Broadchurch - Season 2, Episode 8 - Review

My review of last week's episode.

SPOILERS

Broadchurch - Season 2, Episode 7 - Review

My review of last week's episode

At the moment, I'm sitting here, wracking my brains to remember whether anything actually happened in this episode. Mostly stalling. The trial has never been more interminable than here, as people yell at each other, and Olivia Colman cries more, and the verdict is continually stalled. Drama. Drama. Drama. *snore*

Broadchurch - Season 2, Episode 6 - Review

My review of last week's episode

This episode is about dysfunctional couples. There are four of them. We now have a new media romance, as evil Abby Thompson jumps in bed with Olly (he's still a jerk) in order, it turns out, to gain information.

Couple number three are Cate and Ricky Gillespie, who, reunited by Ellie, quickly slip into bickering again. Number two is Tess and Alec. The latter has finally decided to make some decisions on the Brink of Death front, by having a pacemaker installed. It's not quite as abrupt as it was in Gracepoint, but this sudden turn of events is a bit anticlimactic. My impending exit from terminal medical thingy makes the whole show gain a sense of vague urgency, until producers think money and Tennant-Colman chemistry and decide to cancel my death because season three.

Broadchurch - Season 2, Episode 5 - Review

My review of last week's episode

Oh, all right. This episode has drawn me back to Broadchurch. It still has some of the same problems, but is blessedly free of some of the silliness of the second and third episodes. There's lots of the same: tense confrontations, unnecessary subplots, angry/distraught/happy/thoughtful people contrasted against a lovely sky, but it's a decent enough episode.

Broadchurch - Season 2, Episode 4 - Review

My review of last week's episode

Well, overall, a bit more reasonable than last week. Damning with faint praise? It's the best I can do.

Ellie has had her Worst Day Ever, so now it's Alec's turn. The episode starts as he has disturbing flashbacks to when he found Pippa Gillespie's body, which makes him cry like an increasingly boring character looking for sympathy. He also faces the prospect that he might have been wrong about the whole Sandbrook case and manages to alienate both his wife and his daughter and the murdered girl's dad, Ricky Gillespie, and Ollie (who's still a jerk).

Broadchurch - Season 2, Episode 3 - Review

My review of last week's episode.

There was a moment while watching this episode that I actually exclaimed, “Poor Ellie.” That pretty much sums it up. Last week, Chibnall was reaching, this week he lost balance completely. But by a curious magic (characters I’m attached to, music, setting, cinematography), I still can’t quite disregard the series.

The cliffhanger from last week resolves fairly quickly. After a brief quarrel with a strangely unhelpful Ellie, Alec drives off to find that Claire and Lee have retreated to her cottage. Why? Claire mutters something unconvincing. Lee knocks Alec down and is macho and generally Suspicious which is a good sign that he’s innocent. (Once again, I’m startled by how different James D’Arcy is in this role—even if he doesn’t have much to do but smirk in a sleazy fashion and show off his biceps.)

Broadchurch - Season 2, Episode 2 - Review

My review of last week's episode

Agh...did you have to do it like that?

Broadchurch hasn't been above sacrificing strict logic for melodrama, but, unlike other shows, it simply glows with heart - which makes it hard for me to count its flaws against it. Central to this is the teddy-bear herself, Ellie Miller. Colman is simply not aware she's on screen. She's not going to stretch any moment longer than it needs, and there's no affectation about her performance. Alec Hardy is a more conventional hero: the moody, broken, secretly noble knight in tarnished armor. His hesitations, staring nervously away to let the tension build, are more distracting than tense.

Broadchurch - Season 2, Episode 1 - Review

Given that I invested far more emotion in the first season of Broadchurch than I have in any TV show for years, it's fair to say that my expectations for the second season were extremely high. Sharpening my red pen, I glared at the laptop screen and just dared Chris Chibnall to ruin these characters so I would have something to complain about.

But despite a somewhat melodramatic, music-heavy opening, Broadchurch 2.0 is instantly compelling and nearly flawless. After the lukewarm Gracepoint, just the atmosphere alone is enough to evoke positive response, but Chibnall's writing is exceptional, and the acting is, as ever, superb.

I'd better go ahead and say that this will have spoilers not only for season 2, but also, necessarily, for season 1.

Gracepoint - Episode 10 - Review

My review of last week's episode

I've already noted that the Gracepoint showrunners completely missed the point of their source material, but this finale clinches it.

For those who saw episode 9, the killer reveal shouldn't have been all that difficult to predict. Several subplots had been resolved - the whole Jack Reinhold part (my favorite segment of the season), Beth and Paul, Emmett's background, Susan Wright's past, Vince's reason for threatening Susan. All that was done with, so it was fairly reasonable to expect the one unresolved thread to come to the fore, as it did.

(Spoilers for the endings of both Gracepoint and Broadchurch.)

Gracepoint - Episode 9 - Review

My review of last week's episode.

It's been a pretty good year for small-screen Brits in the U.S. of A. Not only has David Tennant hopped the Atlantic and gained an accent, but so has Martin Freeman. In other quarters, Ioan Gruffudd and Jonny Lee Miller investigate crime in the big city.

For Gracepoint, the things lost in the passage are subtlety, originality, and faith. It doesn't help that comparison to the much superior Broadchurch is almost impossible not to make when Gracepoint has steadfastly refused to break out a new plot. Rather than a poignant reconciliation under the direction of Paul Coates, we get a pedestrian love-triangle which climaxes in an argument between Beth and Mark (followed by...revelation? reconciliation? what?). At least we can hope that that subplot has finally been played out, because, like Beth, none of us care about Paul.

Gracepoint - Episode 8 - Review

My review of last week's episode

And...that was a let-down. It's not a terrible episode, but a few logical fails manage to dispel much of the story.

Speaking of dispelling tension, we start by finding Tom, who is indeed in the woods bleeding. Paul Coates is creeping along singing hymns out of tune, because apparently that's what Hollywood people think priests do. The moment when he does find Tom is appropriately scary, but most everything's down-hill from there, because Ellie and Carver completely buy Tom's explanation that he was going looking for Lars so that he could confront him with...knowledge of his sins. Do normal children do this? I think not.

Tom must have been thinking: Incredible! One of the worst performances of my career, and they never doubted it for a second...

Gracepoint - Episode 7 - Review

My review of last week's episode

If last week was a marked departure in terms of atmosphere, this week's plot has finally diverged significantly from the original. Not only does Tom Miller go missing, but we're introduced to the Creepy Backpacker, and Emmett Carver's daughter Julianne. All of this happening in one episode gives us a lot to chew on (not to mention the fact that it ends with a cliffhanger - AGH).

The last episode ended with the death of Jack Reinhold. We pick up as the town is coming together for a memorial service. Paul Coates gives the congregation a tongue-lashing (translation: mild rebuke, because the man has no charisma whatsoever) about failing Jack. Presumably, this is because they suspected him, because soon after this, Joe lets Carver have it about suspecting Paul Coates.

Gracepoint - Episode 6 - Review

My review of last week's episode

This episode is the first to really strike into new territory. And it does so in fairly dramatic fashion.

The unquestionable star is Nick Nolte, a surly teddy bear of a man, trying to cope as his life crumbles around his ears.

In the last episode, Nolte's character, Jack Reinhold, was accused of statutory rape. There's never really any question of his innocence - the man exudes sincerity. But while there isn't a tremendous amount of suspense about whether or not he's guilty, the episode makes the most of the tyranny of public opinion, the reaction of the community, and the way something like this is quickly sensationalized.

Gracepoint - Episode 5 - Review

My review of last week's episode

Apparently the only way Gracepoint's inhabitants have of dealing with their anger is to grab people by their jackets and shake them around. See Mark Solano vs. Paul Coates, and Paul Coates vs. Raymond Connolly.

But is there anybody out there that wasn't cheering when Owen Burke got knocked silly by the Wrath of Nick Nolte? And as for me, I think Emmett Carver ought to have been a bit harder on everybody's favorite psychic.

Gracepoint - Episode 4 - Review

My review of episode 3

Last week, I was about to abandon ship. Happily, episode 4 is beginning to renew my interest. Part of the attraction is a small shift in Anna Gunn's character. The writer's attempt to give her clever dialogue has so far come off as cheesy and forced, but somehow, the bad puns in this episode lent her some awkward charm (and dove-tailed nicely when she hilariously tried to invite Carver for dinner). I don't think this was intended, and it doesn't entirely work, but the suggestion that her stupid attempts at comebacks stem from awkwardness rather than acerbity makes her more likable. Also - less whining is good.

The other thing is, this is the first time Gracepoint has dramatically stepped out of Broadchurch's shadow. In this installment, Carver and Ellie spend most of their time simultaneously investigating the suspicious backpacker (a new character) and following up on Chloe's cocaine source (this subplot meandered off in the original show).  In other suspicious news, the Creepy Woman With Dog has taken up killing chickens and staring at empty chairs. She also has some sort of connection to Vince.

Gracepoint - Episode 3 - Review

My review of last week's episode

Why are the British so much better at TV than us? Why didn't this show cast Olivia Colman? Why is this priest so creepy? Why are we supposed to hate Emmett Carver even though he's right? Why am I even doing this to myself anymore?

There are many unanswered questions in this episode.

It turns out that Mark Solano was not, in fact, with his plumber friend Vince, but having an affair with Gemma Fisher. And now Beth knows, which predicts further turmoil.

Anna Gunn hates Carver. Emmett Carver hates everybody, especially people who smile and shave and have good manners, but we also know now that his mysterious ailment is very serious - which excuses his rudeness just a bit.

But he can't give up work because he's a man on a mission, and he's given his word, and this is all penance. 'Tis but a flesh wound!

Gracepoint - Episode 2 - Review

My review of last week's episode.

Okay, the priest did it. My dad fingered the killer in the first episode of Broadchurch, and he has already cast judgment on Gracepoint.

If this is true, I will be very, very unable to express my feelings politely on this family blog.

It’s not really a spoiler to say that the priest was not the killer in Broadchurch. Instead, he provided the “moral compass” when everyone else’s had broken. Yes, he had a token motive, but just as an excuse to, in a key scene, bring him into conflict with the cynical, disillusioned Alec Hardy—now Emmett Carver. He was central to the hope that stood against the fragmentation of distrust and suspicion that threatened to destroy his community.

In this story, I predict that Reverend Paul Coates at least has a history with Beth Solano, which means his kindness to her has an ulterior motive. This annoys me to no end. I can’t complain too much about flawed priests (after all, I just finished The Power and the Glory), but this shift in dynamic could fatally undermine any efforts to refresh the foundational themes of Broadchurch. And that’s an issue.

Gracepoint - Episode 1 - Review

I just had to get this off my chest.

Gracepoint would have been a much, much better show if it was set in Appalachia.

David Tennant, an uppity Yankee, arrives in small-town Gracepoint just in time to investigate the murder of Opie Taylor. Assisted by a shocked local sheriff, he must investigate all the inhabitants of this seemingly idyllic town.

I kid. But only a little.

In remaking the amazing British show Broadchurch, it's inevitable that some themes would cross over. The idea of a small town turning on itself. The theme of Christianity and community. There would be no better place to transport this conflict than a small Appalachian town - that symbol of American rural life - complete with a heavy dose of Flannery O'Connor.

Broadchurch - Season 1 Finale - Review

I know I've harped on the wonders of ITV's Broadchurch, but, to come clean, I wasn't quite as enamored at first. I loved the entire series up until the finale. [Spoilers ahead.]

Best of January/February 2014

[As a bit of an aid to refresh my memory when "Best of" lists come around next January, here's my pick of the month.]

Movies:

January's decision is tough, but the only 5-star review I gave was to Life is Beautiful, a funny, earnest Italian film set during WWII. My review.

As for February, it's a toss-up. I think entertainment wins the day (because yes, I am that shallow), so I choose Princess Mononoke over Lawrence of Arabia. The film is practically my first experience of Hiyao Miyazaki, and, though flawed, it's pretty incredible. My review.

TV:

This is pretty much a no-brainer - to January I happily give the gold to Broadchurch, an exquisitely made murder drama about the death of a young boy in a seaside town. My review.

As for February, I'm able to name Sherlock, since the last episode aired on the 3rd. (But if I did put it in January, I'd have to give Broadchurch the edge, by a bit.) I didn't agree with all the decisions made in Sherlock's third season, but still, it's good to be back. My reviews: The Empty Hearse, The Sign of Three, His Last Vow.

Hannah Long