When Top of the Lake announced its second season would leave New Zealand in favour of Sydney, fans and critics were dubious, to say the least.
How could it retain its unique vibe across the ditch? How would it work? Which characters - if any - would remain?
Even the show's producers, Emile Sherman and Phillipa Campbell, felt the "pressure to live up to season one" and all its Emmy and Golden Globe recognition.
"We're not trying to repeat anything. Elisabeth (Moss) actually has said; 'Why would I want to repeat myself? It's four years on, I only want to do new, more challenging things'," says Campbell.
"You don't want it to be the same but it still has to feel like it's got the same DNA underneath it," adds Sherman.
And no matter who you talk to, the driving force behind achieving that is undeniably Jane Campion, despite the fact she was hesitant to even make a second season. Luckily, she was talked into it by her co-writer Gerard Lee.
"And the reason...was because I thought we'd locked on to a style that was very enchanting to people...and I thought we should dish up more of it," says Lee.
Still, it was immediately obvious to Campion that they had to leave New Zealand, despite Lee's objections.
Top of the Lake co-writer Gerard Lee and New Zealand director Jane Campion. Photo / Supplied
"I just thought that we needed to change cities and take it back to Australia where [main character Robin Griffin (Elisabeth Moss)] is from and find a whole new world and a new crime. We're more like a series of novels keeping the same detective," she says.
"We worked with those themes of paradise and nature in the first series and I didn't feel excited to go over them again. [China Girl] is really exciting and different."
The new series focuses on a mysterious body that washes up on Bondi Beach, and the tangled web of deceit, illegal sex work and family ties that Robin and her new partner Miranda Hilmarsson have to untangle to get to the bottom of it.
But though the atmosphere remains quintessentially Top of the Lake, the mood of this season often feels lighter, largely because the insanely energetic Gwendoline Christie joins the cast as Miranda.
The Game of Thrones star joined the cast after emailing Campion right as she and Lee were struggling to figure out who would best be suited to her part; a loving, open, optimistic and sometimes goofy woman playing "buddy cop" to Moss' hyper-focused, emotionally-guarded Robin.
Christie, who has been a fan of Campion's since seeing An Angel at my Table when she was 12, sent the note via a friend, writing:
"'Dear Margot, if you think I sound like an idiot, please don't send it to Jane and let's never speak of it again.' But she sent it anyway," laughs Christie.
"I was such a huge fan of Top of the Lake, I watched it probably four times before I wrote the email...and I was quite in love with the idea of being in that world."
Similarly, Campion "felt this...surge of energy when I thought about [Christie] playing that role and what she could bring to it," recalls Campion.
"I just love her, she's so courageous and funny and bright. And it is really helpful when you have somebody who is how it was written; A 6 foot 4-inch tall woman. What's great about Gwen is she stretches the way you have to think about...the kind of prejudices that people have that women shouldn't be that tall, or should be dainty and small, and that's why I really love having her, it's always stretching those gender cliches."
Christie and Moss work stunningly as a "buddy-cop" pair, with Miranda bringing out a new side of Robin through a beautiful display of female friendship, the likes of which is rarely depicted in mainstream media.
Robin and Miranda share a beautiful moment in Top of the Lake. Photo / Lisa Tomasetti
In fact, Campion's representation of women in general remains a much-praised aspect of her work.
"Our women detective characters are not the perfect women you get with the CSI-type ones where they look like models and when they go to work they're smart and feisty, and when they get into a fight they're really good at karate as well," scoffs Lee.
"The great thing about Jane's women is they're fraught, fragile, vulnerable, struggling to be stronger and brave, they're complex characters and they're strong because they're complicated."
It's what drew Christie to Top of the Lake; a major departure from previous parts in Game of Thrones and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
"It is my main interest to play parts that explore a different sphere of humanity, explore something we're not used to seeing or that perhaps is a little bit outside of the regular experience," says Christie.
"When I read a script, that's what I'm hoping will be there...I want to see their flaws because it's through looking at the flaws of someone that you can really start to empathise with someone and see who they are as a person."
In that vein, Nicole Kidman plays a dedicated mother navigating a divorce and her newly discovered sexuality, and balancing protecting her child with smothering her.
And Elisabeth Moss returns as Robin Griffin as she struggles with work, the events of season one, and seeking out her daughter. She faces incredibly tough storylines, but it was at her own request.
"I asked quite specifically to be challenged by Jane - otherwise why do it and why watch it?" says Moss.
"I believe I used the words, 'I want her to be really f***ed up. I want her to be f***ed up, Jane. Go deeper, go darker.' And she is. It's been a dream."
On the flipside however, Campion has come under fire in the past for her treatment of male characters and depicting them as deplorable and villainous.
Unsurprisingly, it's a criticism she has zero time for.
"Some people mention that to me and I'm just like yeah, I guess there were some kind of tough guys in it but...it's not my job to be fair, it's to tell the story. There's some pretty tough women there too, I thought the characters were interesting - that's what I'm interested in. I think that villains are interesting," she says, as if it should be obvious.
This much is obvious in the show's "villain" Puss, played by David Dencik. He's a character who doesn't necessarily do bad things, but gives the vibe that he could at any given moment.
"He always pulls the carpet out from under any event," says Dencik, who calls his character a social "suicide bomber".
"If I had been Puss here, he would've been pissing on your iPhone and being a real dick, saying things that would be obviously provocative or disturbing. There's something destructive to him."
Conversely, another male character, Pyke is a "good man" but we see how much he struggles to maintain that, sacrificing control and suppressing his better instincts to hold onto that status in a way that's just as complex as any of Campion's female characters.
While co-writer Gerard Lee says he "doesn't always agree" with Jane Campion's views and treatment of male characters, he says: "I still think it's a really fantastic point of view and I would support it all the time".
"Jane is a feminist, but she's not a single-minded, militant, man-hating, sexist feminist. She's a very keen observer of all of man and woman-kind and has a much more complex view of both the sexes."
The resulting Top of the Lake: China Girl is a mixed bag of entertainment, storytelling and social commentary. It's funny, heartwarming, hopeful, harrowing, heartbreaking and dread-filled.
It challenges what you think you know about life, love and certain kinds of people, and despite the shift in location, characters and story, it is everything fans have been waiting for.
LOWDOWN: What: Top of the Lake: China Girl Where: UKTV When: Tuesdays at 9.30pm
