Review: Broadchurch

SPOILERS! (Obviously)

Hello Procrastinators!

Broadchurch series two, for me, is like The Hobbit trilogy. Lord of the Rings was amazing, mind-blowing stuff that I loved and wished would go on forever. Then The Hobbit trilogy was released and - though they were slightly less crap through their associations with the original LOTR - they were still awful, awful movies.

Broadchurch series one was a puzzle of intrigue, deception and murder. Each week brought something new, a twist on previous knowledge that threw all the previous evidence up in the air. You had to view every character as a possible suspect and everyone had a connection to Danny's death. It was brilliant, unique TV.  

Series two has been somewhat of a flop. Each week we've learned something new, I suppose, but not to the same extent as last time. I didn't care much for the subplot of Sandbrook either, it seemed more of a time filler than anything else. However it received a conclusion that was surprisingly satisfying though I had fully expected it to be ridiculous or completely obvious. They handled it sensitively and much better than Danny's conclusion which consisted of the village kicking Joe out to go and kill some other city's children.

 The fact we watched for 8 weeks to find out that Joe was the killer anyway and justice wasn't served... well, it just looks like they're desperately looking for ways to extend Broadchurch to series 3. I like that they haven't just killed another character off, a la Midsummer Murders, but there was barely enough tension to get the viewer from one episode to the next. There was the suspense of a child's nursery rhyme in the series as a whole and to be honest I'm extremely disappointed. Or maybe the hype surrounding series two was its biggest downfall?

Hardy and Miller were welcome return characters as they make the series. They are the stars of the show and steal every scene. The tension between them of will-they-won't-they is tantalising but the fact that the majority of their scenes were to do with Sandbrook was disappointing. Claire, who Hardy tries to protect at first, has a complete personality change when it suits the writers to make her the bitch accomplice but it also begs the question of why she lied so much about Lee cleaning etc. when she also helped, therefore incriminating herself? To create drama and twists that aren't really there.

The court scenes were completely unrealistic and stupid at times, the non-court scenes were irrelevant, and there was none of the smoke and mirrors that worked so well first time around. The new characters weren't particularly interesting and as they've just been plonked in I don't care about their personal lives, just how they connect to the case. Though the first series had its fair share of red herrings I enjoyed the journey of finding out who did it and I couldn't have even imagined the twist that gave it such an explosive ending. This time around I was bored. I just wanted to know the outcome so I can begin pretending this series never existed and go back to rewatching the first. 

Come on, writers. You've got great ideas but poor delivery. I hope they don't do the next series anything like this one and go back to the roots of how to create a twisting, dazzling whodunnit with brilliant characters and tonnes of emotional tension. 

5/10

Jess x