Upamanyu Biswas
Prime Video’s Australian crime series ‘Troppo‘ is set in Crimson Lake, a wildlife-centric town in the far north of Queensland, Australia. Surrounded by rainforests and a river filled with crocodiles and snakes, the settlement exists on the outer reaches of civilization, attracting dangerous criminal elements who operate in the shadows, away from prying eyes. Amanda Pharrell and Ted Conkaffey, the show’s protagonists, open a private investigation agency in the back room of Shark Bar after they bond over their so-called criminal pasts. The pair decides to help people from their shabby headquarters while running from their demons. Therefore, the bar and Crimson Lake form pivotal mainstays in the show’s narrative, elevating and breathing life into its atmosphere!
The Fictional Roots of Shark Bar
Based on Candice Fox’s ‘Crimson Lake’ novel series, ‘Troppo’ was created by Yolande Ramke, delving into an out-of-the-way, remote tourist town where people with dark pasts come to disappear. At the heart of the small community’s nightlife is the fictional Shark Bar, which features in both the source material and the show as a tropical-inspired diner/bar that captures the blend between nature, wildlife, and seedy human existence. Fox created the bar as the den of Amanda Pharrell, a tattoo artist in one of the establishment’s back rooms, who eventually starts a private investigation venture with the aid of Ted Conkaffey, a disgraced ex-cop who is laying low in Crimson Lake.
While not precisely Shark Bar from the narrative, Shark Bar and Seafood House in Waldorf, Maryland, closely matches the name of the fictional establishment. It is a seafood restaurant serving adults and kids, instantly differentiating it from the adults-only rule in the bar in ‘Troppo.’ The show is primarily filmed in Queensland, Australia, where the Gold Coast region serves as the backdrop to several important establishments within the town, including Shark Bar. The bar was set up by production designer Nick McCallum, and it consequently plays an essential role in the narrative as a recurring mainstay. Its conception as a place where people who are up to no good avail of its services lends it a sense of realism despite being a fictional place that does not exist.
Crimson Lake is Not an Actual Town
Similar to Shark Bar, the tropical tourist attraction of Crimson Lake, which exists on the far hinterlands of Queensland, is a fictional town crafted by Candice Fox and adapted into the show’s narrative by Yolande Ramke. The town is populated with numerous docks, swampy marshlands, hordes of mosquitoes, rainforests that cover it in shadows from every angle, and a population of dubious characters with plenty to hide in their remote abode far from spying eyes. It is constantly assaulted with humid weather, and lazy crocodiles patrol rivers like sentinels. Naturally, it provides a unique aesthetic to the mysteries that often spark to life during Amanda and Ted’s private investigations, adding a layer of intrigue to the narrative.
The name Crimson Lake is attached to an actual lake in Alberta, Canada, situated specifically in the Crimson Lake Provincial Park in Clearwater County. However, Crimson Lake in ‘Troppo’ is a town inhabited by people, not a water body in the middle of a natural park. As the show’s central setting, the production crew utilized the City of Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, and its neighboring areas to double as Crimson Lake. Although the fictional town is isolated and dingy, it is a dangerous place where, if the animals do not pose a threat, the humans do. Its derelict state and natural diversity offer a special aesthetic, combining tropical outdoors with a criminal underbelly confined to the realms of fiction.
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