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I just saw the first season of Broadchurch. I had heard a lot about it, and after watching "Foyle's War," I thought to myself, well, the bar has now been set for me pretty high. This show will have to be something to outdo it.
Actually it's like comparing apples to oranges. Where Foyle's War is steeped in history, with mysteries solved by a brilliant detective, it's more cerebral. I found this pure emotion and every bit as good.
David Tennant and Olivia Colman star as Alec Hardy and Ellie Miller, two people who are not comfortable working in the same police unit, especially since Ellie expected to get Alec's job. And who could work with Alec? He's impossible, not a team player, and he does not share in the office camaraderie. Add to that that he's ill and keeps passing out, it's not fun.
Hardy and Miller are on the case of a little boy, Danny, who was found dead on the beach. He was strangled.
Oh, let me name the suspects. There's a man thought to be a pedophile, whom the police suspect, a woman living in a caravan who has a strange, perhaps blackmail relationship with someone living nearby - she also has something of Danny's, the boy's own father, who has lied about where he was the night his son was killed, and even the local reverend.
Add to that reporters desperate for a story, a missing computer, and adultery, and you've got the town of Broadchurch going crazy. A family is grieving, and the crime still isn't solved.
The last half hour of the last episode will knock your socks off.
The acting is brilliant and totally believable from everyone. Tennant as an unlikable detective, stubborn and somewhat slovenly, is magnificent. Colman, less volatile, is no less wonderful as a wife, mother, and detective, who is aware that the crime hits close to home, as her son was a friend of Danny's.
Others in the cast are fantastic - Jodie Whittaker, Matthew Gravelle, Andrew Buchan, as well as the rest, round out the episodes beautifully.
I haven't seen the second season, but I was very surprised to see what's in it. Nothing you would expect from Season 1, which covers one case.
Excellent, dark, gripping, mysterious, very emotional -- fantastic.
score 10/10
blanche-2 14 May 2015
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3238606/ |
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22-11-2019 09:08:20
