Serial practice often involves a reception that focuses on suspense. But Top of the Lake particularises its treatment of suspense by means of slowdowns in the narrative, constituting a brake on the progression of the plot. These slowdowns are all the more noticeable in a series with a limited duration, and we will question the way in which they thwart the illusion of a narrative primarily centred on the fabula. We will then address the question of serial aesthetics. Top of the Lake recursively returns to sequences that concentrate the mystery in the plot, and these returns determine specific effects on the viewer.