A number of made-for-television features and series over the past decades have matched the quality of the best cinema. Many filmmakers have done excellent work for the small screen, particularly in Europe and North America. It is typically, at least for me, more difficult to figure out what to seek out on TV than at the movies, perhaps because there is more interest in writing about cinema online than television. I write this tentatively since perhaps I don't know where to find good commentary about TV programs whereas I am very familiar with film criticism in all its facets and outlets. Anyway, I need to get to the point because this thread is intended to include posts that are fairly brief; random thoughts on various subjects related to cinema's past and present which I hope elicits some response, at least some of the time.

The most recent made-for-TV that made my list of favorites was Todd Haynes' awesome Mildred Pierce, the HBO mini-series starring Kate Winslet. Perhaps my highest hope of something of that level of excellence released on TV since then was Jane Campion's Top of the Lake with Elisabeth Moss, Peter Mullan, and Holly Hunt. Campion (The Piano) is responsible for one of the best made-for-TV series ever: An Angel at My Table (1990), which was released as a theatrical feature after being shown on Australian television and is now available in a great Criterion package. So I had my hopes up for Top of the Lake (set in New Zealand like "angel") and found myself engaged and entertained by this tale of evil in the countryside but ultimately underwhelmed by the results, especially in relation to the almost six hours I invested watching it. Below you'll find the more favorable capsule review from Variety's Justin Chang.

"The disappearance of a pregnant preteen exposes the raw wounds at the heart of an isolated southern New Zealand community in the absorbing and richly atmospheric “Top of the Lake.” Centered around Elisabeth Moss’ excellent performance as a detective for whom the case uncovers disturbing echoes of her own troubled history, this multistranded crime saga from writer-director Jane Campion and co-creator Gerard Lee is satisfyingly novelistic in scope and dense in detail. Yet it also boasts something more, a singular and provocative strangeness that lingers like a chill after the questions of who-dun-what have been laid to rest."