Deadloch was already the most ambitious show on Australian TV. Its new season is even wilder

Deadloch (season two) ★★★★

When Deadloch’s first season dropped in 2023, it was already the most ambitious show on Australian television. A wild odd-couple comedy, incisive social satire and genuinely compelling whodunit thriller that also ruthlessly mocked the genre itself. It was a feminist satire of self-serious prestige crime shows and Scandi-noir that was so aggressively Aussie it threw around terms like “c— punch” without anyone blinking an eye.

Remarkably, the second season of this Emmy-nominated series has even more going on.

There’s a shift in location, from Tasmania to the Top End, which upends the established “Tassie noir” aesthetic. An injection of earnest backstory for the show’s most absurd screwball character. A deepened focus on racial politics. And a series of mysteries that involve not just outlandish locals (including a vile Steve Irwin-style crocodile celebrity hilariously played by Luke Hemsworth), but law enforcement itself.

It’s a lot – especially considering this season is just six episodes, down from eight. But don’t drift off if you find the beginning a bit burdensome with the required narrative set-up. The blistering finale of this big and bolshie show will prove (once again) that co-creators Kate McLennan and Kate McCartney (The Katering Show,Get Krack!n) are some of the most exciting creatives working in Australian TV today.

Picking up from season one’s coda, season two follows detectives Dulcie Collins (Kate Box) and Eddie Redcliffe (Madeleine Sami) as they investigate the death of Eddie’s former partner Bushy in Darwin. Or at least that’s what they head there for. The unlikely duo – plus Nina Oyama’s forensic tech Abby – quickly wash up in the small fictional town of Barra Creek, trying to make sense of stray body parts, missing backpackers and two warring croc tourism companies.

Who are the traditional owners of that land? Chaotic tour guide Amber Darrell (Nikki Britton) doesn’t offer an answer when asked, other than saying her dad’s business, Don Darrell’s Best Best Jumping Croc Tours, was there “f—in’ way before” Jason Wade’s Land of Crocs. With the camera also flashing past a youth detention centre in that season opener, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that first name sounds a lot like Don Dale.

It would have been easy for the Kates to nestle back into the safe shores of Tasmania’s Deadloch to spin another cosy and camp mystery. It’s the name of the show, after all. But the Top End provides the perfect social fabric to unpick as our main characters interrogate their relationship with the justice system. And those heavy themes are offset well by the outrageous new cast of characters.

With Dulcie and her enthusiastic wife, Cath (Alicia Gardiner), now the fish out of water, Tassie’s art and greyhound-loving lesbians are traded out for sunburnt bogans who swear just as much as Eddie and celebrate their birthdays with “steak cake” at the pub.

In an interview this week, the Kates said this could well be the final season of their show. Though the pair won’t rule out a return completely, they “feel like [they’ve] done a lot with the genre” and are “keen to do some other things next”.

It would be sad to see this series – which has impressed critics and won fans around the world – wrap up. As implausible as it may be, wouldn’t it be great watching Dulcie and Eddie run all around Australia? I would inhale a season set in Byron Bay. But if this really is the end, it’s a great way to go out.

Deadloch is streaming on Amazon Prime Video from March 20.

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