The Glaring Superiority of Top of the Lake, Compared to Season One True Detective

Both shows are mysteries, following a detective’s journey to find a faceless, lurking villain. Both are incredibly moody. Both make no promises of delivering a resolution, or identifying the culprit. Breathtaking landscapes. Complicated characters. So why have we heard about one and not the other?

This was the question I asked myself on the umpteenth conversation with a peer, pitching that they watch Top of the Lake if they’re such a fan of True Detective season one. I will state that these convos are almost always with male peers, which shouldn’t matter but does just a little. Because while Top of the Lake quietly received a handful of accolades, True Detective was a smash hit, with people wildly proclaiming it the best show they’ve seen in years. They’re so similar, 'cept for the fact that one is by and about women. Give you one guess of which show raked in the $$$.

It was convos like these that brought me to writing the ultimate mash-up list of why Top of the Lake unconditionally has over on True Detective. So here we go.

1: The Characters

 Looking for a shit-kicking detective? Yeah Matthew McConaughey wouldn’t be my first pick either. Admittedly McCounaughey and Woody Harrelson give a bang-up performance, but I hesitate when tasked with supporting the revival of a vaguely problematic white dude on the block. But yes, yes friends I think we can all agree that McConaughey and (unsurprisingly) Harrelson delivered in spades. So let’s take a moment and think about what makes True Detective’s characters great and Top of the Lake’s greater.

While Top of the Lake maintains a consistent flow of philosophical insights, Jane Campion accomplishes this with fewer over the top diatribes and more thoughtful one-liners. She also does not make the mistake of dropping all her deeper reflections into one character, as True Detective does with Rust Cohle. While she evens out the complexity of her characters more effectively, that isn’t to say her cast is devoid of the Rust Cohle types, that is to say, someone larger than life who focuses most of their energy around their own earth-shattering insights.  The two differences is that the Rust Cohle of Top of the Lake isn’t a main character, and she isn’t a man either.
 

Left, Rust Cohle of True Detective, right, GJ of Top of the Lake

2: The Setting
 

You get the idea, New Zealand = beautiful shit

3: The Theme Songs

One of the noticeable strengths of True Detective (across both seasons) is the aesthetic of the opening credits. The music choice, coupled with vivid images of the landscape, establishes the mood. And yet, when comparing directly True Detective’s opening credits with Top of the Lake’s, I find a more artistic and abstract bent in Top of the Lake’s. It’s shorter and includes images that develop deeper meaning as the show progresses.

4: Content on Sexual Assault

A common concern in television’s treatment of rape is determining whether a (more often) woman’s rape is being used as a plot device. I will avoid being overly specific, so as not to share elements of each show that are introduced later in the season, but I will say both confront the rape of little girls. The big difference here is that one show, focuses on the experience of survivors and the pain they feel. True Detective’s depiction of rape only goes insofar as the effects on the main characters, learning of these heinous acts. In other words, True Detective is one of many shows to use rape of women as a catalyst for the character development of third party male characters. Not cool.

5: Rule #1 of Being a Boss-Ass Bitch

The film/television world is still notoriously slanted towards male directors and male-focused narratives (as is the case with True Detective).   

 

Top of the Lake is a show by and about women. Or by and about bad bitches, more like.

The director, Jane Campion, was anticipated to introduce a wave of feminist cinema after her 1993 film The Piano. While the loss of a son was an undeniable weight affecting her career, Campion was also struggling for acclaim and funding in a still no less male-dominated field. 

Then there’s the narrative of each show. Is True Detective a compelling program? Yeah. Is it set in a palpably misogynistic, male-centric narrative? Fuck yeah it is. 

When I recommended the show to a friend, she asked if it was too sexist to watch. I will admit that the thought didn’t cross my mind, though there is objectification and decentering of women throughout. 

 

Now here’s a little stipulation for the people who want to throw down the whole “but the patriarchy of True Detective helps to create the world and the showrunners are not uncritical of the misogyny of their characters”. First of all, I do not for a minute buy the fact that a fictional world would not be as rich, the narratives as robust, if it was divorced from the patriarchal shit that I experience in my real fucking life. And let’s also state that if you’re a male showrunner profiting off of this fictional world of your own construction (created from your own wealth of artistic creativity and certainly not your ability to erase and objectify women), you are profiting off my real fucking experience. You are using your cultural reach, your artistic talent, and your production funding, to propagate images off objectified, disempowered women, and it’s not cool. You're reinforcing the system that has in part positioned you to create the show you are making that reinforces the system... 

So holla at me David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

But let’s say that I’m not gonna even say fuck you. How ‘bout I just say: cool you can make those worlds that honestly depict patriarchy, that do not subvert the man’s privilege, but why would your show be at the top of my list for images to consume? In the words of bell hooks, “This is not an empowering image.” Your show does not lift me up, quite the opposite. I’m better spent reinvesting my time and $$$ into the feminist narratives, often created by women, and depicting the female experience. 
  

Then there’s the characters. While True Detective barely maintains two plot-b females, Top of the Lake is overflowing with leading ladies. And let's be real, I’d like to see Elisabeth Moss tote a gun and kick ass before McConaughey any day of the week. K thx.
 

6: Top of the Lake is on Netflix
 

In conclusion...
Watch Top of the Lake. Keep using your consumer power to empower that feminist filmmaking. And when you have feelings/thoughts reflections when you finish the series, check up on this Ms. Magazine article about the show's commentary on rape culture.