It
is the drama that made Twitter explode in the UK. Fox has plans for an Americanized version for
the 2014-15 season, but intrigued viewers only have to wait eight weeks to find
out who did it. The ensuing
investigation might just cost the investigating detective a sizable chunk of
his soul. Nevertheless, all will
eventually be revealed when the eight week Broadchurch
(promo
here) airs on BBC America, beginning this
Wednesday.
Young
Danny Latimer has been murdered. His body was found dumped at the beach, but
the Socos (CSI) quickly determine this is not the original crime scene. Beth and Mark Latimer did not realize their
son is missing until it was too late, merely assuming he was off on his morning
paper route. Dogged Detective Inspector
Alec Hardy soon discovers other family secrets that kept certain Latimers preoccupied.
Hardy
is either the best or the worst DI for this investigation. In his last posting, the detective worked an
eerily similar case. Precise details will
emerge over time, but it clearly ended badly.
Hardy had come to the small Jurassic Coastal town of Broadchurch to
escape the media spotlight and recuperate his ailing body and psyche. While fraught with career perils, the Latimer
case represents possible redemption for the controversial copper. However, he will have to work it with the
distinctly resentful Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller, who came back from her
vacation to find Hardy in place of her anticipated promotion.
There
will be no shortage of suspects in Broadchurch, including Danny’s father; his
friend and colleague Nigel Carter; Jack Marshall, the local newsagent; the
insomniac vicar Rev. Paul Coates, and a nasty late middle-aged woman living in
mobile home not far from the crime scene.
DS Miller’s own son Tom also acts rather oddly upon learning of his
friend’s murder. Series creator Chris
Chibnall will focus suspicion on just about everyone before the big finale, but
Broadchurch is just as much about the
grief and guilt resulting from the Latimer murder as it is a mystery
procedural.
Broadchurch will be of
particular interest to Doctor Who fans,
starring former Doctor David Tennant as DI Hardy, former companion Arthur
Darville as Rev. Coates, and guest star Olivia Colman as DS Miller. Frankly, Broadchurch
might just eclipse the Doctor as Tennant’s career defining role. Again, he makes a convincingly intelligence
screen presence, but where the dashing figure he supposedly cut in Spies of Warsaw was a bit of a stretch, he
is darkly compelling as the haggard, sullen, world-weary, angst-ridden Hardy. Yet, Colman also holds her own in their
scenes together quite well as the increasingly disillusioned DS Miller.
To
their credit, both Darville the actor and Chibnall the writer make Rev. Coates
a legitimate suspect, while still avoiding all the easy clergy clichés. They even allow him some surprisingly
powerful sermons that essentially function as the conscience of the
series. Yet, it is Jodie Whittaker who
really personifies Broadchurch’s emotional
devastation as the distraught Beth Latimer.
