TV REVIEW: Broadchurch - Episode Eight

Did you figure out who the murderer was, then?  Before Episode 8? At what point exactly?  I knew all along, didn’t you? Nope, didn’t have a clue. How could you not? Etc etc…

You couldn’t go anywhere on Tuesday morning without overhearing conversations like these about the series finale of ITV’s Broadchurch. In fact, I myself made completely sure I was able to watch the final episode on the day of broadcast, a seriously rare occurrence, as I knew I wouldn’t have a cat in hell’s chance of making it to the end of the day without finding out who the murderer was otherwise. Certainly not once I’d been in the office longer than 30 seconds, anyway.

For a show always very much a whodunit, but one that built up momentum so slowly in parts that you almost forgot that it was, the final episodes of Broadchurch were wholly focused on exactly who killed Danny Lattimer.  Normally at this point I would yell ‘spolier alert!” in big capital letters lest anyone should unwittingly ruin the ending for themselves, but I reckon if you haven’t found time to watch it and see by this point in time, then you probably don’t care.  So, as it turns out, the killer was none other than copper’s husband Joe Miller (Matthew Gravelle), in an act of desperate guilt.  A revelation which came totally out of the blue. Or did it?

Looking back, there were quite a few warning signs flashing dangerously in his direction from the start. For one thing, and this is nothing more than traditional murder mystery fare, up until the final episode he was pretty well the only character in the ill-fated town who hadn’t been hauled in for questioning. And that’s including the vicar. He did, however, begin to act distinctly strangely towards the latter half of the series. Clues were definitely in the air. Particular stand out moments for me included his jokingly volunteering to be questioned by his wife if they were running out of suspects, the parallel thread with shifty Susan (Pauline Quirke), namely Ellie’s amazement that the former didn’t know what was going on under her own roof, and finally her nagging at him about all the household jobs he hadn’t finished lately. He was also just a little wholesome to be true, let’s face it. He even got along with Hardy which can hardly be taken as a good thing.

 Despite the fact that we found out pretty early on in the final episode that Joe was the murderer, the hour still had plenty to offer.  David Tennant performed admirably as hard as nails DI Hardy caught between his ingrained attitudes and the need to comfort the colleague he’s rubbed up the wrong way since day one, and Jodie Whittaker was fantastic as the grieving mother finally being given some semblance of closure. Andrew Buchan was pretty great as Mark Lattimer, too, particularly when visiting his son’s killer in his cell, who in turn was suitably guilt stricken and desperate. The absolute front runner in terms of outstanding performances, however, was without a flicker of doubt Olivia ‘give the woman a Bafta’ Colman, who’s desperation, grief and anger unleashed upon her husband was not only perfectly judged but genuinely distressing to watch.  The timing of the big reveal also meant we had plenty of time to watch her deal with the news, including the agonising moment when she had to tell her children.

In fact the only real issue to worry about is what on earth they’re going to do with Series 2 next year. Surely not another whodunit, in the same place? And surely not with the same detectives given that one wasn’t expected to live much longer than the murder victim and another was leaving town? The jury is still out on that one, but one thing we can be sure of- with 8.9 million people tuning in to the show’s final episode, Broadchurch, Series 1 at least, has been a reasonably massive victory for the ITV Drama department.  

And a very well done to them, too.

-          Jen

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TV REVIEW: Broadchurch- Episode Two

Well, well. Kudos Productions have been busy. Having produced last week’s mini-series, Mayday here, their other, one assumes, main creations for 2013, Broadchurch is now showing on The Other Side. Otherwise known as ITV. 

As Becky wrote here in her review of Episode One, Broadchurch follows the after events of the murder of 11 year old Daniel Lattimer, late of the small seaside town. The show's main focus is on the reaction of Daniel’s family, as well as on the detectives running the operation, led by a very beardy, broody David Tennant as DI Alec Hardy, and the considerably warmer, perhaps slightly hapless DI Ellie Miller (Olivia Colman). Last week’s episode, as Becky said, was very much an establishing episode, with the audience catching glimpses of potential storylines, tensions and even suspects through our introduction to the townspeople and their home.  We’ve met the ever-versatile Arthur Darvill’s Reverend Coates, shifty Susan (not to be confused with Ripper Street’s long Susan), played by Pauline Quirke, David Bradley’s papershop owner, Jack, and now Will Mellor as a reluctant psychic.

If last week’s was a character focused episode, then, this week was the turn of themes- themes which we can tell will shape the drama of the rest of the series. Top of the list, and all the more noticeable since the days of Leveson, is the theme of Press interference and ethics. Young reporter Oliver Stevens (Jonathan Bailey) caused outrage in last week’s episode by breaking the news of the story via twitter. This week, he’s gone a step further, befriending visiting Daily Herald journo Karen White (Vicky McClure).  Local Press old guard Maggie Radcliffe (Carolyn Pickles), editor of the local paper, is less than thrilled with this development. We can only speculate as to whether this is a result of the fictional Daily Herald’s striking resemblance to the Daily Mail. Regardless of her reasons, though, it is clear from DI Hardy’s reaction to her alone that Ms White is trouble with a capital phone hacking.

Next on the list of popular tropes is suspicion. An obvious one in a TV series about murder, I’ll grant you, but what with Daniel’s mother Beth (Jodie Whittaker) handing the police a list of suspects which turns out to be a list of all their friends, coupled with Pauline Quirke’s Susan lonely, watchful life on the cliff, not to mention the fact that Daniel’s own father is a suspect- suspicion is here to stay. So too is religion, and the idea of life after death. Most obviously, we see this through Reverend Coates (Darvill), and his TV appeals and attempts to help the family. We also now have Steve Connolly (Mellor), a phone engineer who claims to have received a message from Daniel about his death. He in turn receives a frosty reception at best from Tennant’s DI Hardy, a man in serious danger of turning into a living snowman if he doesn’t crack a smile by the next episode.

For fan as I am of David Tennant, or DT, as I prefer to call him, I’m not convinced as yet that this will turn into one of his better performances. At the moment, his performance is  outshone in most scenes by the warm simplicity of Olivia Colman's. I know her character is far more likeable character to begin with, so she does have something of a headstart, but with Tennant’s role it feels as if the writers are trying a little too hard to make him into some sort of rude, moody iceman. Particularly as there are clear signs of emotional torment and a dark past just (about) under the surface. So far, so cliché. Arthur Darvill is giving a strong enough performance as the local vicar, as is Susan Brown as Liz Roper, Danny’s grandmother. Although they are all, in turn overshadowed by Jodie Whittaker’s heart-breaking performance as the grieving mother. 

Again, as Becky mentioned, Broadchurch is currently running the risk of becoming just another detective drama, simply going through the motions rather than trying anything particularly new. I love a detective show as much as the next person, more, I'll wager, but it's always far more exciting to watch something that is not only done well, but is doing something exciting.

Next week’s episode seems set to focus on the latest suspects, and will, I would imagine, delve a little deeper into the mind of DI Hardy. Not too much, though, there’s another six episodes to go yet. 

https://www.itv.com/itvplayer/broadchurch

Broadchurch is next on tomorrow night,9pm, ITV1. 

Jen

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SERIES REVIEW: Mayday

 Having noticeably ended both of their hugely popular BBC One shows, Hustle and Spooks, within months of one another, it was clear Kudos productions must have had something else up their sleeves. That something else, it transpires, was Mayday, the drama that most critics have pegged a curious mix between Midsomer Murders and ‘insert other mildly sinister programme of choice here’ – I’m going to go with Lost.

Set in a small rural town with ‘filmed in leafy Surrey’ all over it like so much luminous yellow police tape, Mayday is a meticulously planned whodunit tracing the disappearance and possible murder of a teenage May Queen in the creepy local woods. (You see what they’ve done there with the title? Clever, eh?) Aired over five consecutive nights, the show introduces us to several male suspects, with very little in the way of subtlety in all honesty, although the damn thing’s so addictively intriguing that it hardly matters. 

They’re all suspicious seeming in their own ways, with the glorious Peter Firth, an epithet I shall ever more refer to him by, reprising his association with the company to play Malcolm Spicer, a property developer whose career was ruined by the missing hippy girl. Peter McDonald is equally shifty as angry policeman Alan with everything to lose, alongside silver fox Aiden Gillen as a convincingly damaged and leery widower. Other suspects include schizophrenic tree hugger Seth, (Tom Fisher), to whom I spent most of my five nights watching the show wishing to donate a reassuring cuddle, and self-proclaimed leader of the search party, Seth’s loutish brother Steve (Sam Spruell).

Got all that? Good.

Convincingly shifty though they are, with Peter Firth, sorry, glorious Peter Firth, especially excellent, it is not with the grown up blokes that the best performances of this programme lie. No, no. I have but three things to say about the best performances in Mayday, and they are these, Max Fowler, Leslie Manville and Sophie Okenedo. Okay four things, I’m going to say Sophie Okenedo twice. Max Fowler is absolutely spot-on in his performance of Everett’s troubled teenage son Linus, managing to give the character a level of pithy confidence, despite his dark and desperate exterior. He also carries off his character’s crippling crush on Hattie’s distraught twin Caitlin-the-plot-device (Leila Mimmack), although there’s no way he looks seventeen. Leslie Manville is completely captivating as Gail Spicer, taking us on an incredible character arc I would rather like to have continued long after the series ended- from put upon spouse to sarcastic and independent, we’re with her all the way. And last but not least, Sophie Okenedo. I’m working on an epithet for her but I haven’t quite got there yet. If Leslie Manville is captivating, Okenedo is practically spell-binding in this role. Quietly put upon by her temper fuelled husband, Fiona finds a new path for herself in this time of local crisis, stopping at nothing to, as her husband Alan terms it, ‘put things right’.

As the series goes on, more and more clue as to the back stories of our suspects are revealed, allowing us to form our own conclusions as an audience, as we are drip fed just enough details to keep us coming back for more, but never quite enough to fully twig whodunit. I apologise for that tree pun, given the circumstances, and indeed the image above. The simplistic format of the show, then, revolves from start to finish around these men, their lives and their potential motive. However, given my previous paragraph about the fantastic performances in the show, I can’t help but wish there’d been just a little more variety in the suspects. The female performances are indeed excellent, but with every male character in Mayday almost wholly without sympathy, it would have perhaps been interesting if there had been a female suspect or two as well. I actually found myself inventing motives for several of them just so that, in my head at least, they could be a little more involved.

That said, the slow reveal of information is done well, although the time commitment of almost a week with little to no answers revealed until around Episode 4 will not be for everyone. And is it worth that time commitment? Well yes, I think it largely is. Although I do also think that with these things, it is patently apparent from about the half-way point whether it is going to end in a glorious (Peter Firth again) conclusion with all answers handed to you on a plate, as well as gasp or two at the truth to boot, and maybe a car chase. Or, whether it will end in a slight fizzle, leaving you happy with the series overall, but a tad disappointed with the ending. It happened with last year’s The Paradise, much as I adored it, and alas it has happened here, too. Having spent four days looking forward to next episode, musing on woods based pagan rituals and small town secrets, the last episode left me with more questions than answers. This is never really what you want from a mystery drama, especially when you’re up against good ol’ David Tennant in a suspiciously similar programme over on ITV.

Overall, good, very good in places, but let itself down a tad at the end.

You can watch the whole of Mayday here, on BBC Iplayer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01r6kzz/Mayday_Episode_1/

Jen

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