High Country (TV Review)
Set in the Victorian High Country, High Country follows Sergeant Andie Whitford who becomes the new sergeant in Brokenridge following the retirement of Sam Dryson. Her wife Helen picks up a job doing some book keeping for a local which leads to Helen restarting her artistic passions.
I’ve been watching a lot of Australian crime dramas with queer protagonists and have been loving it. High Country’s Andie Whitford is very similar to the protagonist of Deadloch, Dulcie Collins as they’re both queer women and police officers who have recently changed jobs. Both Deadloch and High Country are also set in Australia in fairly remote places - Tasmania and the Victorian High Country respectively. But the similarities kinda of stop there. High Country is about the changing of the guard, finding out about yourself, and the festering wounds of not being able to follow through on your promises. A series of disappearances leads to a series of bodies being found which in turn leads to an investigation that could change everything.
Besides the missing persons turned murder investigation, there's also a sub plot going on between Sam Dryson, the former Sergeant whom Andie replaced when he retired, and Damien, a former primary school teacher and psychic who the whole town blames for the death of one of his students. Damien has always professed his innocence and he was never formally investigated as suspect. All he did was tell Sam that he'd had a vision of where the kid’s body was and that vision turn out to be true. It was enough for the town to hate him years later. Sam had vowed to the boy’s mother that he would hold to account that person responsible for his death but as Sergeant he never could. Now with all the free time in the world, Sam is desperate to pin it on Damien with absolute certainly.
High Country does feel fairly similar to other cop shows set in small town. There are moments that are fairly predictable. I had a lot of fun watching it. In New Zealand, you can watch it on Three Now.