Review: Morgana O’Reilly shines in police drama Bust Up

Two police officers’ personal and professional lives collide in Neon’s new local crime drama.

New Zealand knows how to make a good TV police drama. We bloody love a moody crime series set in a scenic part of the country, one that usually involves a city cop who comes back to their quiet little hometown to solve a perplexing crime and confront their troubled past. From The Brokenwood Mysteries and A Remarkable Place to Die to shows like The Gone, The Gulf and One Lane Bridge, we can’t get enough.

Now we can add Bust Up to that list, a new police drama that started on Neon last week. The six-part series is a co-production between Sky NZ and German broadcaster ZDF, and was created, written and produced by Paula Boock and Donna Malane (The Gulf). It’s set in the fictional town of Waitote, a small community in Northland where everyone knows everyone and the stunning coastal landscape is captured in moody shades of grey and green, all sea and sky and lush forest in between.

But Bust Up has a major point of difference from other traditional crime drama shows. This is a cop-buddy drama with a twist, because both the lead police officers are women – and they’re also ex-romantic partners. The past and the present collide unexpectedly for Constable Deb Brighton (Morgana O’Reilly) and Detective Mihi Renata (Roimata Fox) in the show’s opening moments, when they lock eyes again after a decade apart. The former lovers reunite in the most bizarre of situations: a bank robbery in Waitote’s main street, carried out by a petty criminal wearing a giant shark mask.

It’s Mihi’s first day on the job, having recently brought her husband back to small, sleepy Waitote for an easier life. She had no idea she’d be working alongside her ex-girlfriend, but it’s clear there are still unresolved feelings between Mihi and Deb. Their personal issues need to be pushed aside as they team up to investigate the bank robber’s criminal history, uncovering a local crime ring that involves stolen luxury cars and a woman being held hostage in a remote cottage.

Bust Up drops us straight into the drama with the robbery, and the show’s opening scenes are full of dry humour and big energy. After that, however, the show shifts to a more sombre, darker vibe, before swinging back to the unusually comic (Deb performs some Scottish dancing to persuade a local – played by Josh Thomson – to give her some CCTV footage). There’s a lot going on in episode one, and initially, these constant shifts in tone mean that it’s hard to know what kind of show Bust Up is trying to be – a comic cop story like Deadloch, a moody thriller like The Gone, or a quirky mystery like Brokenwood.

This unevenness eases as the story progresses into episode two, and Bust Up settles into becoming more of a quiet drama about small-town relationships than a wacky crime thriller. The tangled web of community connections moves the story smoothly through each episode, and the supporting characters are richly drawn, with an emotional depth often missing in police procedurals. Here the depiction of small town New Zealand feels authentic and believable, without ever being condescending.

Mostly, Bust Up reminds us how refreshing it is to see two women take the lead in a cop drama. There’s not a grizzly male detective in sight, and it’s these capable, flawed women who tackle the bad guys and solve the crimes. As you would expect, O’Reilly is brilliant and dynamic in this, and she and the talented Fox anchor the drama by playing off each other’s contradictions – Deb is the impulsive, unorthodox partner, while Fox is rock-solid as the calm, guarded Mihi. They’re ably supported by an impressive local cast that includes Arlo Green, Nicola Kāwana, Jodie Rimmer, Xavier Horan and Kura Forrester.

Will this all-women cop-buddy twist be enough to make Bust Up stand out in the TV crowd, though? If you like a police drama, you’ll enjoy Bust Up – but even with Deb and Mihi in charge, the show’s mellow country music soundtrack and quiet atmosphere may still feel too familiar for New Zealand audiences looking for a local crime offering that’s fresh and different. The first three episodes are available now on Neon, and it’s worth sticking with. Bust Up becomes more sure of itself as the drama unfolds, and the fallout as Mihi and Deb put the fragments of their relationship back together will certainly be worth watching.

Bust Up streams on Neon, and screens on Sky Open on Wednesdays at 8.30pm.