The Gloaming (2020– ) User Reviews

Meh

[vickiphillips-47898 · 7/10 · 3 January 2020]

You cant fault the Tasmanian landscape or the cinematography at all. There is a really haunting feeling to the whole production which is right on point. But then there is something really mediocre about the acting and script. And it's really surprising because there are some really great actors in it. But all the characters are just so ridiculously clichéd. The storyline had such great promise too; murder, religious cults, family secrets and convict history. What more could you ask for?! But it too was incredibly clichéd and none of the plot twists were even slightly surprising. Overall it was ok. But I had just hoped for so much more.

Good premise, but misses the mark

[karenlou313 · 6/10 · 31 January 2022]

Had high hopes for this series. Great title, beautiful locations but the plot was plodding, and the acting heavy-handed. Not sure who told the Molly character to swagger even down her own driveway, or to use the resting b$tch face the entire time on camera, but she almost got to be a badass with a heart. A total waste of Aaron Pederson's time and talent. Completing all episodes took some doing. And the crofter/witchy section...please. Redundant and went nowhere fast. With some revamping, they could pull it out of the doldrums. I haven't written a series, but have watched countless. In my humble opinion, no thanks so far.

Great-ish First Season

[bajackman · 6/10 · 16 February 2020]

It's a good watch. The style and some other elements borrows heavily from True Detective Season One. I would have given it a 7 or 8 except for one thing, one of the central villains a Scottish Australian is played by a New Zealand Maori with a thick NZ accent. This is utterly ridiculous considering she's supposed to be a 5th generation Australian descended from Scottish convicts.

Derivative, Wooden, Amateurish

[amelia-269-862806 · 11 January 2020]

Another embarrassing Aussie production trying to copy what everyone else does and ending up with a complete mess.

A clunky script, dull characters and completely derivative story combine to make this show not the Nordic Noir it wants to be but Tassie Try-hard!

It is over filtered and over styled, seemingly focused far more on how it looks (leading to some really bad calls on make up and costume..would Molly McGee really put heavy eyeliner on each day when she can barely get out of bed?)

Even the shots of the the ravishing scenery are somewhat ruined through the endless repetition of a snow capped Mount Wellington.

Yet another missed opportunity.

Stan have done some good Tv (Wolf Creek series one) but recent productions whilst well funded are totally missing the mark.

Honest Review

[heno-45762 · 6/10 · 2 January 2020]

This show starts off intriguing enough yet losers it's touch, seems not to concentrate on one thing at a time but 4-5 different things at a time.The landscape is brilliant the acting is on cue.Yet the story is a little strange.Am only up to Episode 6 and it's not answering nothing as yet. Due to being Australian I will watch the end of it but it's watchable and interesting maybe you need to make up your own mind.

Mixing a pseudo-supernatural mystery in a detective soap opera has gone better.

[connorundrumme · 6/10 · 12 January 2021]

A really clichéd, hack-job of a production. Even the hallucinations/specters are less mysterious than pointless. At one point, the actors were even directed to move stealthily past a graveyard in the dark, but with "torches" on!?

Bingeworthy

[trish-maher · 9/10 · 6 January 2020]

This is a great binge watch. Moody and intriguing, it starts as a slow burn, which allows for a delicious and expanding experience. Loved that they don't rush to the reveals, but let us enjoy trying to figure out the characters as the investigation unfolds - Visually stunning with complexity and intrigue, it's a satisfying and complete story. Those characters are worth another outing, and the casting is spot on. I hope they do another season, with a new, equally interesting storyline - I'm grateful they didn't succumb to 'cliffhanger bait' so the next season can be fresh and complete like this one. Also makes me want to visit Tasmania!

Entertaining though a bit over dramatic

[AlexGreen88 · 7/10 · 21 January 2020]

Intriguing storyline with the two main characters portrayed by talented actors. The Tasmanian scenery is incredible! Unfortunately the rest of the characters are pretty over-acted, many are clichéd and the child actors leave alot to be desired...

Slow burning and cinematic

[meghanstreet · 9/10 · 10 February 2020]

I thoroughly enjoyed watching The Gloaming. The slow burn and cinematic landscapes set the atmosphere so wonderfully and pulled the watcher in seamlessly. The onscreen presence of Emma Booth as Molly McGee and her chemistry with Ewen Leslie as Alex O'Connell along with a character filled support cast simply made this series. I love that the series was unashamedly Australian, it makes me want to visit Tasmania now more than ever. I look forward to seeing if there is a second series. We need more quality TV like this!

I keep watching....

[IceQueen99 · 6/10 · 3 May 2021]

....but I don't know what the heck is going on. I'll give it a few more episodes with something better happen!

I Want to Love It- But....

[nathanoakes-11484 · 4/10 · 5 January 2020]

The Gloaming is stunningly beautiful with a concept, cast, and setting that should have been brilliant television- but the writing and acting are atrocious. I just don't care about the characters- they are either idiots or two-dimensional stereotypes straight out of a English village murder mystery. I am seven episodes in and have really tried to get into it but I just cannot get past these huge flaws. I keep waiting for it to improve or to overwhelmed by an amazing plot twist pay-off that is just not happening. I love the Nordic noir that this show is desperately trying to ape but beyond the amazing cinematography there is nothing to recommend. Oh- and it is a red ute, not a truck. (This bothered me more than it should have).

Terrific first season

[mandyhelum · 9/10 · 6 January 2020]

So enjoyed this first series and hoping for a second ! Loved the scandi noir feeling of the storytelling and cinematography. Terrific characters and very unsettling. Really enjoyed this one !

Not as bad as you might hear. Not so good either.

[Rogermex · 6/10 · 31 May 2021]

First of all, the acting is not "wooden" - plenty of emotion going on here, consistent with the characters.

Are there cliches? - yes - property development is the root of all evil - well, that might just be an endemic problem ("Mar a Lago" anyone?). Woman detective who's challenged as a bad mother, and operating ("feistily," outside the rules). Headmaster of a school with an obviously troubled conscience. Guy with skinhead style is very unlikable and suspicious, protected by his Mama. Weird "church." All very cliched parts of the plot.

Scenery? Yes -it's interesting to to see the scenery of Tasmania.

The main problem is the supernatural mumbo-jumbo. A phony church with weird biblical references, strange witchy symbols, and an apparent witch wanna-be devoted to her upswept hair-do, smiling sardonically.

I'm watching to see how it all pans out - what the hell else do I have to do these days? But despite the positives it sorta has a cheesy smell.

What a load of rubbish!

[jell95 · 3/10 · 8 January 2020]

Firstly the casting director takes us all for fools. Rena Owens is an incredible actress but she's also Maori with a thick Kiwi accent, yet here we're supposed to believe she's a white Australian with two white Australian full sisters? Then people say stuff like 'they're odd, come from convict stock'. No one in Australia talks like that. Being set in Hobart in one small part of an already tiny city, we're also meant to believe that no one knew that three sisters just up and changed their names, apparently that makes them entirely different people. Even taking away the supernatural elements of the show, the normal parts aren't even plausible. It's clear that the show was created for an overseas audience because it's an insult to Australians.

Australian ?

[hickeydrf · 6/10 · 27 May 2020]

Why would any Australian call a Holden Ute a truck! ??

Garbage haunting nonsense

[dwpatter53 · 6/10 · 25 March 2021]

Would be a better mystery without the magic haunting nonsense. Unless the guy is just psycho.

Loved it

[Brin2070 · 10/10 · 11 January 2020]

Don't ya just love it when other reviewers proclaim that any favorable reviews must be fake? Guess what? Some of us DO love the show and we don't try to tell others how to think!

Lovely look at Tasmania

[dkubehansi · 7/10 · 13 January 2020]

The show was ok it sort of lacked depth for the characters. It lacked suspense so it was very average. The scenery was awesome.

Loved every minute!

[gavinchadwick · 10/10 · 1 January 2020]

I've binged this in a day! Loved everything about it! Great story , lots of twists n turns !

So out of touch with reality

[Tiny T · 6/10 · 19 January 2021]

As mentioned in the original review there honna be SPOILERS. After a few weeks after my original review I decided to finish the series after all for closure purposes. And what surprised me, a sudden emphasis of the occult part occurred which overshadowed the lack of respect for criminal investigation protocol. Since that is more of my taste it wasn't so difficult to complete the series after all. Due to that fact I changed my opinion for the better, allthough you have to be patient since the change just occurred in episode 6 of 8. So if you got the same interest as I you could finish this as well. Therefor my grade goes up to a descent 6. I leave the original review so you could compare thoughts for yourself. Original comment: When I read the plot of this serie I thought it was pretty descent. Regular police serie about a combination of killings at a background if mysterious 17th century religious and pagan folklore at a Tasmanian surrounding. And yes, THEIRE WILL BE SPOILERS. How wrong could I be. One of the main building blocks of a descent police story is that the cops play by the book, at least while there characters are build. After that under very special circumstances they might bent the rules to break a case open and then usually getting caught in the process so they can save the day by doing the right thing after all and solving the case. Not in this case. After the start of the pilot, unfolding the original crime where everything leads back to, we see a police inspector break in to a mansion, disrupting its interior and stealing some items which shown up on the path of the owner of the mansion which urge the owner to do some investigation himself discovering evidence which ties the inspector to the burglary. This evidence is used much later when it suits the owner and project developer. So al credibility is gone. Then the second policeman needed for the plot, the survivor of the original crime mentioned before, is forced to travel back home from his live in Melbourne law enforcement, just to team up with that inspector with whom he had a relationship with in his childhood. So the daily routines are filled with awkward moments like is expected in a series of this kind. However, he popping diazepam like there M&M's and he carries an illegal gun in the car. On top of it all the daughter if the female cop is involved with one of the suspects. And if that's not enough, she have her team members start unsupported investigations on the project developer which is only driven by her personal vendetta. And then the evidence of her wrongdoing is finally presented to her superior by the project developer to get her of his back. All of this would have her thrown out of the corpse and have her prosecuted for burglary and more. But not in this case. She getting yelled at by her boss but remains the leader of the team until he receives a written complaint. The evidence is apparently not enough. I mean, what about protocol? What a crap. All other intriges aside, I couldn't finish this serie after chapter six and thats a stretch in this case. So, as far as I'm concerned, skip this one and get on with your life.

Beautiful but empty and cliched

[Barty2811 · 3/10 · 3 January 2020]

The only five-star performance is that of the incredibly beautiful Tasmanian landscape. The story is pretentious and ultimately too neatly sown up at the last episode, an episode where one pleaded to be put out of one's misery with more false endings than the final chapter of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The dialogue was stilted, awkward, the story line strived hard to have some of the pagan horror of Midsommor or The Wickerman with none of the authentic feel of those movies and the character's motivations and actions too predictable.

I see there are a couple of ten star reviews in this page. Clearly from people associated with the production - which would probably encompass at least twenty per cent of the Tasmanian population.

Finally - the sound quality for the dialogue was really poor and the actor playing the 14 year old daughter of the main detective was so atrocious at acting one can only surmise she was someone in the production company's niece or neighbour or selected only on the basis of her looks. Given this was a fairly essential role, this let down the entire cast.

Good show

[jason-592-267370 · 9/10 · 5 January 2020]

Great show takes a bit to get into it but then it had me hooked binged it over two nights

Loved the Tasmanian scenes.

Atmospheric drama with red ute truck

[rosebx-60362 · 7/10 · 20 August 2020]

Very atmospheric drama with a beautiful Tasmania backdrop, another superb acting stint by Ewen Leslie and Emma Booth but after watching Aaron Pedersen in Mystery Road, thought he looked out of place in a suit minus his trademark hat, but that could be a personal thing. The only thing that really annoyed me was constantly referring to the red ute as a red truck. Why must Aussie writers/directors insist on appeasing American viewers?

Cliched script and wooden performances

[lsheppo · 3/10 · 4 January 2020]

Everyone feels like they're acting in isolation from each other. Trying way too hard to be Nordic Noir. Plus, the little references to our history eg "Imagine how the convicts felt?" FFS what Australian would ever say that! Again, an Australian production trying to be like the rest of the world.

Great potential, cheapened by an abdundance of cliches

[Al_Campbell · 6/10 · 20 August 2021]

I don't think this is a terrible series at all - but they really missed a massive chance to create something amazing here.

It starts off pretty well, but quickly becomes apparent that the writers seemed more focused on creating something for American horror audiences than delivering on the promise of an atmospheric and mysterious crime thriller in the vein of True Detective.

Speaking of which, a lot of the aesthetic and many scenes in The Gloaming look like they've been heavily inspired by True Detective. The cop bracing the sinister leader of a powerful institution; the bleak car conversations; the presence of old-time folklore hindering an investigation.

Instead of running with that sense of ambiguity and weirdness, the creators seem to have chosen to steer toward a fairly generic pseudo-arthouse horror piece that dismisses the enormous historical and cultural potential in the Tasmanian landscape.

There's a great story in here somewhere, but unfortunately it's been harried off-screen by unimaginative writing, a lot of two-dimensional characters and a reliance on boring supernatural horror tropes that massively dilute the effect that shows like True Detective and The Sinner held.