The Clearing

When a local girl goes missing, a woman is forced to face the demons from her traumatic childhood.

The Clearing (2023) is an Australian psychological thriller limited series created by Matt Cameron and Elise McCredie and released on Disney+. Teresa Palmer plays Freya Heywood, a woman whose own traumatic childhood resurfaces when a local girl goes missing in a close-knit town. Her investigation pulls her toward the people who share that buried history, including Miranda Otto as Adrienne Beaufort and Guy Pearce as Dr. Bryce Latham, whose connections to the past grow harder to ignore as the search continues. The engine of the story is the tension between a community that wants to move on and a protagonist who cannot stop digging, with each episode layering suspicion, memory and small revelations across a single eight-episode run of roughly forty-nine minutes. Set in contemporary Australia, the series builds a claustrophobic atmosphere of rural secrecy, rain-washed landscapes and quiet domestic unease. Its tone is brooding, tense and emotionally raw, closer to the slow dread of Top of the Lake than to a conventional procedural. Viewers who enjoy patient character-driven mysteries with a psychological core will find much to admire in its restrained, morally complicated portrait of a community and the woman at its centre.

Audience response to this Australian miniseries is mixed, with viewers praising its performances and atmosphere while finding its thriller mechanics and reveals uneven.

• Top of the Lakeslow burn psychological dread, rural mystery, buried childhood trauma
• Mystery Roadmissing person investigation, small community secrets, Australian crime drama
• Big Little Lieshaunted protagonist confronting childhood trauma through a present-day disappearance

Created by

Matt Cameron, Elise McCredie

Release Date

2023-05-24

Episode runtime

49 min

Rating

6.3 / 10 (74)

What is The Clearing about?

A woman haunted by her traumatic childhood is forced to confront her past when a local girl goes missing.

What is The Clearing like to watch?

Ember's analysis rates the pacing of The Clearing as measured, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.

Is The Clearing violent?

Somewhat. Ember rates the violence in The Clearing as moderate.

What did critics think of The Clearing?

Audience response to this Australian miniseries is mixed, with viewers praising its performances and atmosphere while finding its thriller mechanics and reveals uneven.

Which shows are like The Clearing?

Shows with a similar feel include Top of the Lake, Mystery Road, and Big Little Lies.

How long is The Clearing?

The Clearing: 1 season, 8 episodes.

Is The Clearing still running?

No, The Clearing has ended.

Where can I watch The Clearing?

In United States, The Clearing streams on Hulu.