We love shows that take place in New Zealand, because inevitably the show will feature sweeping vistas of lush green mountains that are the country’s signature. The people who make these shows can’t help but include the incredible Kiwi landscape as almost another character. It does help elevate somewhat mundane crime shows, but so does exploration of Indigenous communities there and how they interact with the realities of 21st century life. A new series on Acorn TV is both a police procedural and a story about a cop returning to her Māori community for the first time in years.
THE GONE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: A cell tower on a hill blinks. “Mt. Affinity, New Zealand.”
The Gist: A young Irish couple, Sinead Martin (Rachel Morgan) and Ronan Garvey (Simon Mead) look like they’re getting ready to go somewhere fast. Ronan’s face looks like it’s been cut up from a fight. They take a selfie. But later, when Sinead’s parents, Hannah and Joseph Martin (Michelle Fairley, Liam Carney), come by, they’re gone, with one of their phones left behind.
In Dublin, we see Theo Richter (Richard Flood), a police detective, tell hisboss that he really is resinging from his job, and he gets himself beaten up just to feel something. Then he gets a call from Hannah Martin, who works as a judge in Dublin and knows Richter. She wants him to come to New Zealand to investigate the disappearance of Sinead and Ronan.
The New Zealand Police detective in charge of the investigation, DS Diana Huia (Acushla-Tara Kupe), is coming back to Mt. Affinity, which she left after her mother killed herself. The town has a big Maori population, and lots of her family is still there. A small but noisy group of Māoris, led by a woman named Wiki (Vanessa Rare), is protesting the expansion of a biotech corporation’s footprint onto what they consider sacred land.
The reason shy Martin wants Richter there is that she thinks this is related to a case against the Fallon family, an organized crime family in Dublin, that she presided over. It’s enough of a connection to prod Aileen Ryan (Carolyn Bracken), an Irish journalist with thom Richter has a romantic history, to come to Mt. Affinity. Richter is dealing with his own demons; Huia has to answer to her uncle Buster (Wayne Hapi) about why she’s staying away from her family, and her aunt Wiki has to help her cleanse her mother’s house so she can sleep there.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Gone has similar vibes to Top Of The Lake. It could be because the New Zealand vistas incorporated into both shows.
Our Take: There’s a lot about The Gone that feels like a standard police procedural that we’ve seen coming from the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand for years now. The case that Richter and Huia are investigating isn’t particularly interesting, at least on first blush. In fact, because Richter isn’t convinced that Derry Fallon (Aaron Monaghan) and his gang are behind this disappearance, the first episode is a bit of a mishmash of eliminating leads and getting the “board” set up for everyone to mull over.
Where this show gets interesting is with Huia’s struggles with her Māori background and family in Mt. Affinity. The show’s writers do a good job of connecting her with the other Māoris we see without having to go into reams of exposition. The fact that her mother “topped herself,” as Sgt. Bruce Harris (Scott Wills) tells Richter, adds another layer onto Huia’s return to the town after what seems like some time away.
Richter’s backstory is a little less interesting and more deliberately obscured from the viewers. We know he’s resigning from the force, and that something that happened as he worked the Fallon case gave him some severe PTSD. His history with Aileen Ryan feels like a bit of an unnecessary detail. But when we see Richter bent over in pain or literally beating himself up, all we want to do is go back to the Māori side of the story, both Huia’s personal story and the protest the community has against the biotech company.
Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.
Parting Shot: Buster takes a backpack that includes Ronan’s driver’s license in it, and throsws it in a fire.
Sleeper Star: We’ll use this space to mention Ella Gilbert as Valerie Armstrong and Matt Whelan as her brother Ken, who is also the new mayor of Mt. Affinity. They’re old friends of Huia’s, and we think they’ll have more to contribute to the story down the line, but aren’t completely sure of that.
Most Pilot-y Line: As she sees her uncle Buster follow her, Huia mutters “bloody stalker” before tunring her SUV around and following him. Of course, Richter has no idea what’s going on, and her saying, “that’s my uncle” would have made the whole chase less dramatic.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The central mystery in The Gone is OK, but the series is elevated by the Māori storyline and the backstories of the two cops investigating the case.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
