It's the turn of the century Australia. Mrs Hester Appleyard (Natalie Dormer) purchases a remote mansion turning it into a girls' school. Miranda Reid (Lily Sullivan) is a self-possessed student expected to learn refinement. She stabs a handsy soldier with a pitchfork. It's St. Valentine's Day 1900. The girls are off to picnic at Hanging Rock. As most nap, Miranda leads Irma Leopold, Marion Quade, and Edith Horton up the Rock. The girls and their teacher Miss McCraw go missing. Only Edith returns in a shocked state.
The 1975 film was a critical hit and is a real sign post in Australian cinema. It's a psycho-sexual drama in hormonal madness. The lack of a revelation only added to its unique dreamlike quality. This TV series does have some of that. The teen sexual drama is in full bloom. Dormer, Sullivan, and the girls are all great. The revelation is little Inez Currõ who delivers a dark innocent performance and fully owns her episode as the protagonist. One of the reasons why the film's confused nature works is that it made it into a dream. The TV series tries to have it both ways by diving into the characters' individual stories while keeping some of the dreamlike qualities. It doesn't work as well and revealing an ending may be its major flaw. It's confused without the enjoyment of the dream. It's analyzing the dream without making sense of it. This material may not be able to translate into something longer than a movie.
