# Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018)

> A 1900 Valentine's Day outing turns into an unexplained vanishing of three schoolgirls and their governess at the volcanic rock formation of Hanging Rock.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/68015

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 6
- Episode runtime: 55 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, mystery
- Network: showcase
- Cast: Natalie Dormer, Lily Sullivan, Samara Weaving, Madeleine Madden, Inez Curro, Lola Bessis, Yael Stone, Harrison Gilbertson
- TMDB rating: 6.2/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6038954/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: slow
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: mild
- Tone: eerie, languid, foreboding, melancholic, unsettling

## What critics say

Audiences rated this 2018 miniseries adaptation of Joan Lindsay's novel negatively, finding its mystery unresolved and its pacing uneven.

## Synopsis

Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018) is a limited series adaptation of the novel by Joan Lindsay, broadcast on Showcase and produced in the United States and Australia. Set in 1900 at a rural girls' school in Australia, the six-episode miniseries follows the aftermath of a Valentine's Day excursion to the volcanic formation of Hanging Rock, where three schoolgirls and their governess vanish without a trace. Natalie Dormer plays Mrs. Hester Appleyard, the headmistress whose control over the school begins to fracture, while Lily Sullivan plays Miranda Reid, one of the missing students whose presence lingers over the story. Samara Weaving, Madeleine Madden and Harrison Gilbertson round out the principal cast. The engine of the series is a search for answers that never fully arrives. Each episode peels back the rigid manners of Edwardian colonial society, showing how the school's staff, pupils and local townspeople react to the disappearance with suspicion, guilt and grief. The tone is languid and eerie, with long sun-bleached landscapes, quiet dread and a sense that the natural world holds secrets it will not surrender. Fans of Twin Peaks, The Others and The Witch will find resonance in its slow burn unease and its atmosphere of unexplained loss.

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