Tuesday TV Touchbase: Deadloch

Our long nightmare is over at the Fortress of Ineptitude. Media giant Tegna resolved it's dispute with AT&T and our local affiliate that carries Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy is back on as of last week. 

Until then we've been catching up on these shows via postings on You Tube of questionable video and sound quality.   

Now I get to watch Vanna White stride across the stage in crisp clear high def! 

"Hello, Vanna!"

Now on with the touchbase! 

About a week or so back, I finished up the Australian murder mystery series Deadloch.  

Everyone in the hamlet of Deadloch was on edge enough with a serial killer on the loose. When six more victims floated up in the lake, the town loses it's collective shit. 

Or more to the point, all the white men in town as all the victims have been white men. He-man woman hater Phil McGangus stages a "Take Back the Night" march to protest the failure of the lesbian police chief and the lesbian mayor of protecting the men of Deadloch.  They had lesbian chef Skye O'Dwyer in jail for the murders then let her go (little matter of insufficient evidence and a viable alibi...) so no telling when she will strike again at the good men of Deadloch. 

Then he loads the men on a bus to take them to a secret but secure location to protect them.  

That is a mistake. 

While all of this is going on, I'm thinking that Deadloch better not "Broadchurch" me.  

Side note: In Broadchurch, local detective Ellie Miller (Olivia Colman) and new from out of town detective Alec Hardy (David Tennant) are on the hunt for a murderer.

SPOILER: the murderer is Ellie's husband! 

What?  Really?!?! 

Anyway, back to Deadloch....

Local detective Dulcie Collins has had enough on her plate with a serial killer and an escalating body count without her wife Cath being  a whiny, clingy narcissist who tries to make everything about her.  But surely the murderer wouldn't be the very same person who is complaining how the murders are keeping Dulcie away from home?

You better not "Broadchurch" me, Deadloch!

Well, they do! 

But it's not Cath. 

Good! Because that would've made ZERO sense. 

No, the killer is someone close to new from out of town detective Eddie Redcliffe.  

And he's on the bus.  

Where the men are supposed to be safe.  

Let's take a moment with Eddie. Boy she came a long way since her less than stellar introduction to the Deadloch police. Eddie was erratic, brash, unfocused and clearly not in her right mind. Plucked from the middle of a bender in the aftermath of her police partner's death, Eddie has no business being in charge of anything, let alone a murder investigation. 

Eddie's evolution over the season is remarkable. Yeah, she's still brash and blunt but it's in service to Dulcie's more measured approach, a one two good cop/bad cop punch.  Eddie begins to respect Dulcie's skills as an investigator and begin to work as a partnership.  

There's a point near the end of the season where Eddie is having a breakdown, the death of her old partner still haunting her and she thinks of herself as a pariah. Eddie warns off Dulcie that she perhaps she should keep her distance before "someone else I care about gets killed".  

Cath does NOT need to be jealous. Eddie may care about Dulcie but our out of town detective really likes dick.

Which leads us to how Deadloch manages to "Broadchurch" me. 

SPOILER ALERT! 

The serial killer is a man who used to kill women in Sydney but moved to Deadloch and underwent a change of heart about his relationship with women. 

He is now a feminist ally who targets men who are total bastards towards women.  

And that man is Eddie's fuck buddy.  

Which is a shame because Eddie was really starting to like the guy outside of the mere utility that he came attached to a penis. 

...

...

The comparisons of Deadloch to Broadchurch are not a coincidence.  Creators Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan original pitch for the show was "Funny Broadchurch".  

And it's the shows morbid dark humor at elevates Deadloch above a mere police procedural. It lags in places in the middle but the show mostly works, especially when focusing on the dynamic between Dulcie and Eddie which kind of reminds me of  The Andy Griffith Show where Andy Taylor is being calm, methodical and thinks a lot of problems can be solved if you just talk to people and Barney Fife wants to go in gun blazing with the might of the long arm of the law.   

I don't know what the future holds for these characters. Cath and Dulce have left Deadloch and Dulce is working alongside Eddie in Darwin to solve the murder of her old partner. 

But the 8 episodes we got of Deadloch tell a pretty complete story.  

And that is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.

Next week: Julia.  

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.