One of the most consistent features of lighthearted mystery series, whether they’re the “cozy” kind or ones that are darkly profane, is the mismatched investigators that inexplicably work well together. In the Aussie dark comedy Deadloch, now in its second season on Prime Video, the two detectives couldn’t be more different. They often annoy each other. But they complement each other really well.
DEADLOCH SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: A swampy setting in Australia’s Top End, in the Northern Territory. People get on a crocodile-sighting boat ride.
The Gist: The tour is “Don Darrell’s Best Best Jumping Croc Tour” and it’s run by his daughter Amber (Nikki Britton). Their company has a fierce rivalry with the “Land of Crocs” tour, with their boats often crossing paths while tracking the same crocs. This is what seems to be happening just as the boat runs across a massive, dead croc, with a tattooed human arm in its mouth.
Detective Dulcie Collins (Kate Box) of the territory police, along with Detective Eddie Redcliffe (Madeleine Sami), are in Darwin trying to find out more about the death of Eddie’s old partner, Bushy. Eddie gets disappointing news when she finds out that Bushy killed himself. He left a thoroughly-written note and everything.
As for Collins, she and her wife Cath York (Alicia Gardner) aren’t looking to go back to Deadloch, where Collins was working; Collins was hoping to work cases in Darwin, like the case of two missing Swedish backpackers. The squad commander, Superintendent Culkin (Damien Garvey), tells her that a detective named Blunt (Nick Farnell) seems to have that case on lockdown, though.
Eddie, upset that she dragged Collins and Cath up to Darwin, decides to go her separate ways from her new work partner, but then Culkin calls about the dead croc with an arm in its mouth, in the town of Barra Creek. One of the things that Collins finds out about Eddie when they both go to investigate is that not only did Eddie grow up in Barra Creek, but there is a massive rivalry between her and Amber Darrell.
Detective Blunt sweeps into the scene and takes over, jumping to the conclusion that the arm belongs to one of the young female backpackers that are missing. But Collins doubts that’s the case. And Eddie realizes that, given that the rest of what’s in the croc’s stomach is chicken, the croc is likely one of the two pet crocs in town.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Created by Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan, Deadloch is like Ludwig crossed with Top Of The Lake.
Our Take: The idea behind Deadloch is that Collins and Eddie somehow work well together despite the fact that Collins is reserved to the point of being uptight and that Eddie is brash, profane and in-your-face. Odd pairings are the bedrock of lighthearted procedurals, especially if they’re paired with small-town quirkiness. Deadloch has this in spades, especially during its second season.
Having the bulk of the investigation take place in Barra Creek, where Eddie has some history, is a clever move by McCartney and McLennan; Eddie’s such an out-there character that anything that grounds her just makes her outlandishness that much funnier. Barra Creek isn’t exactly full of shy, reserved people, and digging into some of her history will help explain just how she became so crass and brash, but a heck of a detective.
We also like seeing Collins’ loosening up a bit, and exploring her marriage to Cath. There are reasons why she wants to stay in and around Darwin — “It is a lesbian social worker vortex that will suck Cath in and never let her go!” she says about one possible alternate destination — and she wants to do interesting police work again. She also knows that she and Eddie make a hell of a good pair.
This is the kind of a show where most of the humor is dark, but can still be wickedly funny. But even when it’s just chuckleworthy, we like seeing Box and Sami play off each other as they try to figure out if the arm in the dead croc has anything to do with the missing hikers.
Performance Worth Watching: Madeleine Sami continues to be hilarious as Eddie, especially when she calls the people in her hometown names like “shitc**ts.”
Sex And Skin: Nothing in the first episode.
Parting Shot: At the home of one of their suspects — who turns out to be Eddie’s estranged father — they’re chased by Blunt to a dock and get on a boat, when Collins sees something in the water. They’re all alarmed to see it’s a severed head.
Sleeper Star: Nikki Britton’s Amber Darrell stands toe to toe with Eddie in all of their scenes together, and we hope to see them argue for the entire season.
Most Pilot-y Line: “The air is thicker than Clag!” Collins says about the humidity in the Top End. We just looked it up; it’s a brand of paste, like the kind you used in elementary school.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The second season of Deadloch continues to be a darkly funny series with a fun pair of mismatched detectives who strangely work very well together.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
