Line #35 Series/PicnicAtHangingRock


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pahr.png]]
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3	A 2018 TV adaptation of Joan Lindsay's [[Literature/PicnicAtHangingRock classic 1967 novel]] for Foxtel Showcase.
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5	In the early 20th century, Mrs. Appleyard (Creator/NatalieDormer) purchases a mansion in rural Australia and turns it into a successful school for young ladies. On a school outing to Hanging Rock, however, a group of girls -- freespirited Miranda (Creator/LilySullivan), rich heiress Irma (Creator/SamaraWeaving), and intelligent, mixed-race Marion (Creator/MadeleineMadden) -- and one of the teachers, Greta [=McCraw=] (Anna [=McGahan=]), mysteriously disappear, and the ramifications affect Mrs. Appleyard, the school, and the local community.
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7	----
8	!!This show provides examples of:
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10	* AdaptationalSympathy: Mrs. Appleyard is given a far more tragic backstory; [[spoiler:she is implied to have been forced into prostitution at a young age.]]
11	* AdaptationExpansion: A 212-page novel, [[Film/PicnicAtHangingRock previously made into a two-hour film]], is stretched out into five hours of television.
12	* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Irma has a crush on Miranda, who doesn't want to be with anyone, and then [[spoiler: on Michael, who is either in love or fascinated with Miranda, and doesn't propose as everyone expects.]]
13	* AmbiguouslyEvil: Mrs. Appleyard is out for herself above all, but how much empathy she has for others is confusing.
14	** The teachers are all women who would be otherwise unemployable due to scandalous backgrounds or limited intelligence. Is this because she wants them to be beholden to her, or because she sympathises with their situations? [[spoiler: Or is she afraid to hire anyone too respectable, who might see through her disguise?]]
15	** Does she try to protect Miranda to save her reputation and future, or the school's, or both? Does she try to break her spirit for the same reason? Does she care about the missing girls, or only about the scandal they caused her?
16	** She bonds with Sara over her time in the orphanage, and then beats her. [[spoiler: And might have killed her. Accidentally. Or not.]]
17	** She [[spoiler: stole her fortune from Arthur, but didn't intend to kill him.]]
18	* ArcWords: "Free".
19	* AttemptedRape: Miranda defends herself from one. Painfully.
20	* {{Bowdlerise}}: An in-universe example. The foyer at Appleyard College prominently features two sculptures of nude females, whose bare breasts have been covered up with signs reading "Purity" and "Refinement."
21	* CastingGag: Jewish actress Yael Stone plays fanatical Christian Dora Lumley, who's highly anti-Semitic, calling Jews enemies of God.
22	* ChildOfTwoWorlds: Marion is mixed race, with a white father and Aboriginal mother. Due to her rich father paying for it, she's educated at a high society finishing school and mixes with upper class white girls. It's clear though she will never gain full entry among them due to her heritage, since even when offered a teaching position she'd have to always hide when the students' parents came due to their racism.
23	* ConArtist: From the very beginning it is made clear to the viewer that Hester Appleyard is not the honorable widow she pretends to be, though her past takes some time to be unraveled. [[spoiler: While we see her as a lower-class orphan raised into some kind of thief, it's not entirely clear all the parts she played in scams, or the exact nature of her relationship with Arthur.]]
24	* DamselOutOfDistress: Miranda suffers an attempted rape in the stables by a young soldier. She stabs him in the foot with a pitchfork, incapacitating her attacker.
25	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Possibly Sara, though her fate is unclear. Hester, on the other hand, very clearly jumped to her death.]]
26	* FakeAristocrat: Irma, as the one student who ''actually'' comes from high society, can easily tell that [[spoiler: Mrs. Appleyard]] does not, due to her failure to follow precise dinner protocols.
27	* HalfBreedDiscrimination: Marion is the illegitimate daughter of a white judge and an Aboriginal woman. It's made clear that due to her background, she will never be fully accepted into white society.
28	* HeteronormativeCrusader: Dora Lumley is appalled learning that [[spoiler:Marion is seeing Miss [=McCraw=]]] and everyone else besides her friends (one of whom, [[spoiler:Irma]], is also queer) also reacts with homophobia when they learn about this.
29	* [[ImpaledPalm Impaled Foot]]: Miranda drives a pitchfork through the foot of the man who tried to take advantage of her.
30	* JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: Mrs. Appleyard walks an ambiguous line until [[spoiler: you begin to realise she's lying about Sara's disappearance.]]
31	* LineOfSightName: [[spoiler: "Mrs Appleyard" was the mascot of a brand of soap.]]
32	* LipstickLesbian: [[spoiler:Marion, Miss [=McCraw=] and Irma]] are all {{proper lady}} denizens of a finishing school. In the first two cases they're a couple, while the latter shows attraction to girls along with boys.
33	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: We see watches stopping near Hanging Rock, and several mysterious instances of people falling asleep en masse, and [[spoiler: time seeming to overlap during the ending]]. On the other hand, the characters who disappeared all had very good reasons to run off together.
34	* MistakenForRacist: PlayedForDrama. When Miss [=McCraw=] rebuffs Marion's Valentine, she does so on the grounds that such a student-teacher relationship would be wrong, but unfortunately also makes the mistake of telling Marion to leave "before anyone sees you". As Mrs. Appleyard just made Marion a job offer but said she would have to stay out of sight of parents because of her race, this comes across to Marion as Miss [=McCraw=] rejecting her for the same reason and trying to put a fig leaf over it, rather than genuinely trying to avoid a bad power dynamic.
35	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: After [[spoiler:Sara]] has been found [[spoiler:dead]], Mrs. Appleyard goes to Arthur's home believing that [[spoiler:Arthur kidnapped the girls and [=McCraw=] to get back at her]]. However, his assistant reveals the truth: [[spoiler:Arthur is dead; when Hester shot him years ago, the wound might have originally been non-fatal, but he developed gangrene and died as a direct result of her shot.]] [[spoiler: Hester]] is in shock but she turns to despair realising [[spoiler:that something else has taken the missing girls and teacher]] and that she might be the scapegoat for it.
36	* PalmBloodletting: Appears twice in important scenes of bonding among the main trio. First, Miranda's hands are caned until they bleed, and the other girls soothe her. [[spoiler: Later, there's a scene where all three slice their palms with rose thorns in order to swear a BloodOath.]]
37	* ParentalIncest: [[spoiler: Irma's stepfather made some sort of advances on her, which is why her mother sent her away.]]
38	* NoPeriodsPeriod: Averted, Edith's first period (and her limited understanding of the subject) is responsible for her being out of sorts on the day of the picnic.
39	* RaceLift: In this version, Marion is biracial, having a white Australian father and an Aboriginal mother.
40	* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Every major character at Appleyard College is a misfit unwanted by their families or society in general.
41	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: [[spoiler:Mlle. Poitiers]], gives one to the [[spoiler:officers]] after [[spoiler:discovering Sara's death]] scolding them for believing in the illusion that was the Appleyard College rather than protect [[spoiler:Sara]].
42	* TheReveal: What was inside the little box that Sara stole from Mrs. Appleyard, which made her so upset? [[spoiler: It wasn't what was inside it at all, it was the box itself.]]
43	* SanitySlippage: Mrs. Appleyard is plagued by visions of her dead husband Arthur [[spoiler: (although she didn't actually know he was dead at the time)]] and later, maggots [[spoiler: after Sara's death]].
44	* SecretRelationship: [[spoiler:Marion and Miss [=McCraw=]]] have to keep their relationship a secret, not so much due to being [[TeacherStudentRomance a teacher and student]] but the two both being female. Despite wanting to be with her, [[spoiler:Marion]] is unhappy at the prospect of having to keep this secret forever.
45	* SelfHarm: Sara's legs are covered with self-inflicted scratches. [[spoiler: She may have killed herself, in the end, though it's never clear, and slightly more likely that Hester knocked her out the window, accidentally or otherwise.]]
46	* SlutShaming
47	** The reason Irma is at the school: [[spoiler: her mother blames ''her'' for her stepfather creeping on her, and sent her away to the middle of nowhere.]]
48	** Irma calls Miranda a "saloppe," or slut in [[GratuitousFrench French]] when she perceives Miranda's smile as flirtatious towards Irma's crush, Michael.
49	** Deliberately invoked by the French mistress, Mlle. Poitiers. She stays the night at her boyfriend's house and makes ''very sure'' everyone sees her leaving in the morning [[spoiler: so that the scandalous gossip will cover up the fact she visited the Sheriff to express her concerns about Sara.]]
50	* SpottingTheThread: Irma realizes almost immediately that there's something not quite right about [[spoiler: Mrs. Appleyard]] because of the tiny, almost insignificant protocol mistakes present at the school--serving red wine with fish, bread plates on the wrong side--that someone [[spoiler: who was truly born and bred in "high society"]] would never make.
51	* TeacherStudentRomance: Between [[spoiler: Marion and Miss [=McCraw=]]].
52	* ToplessnessFromTheBack: Miranda, Irma and Marion are all shown naked from behind when dressing in Episode 3 together.
53	* TwoferTokenMinority: Marion, a girl with white and Aboriginal parentage, is the school's only person of color. This was very progressive at the time, and her rich father's influence is the reason she's able to access it. [[spoiler:She's also secretly involved with a female teacher.]]
54	* TheUnreveal: Albert never learns that [[spoiler:his sister Sara is a student at Miss Appleyard's, and thus never learns of her death either]], meaning that the audience never gets to see [[spoiler:the two siblings interact on-screen]] or see Albert's reaction to either revelation.
55	* UptownGirl: Working class Albert has unrequited feelings for heiress Irma. [[spoiler:The wealthy Michael is implied to have feelings for Albert, who appears to reciprocate by the end of the series.]]
56	* VomitIndiscretionShot: The series likes to throw some shock imagery, including the vomiting of Miranda's attempted assailant and a close-up view of [[spoiler: the man defecating on the school carpet in revenge]].

Context Series / PicnicAtHangingRock