Broadchurch

This blog of mine is starting to have a recurring trend to it. I am showering praise on miniseries not from the US, that appear to revolve around the same premise. Small towns and their inhabitants being tested by the actions of a child. Top of the Lake took beautiful New Zealand scenery and used the disappearance of a girl to reveal all its occupants were virtually all evil or tolerant of it. Broadchurch does similar with the murder of a twelve year old boy but with more heart.

Broadchurch shares its DNA more with Scandanavian series like The Killing or The Bridge than the Kiwi show. It truly takes the time to focus on the bereaved family (usually reduced to a few scenes of crying and screaming, but here each member is truly examined), the lynch mob mentality of the community and the short-memory of the press, and how they all affect one another. One of the big strengths of the show is its ability for audience empathy. This show taps into the grieving process as well as our emotional response to these events. Every suspect in or out of the confession room has us thinking one thing of them and yet in mere minutes our sympathies will turn, forever certain, and then changed again.

The central thrust of the story is with the investigation and its easily recognisable mismatched cops. Olivia Colman is the local copper with a heart of gold and genuine warmth to all. We first see her returning from holiday and showering colleagues with trinket gifts, then swearing at losing her promotion. She is every bit the copper but her warmth and community spirit compromise her with every suspect coming through. David Tennant plays the more clichéd role. A big city cop haunted by previous cases and demons. Hardened to the world and its sinners, Tennant never plays him for sympathy but leaves us with something worth caring for - his conviction. It is his best work post-Who and the role that should evaporate your association of him with the Doctor. Both of the leads will no doubt gain BAFTA nods (Colman is talked about as if she has already won) but David Bradley, Jodie Whitaker and Andrew Buchan are all equally deserving.

The true hero though is creator, Chris Chibnall. The man constructed a narrative filled with red herrings but never any sense that they are deliberately there to irritate. This show is as much concerned about revealing a beach town can be as vile as any urban city as it is with giving you a true answer to the killer's identity. The jolly facade of everyone in the premier episode's tracking shot is gone come the final episode's cold reveal. Without giving anything away this is Chibnall's greatest achievement. British dramas always rush their denouements through with hearty cheers and loose ends. In Broadchurch, he has made the reveal as devastating to his community as the initial murder. The destruction this killer has left in their wake will not disappear. It never will. It is in this, its final episode that Broadchurch goes from great to exceptional programming.