Mystery Road: the series & movies (Australia style)

[C C]

Mystery Road is an Australian entertainment franchise consisting (so far) of two initial movies and now two seasons of a television series. It revolves around a workaholic police detective (Jay Swan) who gets assigned to cases in remote communities which echo contemporary Western genre settings: livestock ranches, rustic towns, and the sprawling scenery of Australian landscapes. It's interesting due to the latter as a change of background and explorations into Aboriginal life and struggles (Swan himself is interracial and often wears a cowboy hat, not unlike some blackfella cattlemen and other characters.)

The television series devotes each season (which is only six episodes long) to one unfolding storyline in a particular location. The first is notable because it features Judy Davis playing a wizened (one almost wants to say "grizzled') police sergeant.

If possible, the two movies should be watched before the TV show. Especially the one which the latter was named after, that kicked things off back in 2013: Mystery Road. The second is titled Goldstone, released in 2016.

"Goldstone" is a bit of an anomaly in the franchise. It's the only installment where Swan doesn't run into his bitter ex-wife. As a result of what happened at the end of the first movie, he departs from his usual stoic (but occasionally worried), quasi-taciturn, semi-opaque demeanor to become the cliché of a traumatized detective who turns to drink, smoking, and unkempt appearance. There are other familiar tropes, too, like the mayor and supervisor of a "menacing" company being in cahoots with each other; and the local authority (a lone policeman constituting the department) being transformed by the pretty but distraught face of an Asian girl to develop a pang of conscience about turning a blind eye to human trafficking. Despite such, critics gave it high ratings, only circa ten to twenty percentage points below "Mystery Road" (the film).

There's an excerpt of the complicated, final "shoot-out" scene at the end of the first movie on Youtube, but I'm not presenting it below because it would be too much of a spoiler. 

Interview with Aaron Pedersen who plays Jay Swan: https://youtu.be/Wc1VuuRVXxg

Trailer of the first movie: Mystery Road (2013)

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/pC0ULcsX8OE

Season One trailer (2018)

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/1QAWa5MkCCg

Season Two trailer (2020)

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/FVu6kVqj3BA

[Secular Sanity]

Hmm...that looks pretty good, C C. 

Thanks!

BTW, have you watched that series on Amazon, Tales from the loop? If so, did you like it?

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/hB9hXA-4Xcs

[C C]

... BTW, have you watched that series on Amazon, Tales from the loop? If so, did you like it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB9hXA-4Xcs

Thanks, SS. May have seen something about it, but it didn't register solidly. Part of that is probably due to how I'll often wait till a series has enough seasons under its belt that I'm confident that it won't be cancelled before its plot or any "mysteries" are resolved. (For instance, I invested in The OA too soon, and it was terminated after the second season, on a cliffhanger.) If I get the impression that "Tales from the Loop" is pretty self-contained in this set of episodes so that little is left dangling, then I might check it out quicker.

My policy is pretty ragged or inconsistent. For instance, I haven't seen the three seasons of "A Handmaid's Tale" yet even though it is a show that is highly unlikely to be ended before its run. Whereas I watched the rebooted version of "Lost In Space" the instant it came of the gate, but that was because I didn't care about it -- just wanted to see if it was as utterly ludicrous and agonizing as the original, and how Parker Posey played the transgender version of Dr Smith.

[Secular Sanity]

I stuck with the "A Handmaid's Tale" for awhile but then it started to get a little silly. My husband is addicted to The Man in the High Castle. He loves it, but initially, I didn’t want to watch it. I might try to play catch up one day.

Update: I just finished the first episode of "Tales from Loop". Not bad. I liked it.

[C C]

I stuck with the "A Handmaid's Tale" for awhile but then it started to get a little silly. My husband is addicted to The Man in the High Castle. He loves it, but initially, I didn’t want to watch it. I might try to play catch up one day.

Heh, mine watched "High Castle", too, although I probably would have gotten around to it eventually, anyway. Another one that got the axe sooner than it was supposed to, but it was given the opportunity to tie-up things up in the 4th season.

Update: I just finished the first episode of "Tales from Loop". Not bad. I liked it.

Okay -- "Tales from the Loop" is a kind of half-anthology, like "Black Mirror", but revolving around characters in a town? Although that should have been obvious from the title, I still got the mistaken impression it could be more of a conventional show with long, unfolding story arcs. Should be safe to watch, then, if the episodes are more or less self-contained. I can combine it with the one below. Thanks.

This evening I saw the first episode of a German series called "Dark". Purely because the final season was just released for it (no shadow of cancellation teasing overhead). I have no idea what it's about overall (not going to read reviews because of spoiler danger). But it seems to involve time-travel and possibly some wild procreation stuff between multiple families that would doubtless be more complicated than Robert Heinlein's classic All You Zombies (the film Predestination was based on it).

EDIT: LOL, talk about coincidences. Watched the "Loop". (Time travel or whatever that was!) The show is kind of like Norman Rockwell meets Black Mirror. Definitely like it, much nicer than CBS Access's reboot of the Twilight Zone. Saw one episode of the latter a year or more ago and never went back.

[Magical Realist]

BTW, have you watched that series on Amazon, Tales from the loop? If so, did you like it?

Should be safe to watch, then, if the episodes are more or less self-contained.

I watched all the episodes of Tales From The Loop and really enjoyed it. The lilting piano soundtrack by Philip Glass imparts a wistful tone to the whole series. The episodes can be viewed as self-contained stories in themselves, but towards the final episodes they all get tied together. Sort of reminded me of the old Outer Limits series, the 80's reboot not the 60's original. There's an ongoing theme of the Loop as an underground science facility doing mysterious experiments with technology that effects the surface dwellers in different ways.But no spoilers. It's worth the ride if you find yourself bored on a rainy afternoon.

[Secular Sanity]

BTW, have you watched that series on Amazon, Tales from the loop? If so, did you like it?

Should be safe to watch, then, if the episodes are more or less self-contained.

I watched all the episodes of Tales From The Loop and really enjoyed it. The lilting piano soundtrack by Philip Glass imparts a wistful tone to the whole series. The episodes can be viewed as self-contained stories in themselves, but towards the final episodes they all get tied together. Sort of reminded me of the old Outer Limits series, the 80's reboot not the 60's original. There's an ongoing theme of the Loop as an underground science facility doing mysterious experiments with technology that effects the surface dwellers in different ways.But no spoilers. It's worth the ride if you find yourself bored on a rainy afternoon.

The soundtrack caught my attention, too. I'll stick with it then. Thanks for the tip, MR.