For those of you who follow my binge recommendations closely, you’ll have figured out that I love black comedies. While I have no problem with some sentimentality, when a show is drowning in its own earnestness, it ends up turning me off (which is why you won’t see me recommending Shrinking). But, when a show manages to balance its earnestness with self-awareness, bite and edge, like, say, Ted Lasso or Schitt’s Creek, then I’m all in.
But dark humor is where I’m most at home. Which is why I was so happy to have stumbled onto Deadloch, an Australian crime drama that is as funny and offbeat as it is dark and murder-ridden. Streaming on Prime Video, Deadoch premiered in June of 2023 and its first season is just so much fun. It’s eight episodes, set and shot in Tasmania and loaded with offbeat Australian character actors who are as much of a delight to watch as the mystery is to figure out. 
Deadloch stars Kate Box as Dulcie Collins, the senior detective in the small fictional town of Deadloch in Tasmania, Australia. Calling her a senior detective is a bit misleading though, considering there are only three police officers in the entire town. But of the three, she is the boss. Dulcie is only in Deadloch as a favor to her wife, Cath, played by Alicia Gardiner, who wanted to move the couple out to the countryside after living in the city had caused them too much stress. Little did she know that a dead body was about to wash up on the shore of Deadloch, bringing more than a little stress not only to their lives, but to the lives of the whole town. Dulcie is of course thrilled for the opportunity to do some real police work, but she’s challenged by another detective who’s been sent to partner with her, Detective Eddie Redcliffe, played by Madeleine Sami, whose style of policework is, let’s say, slightly different than Dulcie’s. And when I say different, I mean on another planet.
There were just three other times an actor’s outsized performance made me laugh out loud like Madeleine Sami does here: Matt Berry as Laszlo Cravensworth in What We Do in the Shadows, Rhys Darby as Stede Bonnet in Our Flag Means Death and Anthony Carrigan as NoHo Hank in Barry. Sami comes in so hot as Detective Eddie Redcliffe, it feels as if the showrunners Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan are just daring you to wax nostalgic about Saturday morning Looney Tunes cartoons: Sami’s characterization of Eddie is the Tasmanian Devil in human form, spinning, whirring, upending everything in sight, leaving chaos in her wake. Nobody knows what to make of her, least of all the audience, and it is a total blast, watching her wind everybody up, especially Dulcie, who needs that fire under her butt to be lit. Eddie is an enigma, an Energizer bunny of profanity and lack of decorum, and Sami’s performance is unendingly entertaining, I couldn’t get enough. And her natural contrast to Box’s uptight and by-the-book Dulcie is cop show gold.
But so much more than the classic buddy cop show that you would expect here, Deadloch becomes a bonafide mystery that kept me guessing all the way through the last episode. That’s a tricky bit of writing, and kudos to them. Maybe I was too distracted by the colorful characters and Dulcie and Eddie’s interesting internal lives, but whatever it was, it works.
There’s a lot going on in Deadloch, and it’s all interesting. If you like crime dramas, murder mysteries and dark comedy, this is your jam. And I’m happy to say it’s been renewed for a second season, and I can’t wait.
Season one of Deadloch is available to stream on Prime Video. It has been renewed for a second season.