Deadloch on Amazon Prime Streaming is one of those small-town murder mystery shows. It reminds me of Broadchurch and Top of the Lake in a lot of ways. But Deadloch is different. It isn’t satisfied with being an entry into this category of show, it also wants to satirize the genre. It wants to tell a compelling murder mystery and be funny at the same time. For the most part it succeeds.
The attempts at humor cause the tone of Deadloch to be all over the place. There are characters that seem to be from completely different shows interacting. Initially I found it maddening. I wasn’t sure I would make it through the first couple episodes. Then it seemed to be self-aware enough to know how antagonistic it was being to the audience. The show got itself under control and started moving the plot forward.
Deadloch is set in Australia and has tons of fun curses and insults. Mostly funny, sometimes stupid. Generally the dialog in the show is a mix between being sincere, awkward, and bizarre. Every characters seems to be an over-exaggerated version of whatever they are playing at. It was difficult to take anything seriously, but I’m really not sure we were supposed to.
There is the character trope of a loose cannon cop from a larger city coming in to solve the small town murder. That character is always so brash, but deep down they have this pain they are trying to escape from. All that stuff exists in this show also. I got worried when everything started lining up. Thankfully they didn’t spend much time on it. It felt like there was an entirely separate subplot that was mostly cut out in the edit, and I am thankful for that.
I think Deadloch is worth a watch, mainly because it is different. It makes an attempt at balancing the somber tone of a murder mystery with humor and absurdity. It doesn’t always work, but it created an interesting experience that I enjoyed.
