Summary
Holly Austin and Kate Box’s brilliant work with a strong balance of comedy and mystery make Deadloch one of the year’s better Prime Video shows.
The eight-episode Australian series titled Deadloch is a noir comedy set in a bucolic backdrop to a rising body count. Two Australian actresses lead the ensemble in Holly Austin and Kate Box, with Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan creating the series.
Deadloch Season 1 Review and Plot Summary
Deadloch follows two detectives with opposite backgrounds who must work together and figure out who the murderer is before the small town spirals out of control.
When we meet Senior SGT Dulcie Collin, she is trying to balance her job and her relationship with her wife, Cath. Their relationship comes to a screeching halt when a body washes up on the sea. As a result, the commissioner brings in a Detective to take over the case, Detective Eddie Redcliffe. With Deadloch being Dulcie’s city, she struggles to just hand over the keys to this loudmouth Detective.
Each episode unpacks what it’s like in a small town where bodies start droppingl, from the chitter chatter of everyone trying to figure things out to the detectives trying to keep parts of the case away from the public. However, as Dulcie begins to sink her teeth into the case, her relationship with her wife is tested. At the same time, Detective Redcliffe’s uncharacteristic tactics become a big problem for the small town.
Is Deadloch Season 1 Worth Watching?
The vulgarity in the script is beautiful as it doesn’t care much about anyone’s feelings. The creators understood that they needed to balance the comedy with the understanding that we needed this serial killer aspect in the forefront. So, they introduce us to two characters that take charge of both elements.
From the moment that Madeleine Sami arrives as Detective Redcliffe, the show is never the same again. Redcliffe is a vulgar, over-the-top detective who plays by her own rules. Sami is hilarious in this role and has you laughing non-stop, even in the moments when things get serious. Her back-and-forth banter with Dulcie, played by Kate Box, is quite a delight.
Box balances quite a bit in the role of Dulcie. She has a wife at home struggling with Dulcie’s inability to have a balanced work and home life. As a result of Redcliffe coming in on the murder case, Dulcie has an extra layer added to her work that is causing havoc. Sami and Box are the backbones of this series; without them, it’s nothing.
Throughout these eight episodes, the writers do an incredible job of balancing this humor with this whodunnit mystery. So you are laughing and guessing who the murderer is at the same time. All of this makes Deadloch the perfect streaming series.
In a crowded space of crime series, Deadloch stands out with its vulgarity and carefree approach to the murders. It takes them very seriously, but when you have a team of writers providing the perfect one-liners while dead bodies are on the ground, you can’t help but get an extra layer of joy. The dark tone of the series is matched with wits, mystery, and humor as one of the better-made shows of 2023.
Where was Deadloch filmed?
Tasmania, Australia
Tasmania, Australia (Credit – The Telegraph)
Deadloch is an Australian production, and the whole show was filmed there.
Tasmania was the main base for the shoot, much of which was done during the Covid pandemic lockdown. Tasmania is an island state of Australia and is the twenty-sixth largest island in the world.
Tasmania is named after the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman. Tasman would make the first reported European sighting of the island on the 24th of November, 1642. He would name the island Anthony van Diemen’s Land.
This was due to his sponsor Anthony van Dieman, who was also the Governor of the Dutch East Indies.
The awkward name would eventually be cut down to Van Diemen’s Land by the British and it would eventually be renamed Tasmania in honor of Abel Tasman.
There would be a film released in 2009 called Van Diemen’s Land, telling the story of Irish convict Alexander Pearce, and popular Irish political old rockers U2 would record a track of the same name for their 1988 album Rattle and Hum.
Hobart, Tasmania
Credit to Luke Tscharke (Via Discover Tasmania)
The crew for the production would use various locations in the filming, and Hobart would be spotted as a location.
Hobart is located in Tasmania’s southeast on the estuary of the River Derwent and is the most southern of Australia’s capital cities.
Cygnet
Cygnet, Tasmania (Credit – Our Tasmania)
The Huon Valley News site would report that Cygnet was also being used as a major location for the show.
Filming would resume again in Cygnet between Monday 21 March and Wednesday 23 March 2022, and the crew would apologize for the inconvenience that the shooting caused.
Kingston Beach
Kingston Beach (Credit – Our Tasmania)
With Broadchurch still firmly in mind, there is an establishing shot of a body on a beach in Deadloch.
The location for this scene was filmed on a beach in a town called Kingston that is on the outskirts of Hobart, and probably used as it would have been easily accessible for the crew, and not require them to travel far.
What did you think of Deadloch season 1? Comment below.
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