Comment on December 2014 Media Thread

Thu, 18 Dec 2014 18:39:22 GMT

Just finished marathoning the first season of Broadchurch, a typical cozy murder series staring David Tennant and every other actor I presume the BBC keeps locked away in a closet somewhere.

Tennant plays a guilt-ridden and deathly-sick-but-hiding-it DCI Alec Hardy who's just been reassigned to Broadchurch, replacing DS Ellie Miller (Olivia Colman), who was promised the job. He's all forlorn and gritty (not unlike Cohle from True Detective, but minus the philosophical rambling) and she's all sociable and awkward at investigating all her friends and neighbors.

The show wins when it's about DS Miller coming to terms with the idea that everyone's a suspect and about DCI Hardy being a gruff, tragic hero with a heart of gold. It also is good at being a Scottish cozy that doesn't depend as heavily on British cozy murder tropes (although there is the obligatory adultery that is revealed when one of the parties lies about their alibi). There's lots of fish and chips, and also (more shockingly) child actors who can act.

At one point, I told the television screen, "No, you don't get any more f--king plot twists, you're not M. Night Shyamalan." To the show's credit, there were no more plot twists after that point. There's also a stupid and annoying and worthless police psychic sticking his nose in the plot every once in a while, but luckily he doesn't show up that often.

You may be familiar with Gracepoint, the FOX AU fanfiction that also stars Tennant playing the same character, but this time in California without his Scottish accent. The only difference I've detected in the plot is that they've roughed it up a bit (pedophiles, drug dealing minors, and whatnot) and made Anna Gunn play Miller like she's Skyler from Breaking Bad. One of these shows was renewed for a second season; hint: it wasn't Gracepoint.

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