boss foists on her an out-of-town detective to manage the case. This additional headache arrives in the form of Eddie Redcliffe (Kiwi actor Madeleine Sami) who is an epitome of a classic Australian stereotype flown in from Darwen (i.e. from the far north of Australia, and even further from Sydney/Melbourne sensibilities).
Gruesome murders, new-age absurdities, small-town bigotry, an anti-social seal and a deeply unlikable forensic scientist are all added into the mix. The show is nominally a comedy and it doesn’t take itself too seriously and yet still manages to capture a lot of the internal contradictions of Australia. Who owns the land and for what purpose and the role of sport, food and land as markers of wealth, social class and the indigenous identity, all connect to the central mystery of who is being murdered and why.
Two more episodes to go and I’ve enjoyed this show a lot. I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets a second season but it is the sort of show that the longer it goes on, the less it becomes a subversion of a given subgenre of TV series and the more it becomes the subgenre itself.
Camestros Felapton 
15 responses to “Currently watching: Deadloch”
I love it. Hoping to watch the season finale tonight.
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I’ve enjoyed many AUS/NZ shows I’ve found on streaming over the years. Whether it’s the more “comfort food” types like My Life is Murder or Brokenwood or the more complex stuff like Jack Irish, Rake, Mystery Road or Secret City.
Of course much of what is “streaming content” for me are probably originally “broadcast shows” for you…
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Yes Jack Irish, Rake and Mystery Road were all on the public broadcaster ABC. I think Secret City was Netflix though
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This sounds right up our grim alley! (But Amazon … ugh)
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I’ve added it to my Watchlist on Amazon since they have it here, too.
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So not, then, vampires and/or zombies in Scotland.
There’s a wasted title.
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In a Warren Zevon voice: “Och-ayeee, vampires of Scotland”
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Also – is Tasmania the Scotland of Australia or is New Zealand the Scotland of Australia?
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As a Tasmanian born Melbournian of Scottish descent I have no idea at all.
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Not quite a wasted title when you find out (as I just did) that one of the Kates came from the small town of Mortlake.
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I am watching it with my landlady and I loathe the visiting detective with the heat of a thousand exploding suns.
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The show was hit or miss for me out of the gate (loved the main character) but I couldn’t make it past that characters’ first scene. I think “cringe” was what they were aiming for but too far over the top for my tastes…
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I had a similar reaction, though I’ll probably watch another episode or two. Must admit, the community chorus singing its version of “I Touch Myself” was hysterical.
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Mrs Dalliard and I are now 6 episodes in. I had a similar reaction to Eddie at first. She was clearly written to be annoying as hell and the writers did their job a little too well we thought. But she grows. Over the course of the series we learn about why she is the way she is and she seems to be learning a lot about who she wants to be. By the end of episode six she’s still someone I’d find annoying in large doses in real life (less so in smaller doses) but I think I’d miss her if she was gone.
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What I like about Eddie is the way they built up the layers here. It’s a country town but the main character is actually very much a Sydney person and modern Australia. Eddie is a polar opposite, so who of the two of them is the fish-out-of-water outsider? Well still Eddie because she is both a woman (& hence rejected by the more traditionalist townsfolk) and doesn’t fit in with the more progressive set *AND* she’s geographically from as far away as you can get and still be Australian. She’s still rural Australia but not the same rural Australia. They put a lot into her even for the first episode where she appears to be a one-note joke. Which circles around to that other theme that most of the characters are from somewhere else aside from the three indigenous characters.
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