A_Different_Drummer Review of Broadchurch

Broadchurch (2013–2017)

8 Nearly Perfect Hours...

[10/10 · 3 September 2013]

As if more proof were needed --- it is not -- here we see what happens when you allow a very talented production team to dig deep and come up with, essentially, a 7 hour, sequential, melodrama, or crime novel. (Eight hours less commercials). Even Hollywood on its best day can only do 2 and a half hours and is therefore handicapped (and when Hollywood tries to go the distance, the suits involved usually end up eating their own young -- check out ONCE UPON A TIME IN America, an extended melodrama that the late Roger Ebert once referred as the most disastrous editing job he had encountered in his career). Absolutely superb and near-flawless entertainment. Only possible criticism is that the last 9 minutes of the concluding episode are, well, gratuitous and out-of-place, oddly heavy-handed. The acting is stunning, not merely Tennant, who is always good, but the supporting cast is pitch perfect. The story is multi-faceted, a so-called simple murder in a simple town which probes the very souls of the characters involved. "How could you not know?" is a line of dialogue that pops up more than once, and is really the signature for the whole piece. If you can, watch it beginning to end and don't be surprised if you simply cannot hit the PAUSE button. It's that good. ------------------------------------------

Addendum June 16: Just starting the second season. In my other reviews, I flagged that most really great shows have one single character who is effectively the "glue" in the narrative, the character that keeps the viewer hooked even when there is no strong forward movement in the episode. Here the glue is the superb actress Olivia Colman, who (noticed this several times) can deliver a line of dialog with only one or two words ("Wanker!" "Still Married!") and still make the viewer smile or wince ... or even cry. Wow.