From the moment the first scenes of The Gloaming flicker across your screen you’ll be immediately struck by an eerie feeling that something just isn’t quite right.
That’s because this new Stan Original Series kicks off with a shocking and puzzling murder mystery that is less about finding out who committed the murder, and more about trying to find out the ‘why’ behind their gruesome actions.
It can also be attributed to Vicki Madden, the series’ creator who is known for her knack for creating dark and unmissable dramas, such as the blockbuster success The Kettering Incident.
With The Gloaming, Madden has very much used Tasmania as its own character and storytelling device. As a native of the area, she has expertly captured the savage beauty of the region along with the element of danger that lurks around it, encouraging the audience to lean into its troubled history and to always be a little on edge in this world that her characters walk through, a world where even the mountains and trees feel as if they’re always watching you.
Take a look at the trailer for Stan’s new series The Gloaming.
At the centre of The Gloaming is Molly McGee, played by Emma Booth (Glitch), a detective with the Hobart Police who is brilliant at her job thanks to her dogged determination to bring wrongdoers to justice, but whose personal beliefs can often cloud her judgement, leading her to veer a little outside the company lines.
Molly has a particular vendetta she can’t let go, driven to catch out powerful local businessman Gareth McAvaney (Martin Henderson, Grey’s Anatomy), whom she believes got away with murder. It’s this combined with her career focus that has driven a wedge between her and her 14-year-old daughter, Lily (Josephine Blazier).
Molly’s personal and professional lives collide when she is assigned to investigate the gruesome murder of a woman named Dorothy Moxley and Molly discovers a link to a crime central to her own past.
Dorothy’s murder triggers the arrival of Melbourne-based detective Alex O’Connell, played by Ewen Leslie (The Cry), who is summoned back to his hometown of Hobart after avoiding the city for decades.
Alex’s return ignites the mystery even further when we learn that Molly and Alex share an intensely personal history that again links back to the haunting crime. As teenagers, they were in love and fully entwined in the ins and outs of each other’s lives and families but their relationship came to an abrupt and brutal halt when Alex took a trip out of town with another girl called Jenny McGinty.
What starts out as a way for Alex to make Molly feel a little jealous, and as a way for Jenny to research her family’s history by visiting her childhood home, ends with a fatal, shocking incident that completely changes the course of their lives.
It’s an event that leaves Alex so shaken and scarred that he flees Hobart and never speaks to Molly again – until 3 decades later when they are forced to team up to solve this new case.
While untangling these murders makes up the true meat of The Gloaming‘s plotline, there is nothing straightforward about these deaths and the deeper that Molly and Alex dive into the investigation, the more they become entwined in a world that the supernatural has taken hold of.
The Gloaming is one of those uncanny shows that appeal to a wide variety of tastes- it’s a haunting crime thriller expertly wrapped up in supernatural elements, featuring an all-star cast of Australian actors alongside Booth and Leslie, including Aaron Pedersen, Rena Owen and Matt Testro.
But one of the series’ most beguiling story threads however, is the character-driven arc between Molly and Alex. The way they work through the shared anguish of their past and begin to slowly rekindle their feelings for one another is completely mesmerising to watch.
The Gloaming is premiering on Stan on New Year’s Day with all episodes streaming at once.
Top Comments
What I really like ah this show is the mix of gender norms. Women in powerful roles that drive the story and men with real emotional range