Deep Water

This show was pretty good. The plot was complex enough. Some things to distract you. If you like mystery detective shows this one is pretty good. Based in Australia this adds to some interest. Just a different location. The stars are very good. They dig deep into some cultural problems of the past that ends up driving them to the end of the story. I found that part the most interesting.

It's Australia Day. Police detectives Tori Lustigman and Nick Manning are assigned the murder of Haris Rexhaj in his Bondi beach condo. He's a young gay Muslim. Tori suspects the homophobic neighbor but her superior directs them to the gay lover Rohan Assad. Rohan fears being deported to Iran. Further investigation uncovers a possible serial killer targeting homosexuals using a gay dating app. Tori is a single mom and new to the force from Goulburn. She is still haunted by a childhood incident with her gay brother.

This is a functional crime drama. There is a bit of ripped-from-the-headlines flavor. It does need a few more ingredients to extend this drama into a compelling 4 hour watch. Tori's childhood incident could have been heightened by doing a flashback. Her recollection of the incident is probably an emotional high point. The other part that needs expanding is the villain of the piece. It needs to make the supervisor a bigger character and more culpable. The story needs more drama and a bit more flavoring.

I caught this on Netflix, and watched it mostly because of some of the key cast members. It started out well, and the core story was engaging, but it (in my opinion) went sideways about half-way into the series, due to the ridiculously written police officer roles.

If you can look past a handful of police officers doing one stupid thing after another (especially the main character), then it's a pretty decent crime drama. If you find it problematic that the police do "really dumb things", which literally get people (unnecessarily) killed, as well as putting their whole investigation in jeopardy, and then seem to not learn any lessons from their repeated, boneheaded actions, then you probably need to skip it.

How is this diminutive detective (played by Yael Stone) supposed to run down bad guys in boots with 3 inch heels. Why couldn't the director just accept she's only 5 feet tall and let her wear sneakers? Is there some sort of cinematographic rule against letting short people be short? Ironic because the director seemingly has no problem repeatedly filming closeups of her dwarfish, stubby fingers.

I'm only on Episode 3, and so far it's pretty good - the writing and acting are certainly above average...

... but the DIRECTING/CINEMATOGRAPHY! Yikes!

The show has a surfeit of close-ups and extreme close-ups that are distracting in that their use both draws attention to itself and also robs the shots of any emotional power - like a TEXT MESSAGE IN ALL CAPS - they become meaningless after a while. I don't know if this was a stylistic or budgetary choice, but a lot of the intensity of some scenes was seriously curtailed by its overuse.

Show some restraint next time!