Dead Heat

Press release time!

Prime Video Releases the Official Trailer for Australian Amazon Original Series Deadloch

When a local man turns up dead on the beach, two vastly different detectives are thrown together to solve the case

From the wickedly funny minds of Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan comes the killer new series Deadloch, starring Kate Box, Madeleine Sami, Nina Oyama, Tom Ballard, Alicia Gardiner, Susie Youssef, and more

Deadloch will launch exclusively on Prime Video on June 2 in Australia and more than 240 countries and territories around the world

But wait, there’s more!

SYDNEY—May 4, 2023—Today, Prime Video released the official trailer and first-look images for the Australian Amazon Original series Deadloch. Created, written, and executive produced by Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan (Get Krack!n, The Katering Show), the first three episodes of Deadloch will premiere exclusively on Prime Video globally on Friday, June 2, with new episodes available each Friday, leading up to the season finale on Friday, July 7. Deadloch becomes the latest addition to the Prime membership. Prime members across the globe enjoy savings, convenience, and entertainment, all in a single membership.

The Tasmanian town of Deadloch, a once sleepy seaside hamlet, is left reeling when a local man turns up dead on the beach. Two female detectives are thrown together to solve the case: Fastidious local senior sergeant Dulcie Collins (Kate Box) and a rough-as-guts blow-in from Darwin, senior investigator Eddie Redcliffe (Madeleine Sami) along with their overeager junior constable Abby (Nina Oyama). As the town prepares to launch the annual arts, food, and culture event—Winter Feastival—the trio have to put their differences aside and work together to find the killer.

Cinematic, thrilling, mysterious, and moody, Deadloch puts a high-comedy spin on the crime genre and questions Australia’s relationship with truth, gender, and race, while keeping you guessing (and laughing) at every turn.

Deadloch features a large ensemble cast led by Kate Box (Fires, Wentworth), Madeleine Sami (The Breaker Upperers), Nina Oyama (Utopia), Tom Ballard (Tonightly with Tom Ballard), and Alicia Gardiner (Wakefield, Offspring), as well as Susie Youssef (Rosehaven), Pamela Rabe (Wentworth), Kris McQuade (Rosehaven), Duncan Fellows (The Letdown), Harvey Zielinski (Don’t Look Deeper), Shaun Martindale (The Tailings), Katie Robertson (Five Bedrooms), Nick Simpson-Deeks (Winners & Losers), Mia Morrissey (Home and Away), Leonie Whyman (Dark Place), Mick Davies (Rosehaven), Holly Austin, Kartanya Maynard, and Naarah. The eight-part series was shot in and around Hobart, Tasmania in 2022 with episodes directed by acclaimed Australian filmmakers Ben Chessell (The Great, Giri/Haji), Gracie Otto (The Moth Effect, Seriously Red), and Beck Cole (Black Comedy, Wentworth), with Andy Walker (Rosehaven, The Kettering Incident) producing.

“In Deadloch, The Kates have created a gripping mystery with their signature hilarious—and often biting—comedic tone masterfully weaved throughout,” said Sarah Christie, senior development executive Prime Video Australia. “This is the second of three Australian Amazon Original scripted series Prime Video are releasing this year, and we are thrilled to be working with Guesswork Television and OK Great Productions, along with a powerhouse creative team led by Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan, to bring this uniquely Australian story to screens around the world. Deadloch flips the crime genre on its head in such a fresh and engaging way, and we know Prime Video customers globally are going to be hooked from the first episode.”

Deadloch co-creators Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan said:  “We are both so thrilled to share the dark, strange little town of Deadloch with the world. We’re particularly excited for everyone to meet Dulcie and Eddie, performed by the powerhouses Kate Box and Madeleine Sami, who are far better actors than we’ll ever be. The supporting cast is sublime, the crew are a delight, and the experience of making this story with Prime Video globally on the incredible land of lutruwita (Tasmania) is one we’ll never forget.”

This is a bit of a tricky one. We’ve been a big fan of the Kates here for ages, but that doesn’t mean we’ve unconditionally loved everything they’ve done – and there’s been a bit of a clear line between them going all-out comedy wise (The Katering Show, Get Krack!ng, Slushy) and the projects where they’ve been weaving a bit of drama into the mix (mostly just Bleak).

There’s been an endless line-up of local crime dramas where a body turns up in a small town and some out-of-towner gets roped into solving the mystery, so a comedy spin on the cliches is very much welcome. Obviously it’s a bit hard to tell how much comedy there’s going to be based on a two minutes trailer – oh right, the trailer:

(no prizes for guessing which detective would be played by which Kate in a parallel, much lower budget universe)

Network executives are going to say pretty much anything to get you to tune in, so the line “The Kates have created a gripping mystery with their signature hilarious—and often biting—comedic tone masterfully weaved throughout” is more a guide to what they think people want than the show itself.

But from what we can tell, this really does look a lot more like “straight mystery with comedy characters” rather than a full-on comedy taking the piss out of the genre itself. That’s probably as it should be: trying to fill eight episodes with jokes about one played out genre would be pretty tough.

Unfortunately, that means it might just be eight episodes of a played-out genre. Still, Tasmania always looks nice. Fingers crossed Anthony Morgan shows up at some point.

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1 Comment

  • Simbo says:

    I have to ask, why does anybody outside his year 9 drama class think that Tom Ballard should be acting?