Deep Water

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!

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.

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 suppose my title is as much a comment on me as the show. Only four episodes long, this series is confusing with multiple similar characters and intertwining subplots. Maybe this just an accurate reflection of true cop cases - many shades of gray and inferential evidence with few clearcut leads - but it doesn't make for good viewing. Maybe it's just my Pooh-brain too dithered to keep track of them all, but not for lack of experience.

It is natural that Australia, having lengthy (dependent) ties with the UK, aspires to imitate/repeat the latter's success in the field of crime thrillers, stocking it with local nature and habits, sometimes without having any influence to the course of events or effect on scenes. A lot of is also visible in Deep Water where tautness and smoothness are overshadowed by personal issues with references to the past and leisure activities on the beach.

Well, the beginning is intriguing, but the motives and many suspects are revealed too soon, the characters are somewhat arid, the police has seemingly no ranking order in place, and the background of the principal wrongdoer is too trivial and vague for the offences he committed. So the 4 episodes a' 50 minutes are too long and hectic; moreover, I was not pleased with the final events and events leading up to them. In the wide world of English-speaking crime drama series, Deep Water is hardly the one to be classified as "must-watch".