by Cookie N Screen
Sometimes, you may miss a certain acclaimed film or television show. Perhaps the initial teasers didn’t enthral you in a way that it did everyone else. There was no sense of urgency with Broadchurch, it seemed like some waify ITV Drama that focused on a sad plot point. Not even Doctor Who’s David Tennant and the always excellent Olivia Colman seemed to titillate me enough to watch it. Even when it had come and gone with critical furore and many many awards, I was too damn dumb to not go back and find it. Until recently, where I chomped through the drama and my nails within a few days, diving into the tentative and wrought drama headfirst.
I was wrong not to watch it the first time around. Now as we sit, poised for a second dosing of this truly magnificent series, it’s could to remind ourselves of how phenomenal the first season was.
Sometimes, you may miss a certain acclaimed film or television show. Perhaps the initial teasers didn’t enthral you in a way that it did everyone else. There was no sense of urgency with Broadchurch, it seemed like some waify ITV Drama that focused on a sad plot point. Not even Doctor Who’s David Tennant and the always excellent Olivia Colman seemed to titillate me enough to watch it. Even when it had come and gone with critical furore and many many awards, I was too damn dumb to not go back and find it. Until recently, where I chomped through the drama and my nails within a few days, diving into the tentative and wrought drama headfirst.
I was wrong not to watch it the first time around. Now as we sit, poised for a second dosing of this truly magnificent series, it’s could to remind ourselves of how phenomenal the first season was.
Created by Chris Chibnall, Broadchurch is a crime drama based in the titular seaside town. When a child’s body is found upon the shore, the whole town is plunged into a turmoil as the police try to track down the killer. Helping the investigation is the sweet natured but fierce local detective Ellie Miller and her superior, new to the town after a failed similar investigation Alec Hardy. However, due to the secrets boiling underneath the surface, the grief of the family and the unravelling town all suspicious of one another, the town of Broadchurch begins to turn in on itself. As the pair try to crack the case, will all involved crack under the pressure?
The writing and direction in Broadchurch is astronomically done. There is not a note wrong, which is surprising because it follows so many threads that you’d think something would fall through. Able to delve into the intricacy of grief and a small town post-murder, Broadchurch deals deftly with the visceral humanity underneath it. It is able to gift its abundance of characters with fierce and prominent backstories that don’t battle for oxygen or over-complicate the plot. In fact, they delicately, beautifully and powerfully unravel together – in a way that is entirely absorbing and pulls at your emotions but doesn’t bark at you to feel them. With this astute direction from James Strong and Euros Lynn, the show is enthused with this tender rage that transfers into the audience greatly.
The writing and direction in Broadchurch is astronomically done. There is not a note wrong, which is surprising because it follows so many threads that you’d think something would fall through. Able to delve into the intricacy of grief and a small town post-murder, Broadchurch deals deftly with the visceral humanity underneath it. It is able to gift its abundance of characters with fierce and prominent backstories that don’t battle for oxygen or over-complicate the plot. In fact, they delicately, beautifully and powerfully unravel together – in a way that is entirely absorbing and pulls at your emotions but doesn’t bark at you to feel them. With this astute direction from James Strong and Euros Lynn, the show is enthused with this tender rage that transfers into the audience greatly.
What is also excellent is the acting. Each of the ensemble cast is on point with translating this characters well. Tennant is on form as Hardy, a man haunted by the past whilst tackling the ghosts of a town he is unsure of. The Scotsman brings such a unassailable performance, a sort of voice of detective reason whilst people around him tackle their emotions. All the while, he has his own issues that he is trying to keep to his chest though the crime begins to bleed it out of him. Opposite him is Olivia Colman who is outstanding. Trying to tear into her performance and come up with valid words that will capture the true marvel that is Colman’s Detective Miller. She is affectionate and kind but a powerhouse of intellect and determination that sternly challenges the perceptions unfairly placed on her. It’s just incredible. Around them the cast from Jodie Whittaker as the mourning mother, David Bradley as the initial suspect who succumbs to the towns underlying viciousness and Arthur Darvill as the unsure vicar all become these characters who all unfurl and emote.
When the finale hits, it will tear your soul out of your throat and leave you speechless and in tears. And it’ll do it with a sublime score, stunning cinematography and an awareness of the inner emotions that deal, sensitively, with a child murder. Now we are waiting for another series, wondering what journey we are going to be painfully pulled throughout, a script that caused anger in initial rehearsals of the television series with the cast.
If anything, you should watch this television series. It is a charged and remarkable drama.
When the finale hits, it will tear your soul out of your throat and leave you speechless and in tears. And it’ll do it with a sublime score, stunning cinematography and an awareness of the inner emotions that deal, sensitively, with a child murder. Now we are waiting for another series, wondering what journey we are going to be painfully pulled throughout, a script that caused anger in initial rehearsals of the television series with the cast.
If anything, you should watch this television series. It is a charged and remarkable drama.
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