X
- 2018
- TV-14
- Prime Video
- 2018
- TV-14
- Prime Video
Summary The disappearance of three girls and a teacher from the Appleyard Ladies College in 1900 leads to an investigation that includes English headmistress Mrs Hester Appleyard (Natalie Dormer) in this drama series based on the Australian novel by Joan Lindsay and inspired by Peter Weir’s 1975 film of the same name.
- 2018
- TV-14
- Prime Video
- 2018
- TV-14
- Prime Video
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Season 1 Premiere: May 6, 2018
62
5.7
Where to Watch
Summary The disappearance of three girls and a teacher from the Appleyard Ladies College in 1900 leads to an investigation that includes English headmistress Mrs Hester Appleyard (Natalie Dormer) in this drama series based on the Australian novel by Joan Lindsay and inspired by Peter Weir’s 1975 film of the same name.
Where to Watch
All Seasons
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 15 Critic Reviews
62
53% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
40% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
7% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 15 Critic Reviews
62
53% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
40% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
7% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Picnic at Hanging Rock is lush, gorgeous, Gothic and at times plotted tighter than a corset.
The mystical elements of Lindsay’s book remain, but Mrs. Appleyard’s more detailed biography adds more tangible, flesh-and-blood danger to the mix. ... The question in the series becomes less about how the girls disappeared than why. Whether they’re vaporized by a shift in the magnetic field, transformed into animals, or something more mundane, their vanishing feels deliberate--a way to reject their prescribed futures for a different, freer path.
The base premise is familiar to fans of crime series, but this is no ordinary drama; it’s eerie and haunting. It’s less dreamy (a quality frequently ascribed to the film) and more of a nightmare that you’ll be eager to dive into.
It’s a lot, but it’s the right kind of a lot, and like Dormer’s performance, these choices skirt right up to the line of the ridiculous without ever crossing over. Had the writers and directors of this series been better at walking that line, Picnic At Hanging Rock might be more than a decent series with rich production values and a performance that blows the doors down.
In the end, neither the lush looks nor committed performances are enough to overcome the balance issues and general bloat.
Ms. Christian and Ms. Addison have taken every latent idea, every veiled suggestion, in the material and made it explicit. Every piece of subtext has been dredged up so that it can be turned into banal commentary on the benighted attitudes of the provincial patriarchy toward gender, race, class and sexuality. ... All that’s left is a fairly threadbare, clichéd melodrama.
Kondracki’s portrait of these girls is at once too sketchy to make them three-dimensional, and yet too literal to make them beguiling--which makes them come across as grating bores. ... There’s almost no reason for this version to exist.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 23 User Ratings
5.7
39% Positive
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
43% Mixed
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
17% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 23 User Ratings
5.7
39% Positive
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
43% Mixed
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
17% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
Production Company:
- Amazon Studios
- FremantleMedia Australia
- Screen Australia
Initial Release Date: May 6, 2018
Number of seasons: 1 Season
Rating: TV-14
Awards
Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards
• 3 Wins & 8 Nominations
Screen Music Awards, Australia
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Australian Production Design Guild Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
