Deadloch's finale was incredibly satisfying.

Really impressed with this show from the start, but I had worried it was going to fumble the landing after setting so much in motion. The last ep is out though, and for me it just sealed the deal, this show came out of almost nowhere to be one of the best of the year, it's an absolute gem.

There's a lot to be said for figuring out what viewers would want to see or want to get answered, and then delivering on it, and I feel like that's a bit of a lost art these days with the rushed, scattered feel of a lot of stuff coming from streamers. This was just really, consistently well made from start to finish, and you can feel the same oddball passion project investment and tone in ep 8 as you did in ep 1.

I laughed, I gasped, I got really unexpectedly invested in the mystery and the characters, and I thought the finale did a great job upping the ante just that last little bit all round - the opening stuff with the victim stumbling around screaming was genuinely horrifying, so just balancing something like that with the density of gags that come after is quite a feat in itself.

The pace was maybe a bit over-frantic near the end, to be fair, but not enough to cost it much, and in the meantime so much was wrapped up so well it felt like I'd been watching this cast for years instead of a few weeks. I think they paid off on just about everything I'd had on my mind when I was speculating, even if they'd teased the prospect of leaving it hanging at first.

Really interesting illustration of just how important writing is to something succeeding or failing too, in a lot of ways. The two writers worked on it for years together, and it really shines through in how well crafted it is, both character wise, and in terms of the clues and red herrings laid out for you to pick up. The twists felt shocking without just being shocks for the sake of it - I mean they were dramatic and surprising, but they still generally made sense, and if you go back and check the steps to get there were set out from the beginning, so reveals felt like a payoff rather than just cheap tricks. I haven’t gotten that sense of solid craft from much else Amazon's done, and nothing Netflix has done for ages.

I did guess the killer at one point, sure, but I'd guessed everyone at some point, so it didn't feel like a let down to be right, and more like I'd done well to follow the right breadcrumb trail.

My sole gripe is that I felt the action stuff was a little clumsy and stagey compared to how well done everything else was, so during the final confrontation the cops look a bit sluggish and doofy. Fairly minor in the scheme of things though, and like I say, the writing - and indeed performances - were so strong I only mention that to be thorough.

What did anybody else think? Did you call the killer right? Would you be up for an S2 in Darwin, or better to leave as-is?

Submitted July 07, 2023 at 07:12AM by Archamasse https://ift.tt/2uDJXeR