# The Luminaries (2020)

> Men and women chase fortunes on the wild 19th-century West Coast goldfields of New Zealand, where love, murder and revenge tangle across intersecting timelines.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/80399

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 6
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, mystery, history
- Network: TVNZ 1
- Cast: Eva Green, Eve Hewson, Himesh Patel, Marton Csokas, Ewen Leslie, Benedict Hardie, Erik Thomson, Callan Mulvey
- TMDB rating: 6.4/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8075008/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: dense
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: sumptuous, gothic, tense, melancholic, intricate

## What critics say

Reviewers admire the period atmosphere and the strong ensemble, especially Eva Green, while finding the convoluted non-linear structure hard to follow at times.

## Synopsis

The Luminaries (2020) is a New Zealand national-television period mystery miniseries created for TVNZ 1 and presented as a single six-episode limited series. Set in 1860s colonial New Zealand on the wild West Coast of the South Island during the gold rush, it follows newcomers who arrive to make their fortunes and find themselves tangled in a web of love, murder and revenge. Eva Green plays Lydia Wells, a figure whose secrets and presence dominate the screen, with Eve Hewson as Anna Wetherell and Himesh Patel as Emery Staines at the center of the drama. Marton Csokas adds a menacing edge as Francis Carver, while Ewen Leslie, Erik Thomson and Benedict Hardie fill out a cast of settlers chasing gold and reinvention. The engine of the story is a hunt for the truth behind a crime, pieced together through intersecting timelines that rewards close attention and patience. Each episode peels back another layer of motive and deception, building toward a conclusion that settles the central mystery. The atmosphere is sumptuous and gothic, with candlelit interiors, rain-soaked goldfields and a seance scene that lingers in memory. Fans of Deadwood and Taboo will find resonance in its frontier grit, moral compromise and period intrigue, and viewers who enjoy puzzle box storytelling will feel at home.

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