Broadchurch, ABC, Sunday, 8.30pm
ONCE in a while something comes along where all of the pieces fit together. Brilliant writing, a brilliant cast and an interesting story.
The planets aligned last year and we were treated to the superb British drama Broadchurch.
But the big question at the end of the year, when the series was renewed was “could lightning strike twice”? And that question has been answered – no – but it can continue to build.
Broadchurch was a stand-alone 10-part series. So how could writer/producer Chris Chibnall take it to a second series without turning it into “Midsummer Murders – murder of the week” and still keep it interesting?
Easy – keep the original stories going. The second series of Broadchurch is, rather than Broadchurch Two, a continuation of the first story. We are now into the trial and trying to deal with the impact that a “not guilty” verdict and the murder itself is having on the small town. We’re also dealing with the murders and the mistrial that brought Detective Hardy (David Tennant) to Broadchurch in the first place.
Once again the writing is really tight (though the court scenes have been receiving some criticism in the UK) and after a slow start, the show is once again finding a big viewer base in the UK (10 million people tuned in to find out who the killer was last year). And while tonally this is the same show – structurally Chibnall is taking it in a different direction as any smart writer would.
He was a lot of the reason that the second season of Torchwood struck a chord around the world and has been involved in some top-notch TV in recent years and he once again delivers!
Like the first series, this is a slow burn and UK viewers who have stuck by it are now being rewarded as the show reaches its stride again. It’s nice to see a drama that deals not just with the crime but its effect on the whole of the community – these things don’t happen in a bubble as this drama showed both last year and this.
But with a cast of the calibre of David Tennant, Olivia Coleman, Andrew Buchan and Arthur Darvill it is hard to go wrong. Of course the biggest problem is trying not to play “spot the Doctor Who/Torchwood actor“, especially with Eve Myles (who has been in both shows) being added to the roster this year. But once you have got over that (I’ve counted seven so far by the way) this is a drama well worth the revisit.
– Tania Phillips
