The road is long, with absolutely no winding turns. It's sunbaked and dusty, like everything else in the outback, and it cuts right across a bloody big cattle station.
A rugged looking bloke in a cowboy hat and double denim is driving down it in a four-wheel drive – he's the detective, and he's there to investigate a case of suspected foul play.
This is all you could ever really ask for in a television series, isn't it? Mystery Road is a spin-off of director Ivan Sen's 2013 film of the same name, and its follow-up, Goldstone. A pair of slow-burning outback crime classics, they boasted some stunning cinematography and introduced a great lead character in Aaron Pedersen's gritty detective, Jay Swan.
This new adaptation, with most of the key players back in front of and behind the lens, is one of the more true and satisfying spin-offs you'll find. The case Detective Swan is handed on arrival at Tony Ballantyne's quarter million acre cattle station is a proper mystery: two young farm hands are missing. All he has to work with is a ute, stranded in the middle of nowhere with all the doors open and the engine left running.
"I called in a detective because I think something's gone badly wrong here," explains the local top cop Emma James, portrayed with swagger by Australian screen legend Judy Davis. Senior Sergeant James, whose sunglasses and blunt haircut make her look like she'd be better placed editing a fashion magazine, turns out to be the cattle station owner's sister.
