Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Troppo’ Season 2 on Prime Video, The Return Of The Thomas Jane-Starring Aussie Crime Drama

Troppo premieres all eight episodes of its second season at once on Prime Video , and it seems like Thomas Jane has only gotten more creaky, grizzled, and sweaty since this quirky, appealing Australian crime drama debuted back in 2022. Jane stars in Troppo alongside an also sweaty Nicole Chamoun – “Troppo,” after all, is Aussie slang for getting crazy from the heat – as private investigators, each with their share of personal baggage, who learn they have a knack for solving murders together. Sound familiar? Yes. But Troppo has a real sense of character and place. Who among us has been to Queensland? Adapted from the Crimson Lake crime thrillers by Australian author Candice Fox , Troppo season 2 is based on Redemption Point , the second book in the series. Radha Mitchell, Zindzi Okenyo, Angela Punch McGregor, and Simon Lyndon also co-star.

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Opening Shot: A coiled snake, an angry ostrich, and two lovers canoodling in a hollow, out in the sweltering Queensland bush. Suddenly a burning body falls out of the darkness.

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The Gist: The first season of Troppo established the prickly, fun rapport between disgraced former police detective Ted Conkaffey and resourceful private investigator Amanda Pharrell (Chamoun), while we also got up to speed on what made them unlikely PI partners in the first place. Ted, once on the force in Sydney, was falsely accused of abducting and assaulting an adolescent girl. Bogus charges, but he still separated from Kelly (Mitchell), who remained in Sydney with their daughter while he landed in the tiny North Queensland town of Crimson Lake. And that’s where he’s hired by Amanda, who chose a loner’s life in her hometown after doing a 12-year bit there for murder. They solved a murder together. Agreed to be partners in a private investigation outfit operated out of the back of a tattoo parlor/dive bar. And here we are as season 2 of Troppo begins.

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There’s another murder, of course. That whole burning body thing. And Pharrell-Konkaffey Investigations is quickly running its own looksee, even if Pip Sweeney (Okeyno), Crimson Lake’s new police investigator, warns them to stay away. The dead man ran a family retreat center near a wilderness area known as Redemption Point. He left behind troubled son Raph (Ethan Lwin) and Raph’s girlfriend Tylah (Miah Madden), both of whom could be hiding something. There’s another body in the mix, one with tats Amanda recognizes. And soon there are more leads to check out, like the activities of a violent “bikie” gang who operate in the region, and pushback on Sweeney’s methods from Val (McGregor), the town doctor/medical examiner.

For as much as Ted and Amanda have become intuitive as partners – whatever anyone in town thinks of them, they’re actually pretty good at solving shit – the thing they don’t know is that their respective pasts are pushing majorly into the present. And that might not be what they’re ready for.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? In Australia, Troppo shares a network with In Limbo , a funny, poignant sitcom that recently made its way to the US via Hulu. But it’s the well-trodden path of murder show procedurals set in interesting places that Troppo is following, with other examples including Black Snow , also filmed in Australia, and Entrapped , with its Nordic noir – and biker – vibes.

Our Take: We’ve all watched a million murder shows, and we’ll all watch a million more. What breaks Troppo out of its formulaic frame is the unpredictability of Ted and Amanda’s partnership. They’ve grown to enjoy working together, even if it remains at times argumentative, and their personalities mesh best when improvising on a hunt for clues or scrambling to help each other out of a jam. And maybe it’s because Troppo is based on a book series, but the writing always manages to take an additional turn, an extra line or two that lends individuality and watchability to the proceedings. Like he did with Hung and The Expanse , Jane proves adept at expressing the fullness of his character without a lot of grandstanding and loud noises. And Nicole Chamoun keeps the impulses that drive Amanda half-hidden, which drives our anticipation for how she’ll continue to manage – and maybe even overcome – her personal traumas.

Filmed on location in Queensland, Australia, Troppo also gets a ton of enjoyable mileage out of the circumstances of its surroundings. Whether it’s the geese who wander through Ted’s place, the rough two-tracks that wind through stands of overgrown bunya-bunya trees, or the constant fact of weather that’s rainforest sticky, the environment is always a main character in this series. Sure, they’re solving murders. Lots of shows do it! But there is a distinct randomness to Troppo that allows us to see and learn new things along the way.

Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode, anyway.

Parting Shot: Amanda and Ted are both expert snoopers, and separately, they each uncover another piece of the evolving puzzle that is their two-person agency’s latest murder case.

Sleeper Star: We’re intrigued with the character of Tylah in Troppo , who seems to have a hidden agenda in addition to plenty of cash to pay Pharell-Konkaffey Investigations. And here’s a fast fact: Tylah is played by Miah Madden, whose half-sister Madeline Madden co-stars as Egwene on Prime Video’s fantasy series The Wheel of Time .

Most Pilot-y Line: “Cops around here have a habit of screwing things up,” Amanda tells a few prospective new clients in town. “I’m a private investigator. If you’re worried about your father, I’d be happy to look into it.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. Built around the chemistry between Nicole Chamoun and Thomas Jane as unlikely PI duo Amanda Pharrell and Ted Conkaffey, Troppo finds murders to solve in the most remote of places, with the scenery and wildlife and eccentric characters of Australia’s northern reaches always on offer.

Johnny Loftus ( @glennganges ) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.

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