It’s back! The every-award winning 2013 drama returns to ITV
- under complete secrecy, as it happens. The channel decided to give as few
details away as possible before the series started, instead wanting to keep the
plot totally secret until viewers watched it for themselves - which in the days
of countless trailers and RadioTimes.com is only to be applauded.
So I don’t want to spoil the amazing feeling of sitting down
to watch something - a sequel! - and having no idea where it’s heading or how
they’re continuing it. (If you haven’t watched it yet, then do so!) There was
plenty of speculation at the time as to what the second series would be like.
Surely not another murder? Well, no and yes, as it happens. When I heard that a
lot of the same actors were appearing again, I was sceptical - would this be featuring
yet another earth-shattering event to
hit the town, cheapening the first? Well, again, yes and no.
I wouldn’t say it cheapens the first series, it extends it into
a bigger story. Chris Chibnall confounds the critics by simply writing a direct
sequel - what happens next in the realistic thriller, after the murderer’s been
caught? They have to prove it. And some of the frankly stunning new cast names (Charlotte
Rampling!) are playing lawyers, splendid. And then Broadchurch - and David
Tennant’s character Alec Hardy - unearth their secrets yet again, revisiting
old ground. As set-ups go, this one was unveiled perfectly, slowly drawing us
back in over its running length - if somebody was to write a preview of it to
entice viewers to watch it, they’d probably spoil the entire plot, so I’m glad
they didn’t. And whilst there’s no murder in sight straight away (though I’d keep
an eye on those bluebells), it’s absolutely the same show everybody flocked to
back in 2013, even having the same director, writer, actors, location.
By keeping it exactly the same style of show, it feels even
more natural a continuation - once the characters came back onto the screen, it
seemed like they hadn’t been away. But it’s not just that - now series two is
upon us, I’ve realised the two key ingredients to what makes Broadchurch the
show it is, rather than the exceptional writing or the setting or, especially, a
whodunit.
The first is that it’s edited like a music video at times, unlike
almost any other mainstream drama. There’s barely any dialogue in some scenes.
Instead there’s shots of people glowering at each other mysteriously, close-ups
of details in the landscape, and music blaring at full volume. But what music!
Olafur Arnalds’s moody soundtrack was praised in the last series, and shows up
prominently again in this one. And really it makes the show and creates a lot
of the atmosphere. It reaches a crescendo at every advert break every ten
minutes, or sometimes after every scene. And why not? Other slow dramas have
people boiling kettles or jogging in near silence, in a bid to make it seem
more realistic. This one wants to make you feel.
And the second is, naturally, Olivia Colman - or rather,
Olivia Colman’s character Ellie and her use of language. She swears. Her
attitude in life involves swearing. When her and David Tennant’s characters are
reunited in this episode, it becomes something else: funnier, for starters.
Later, she tells him “your plan is shit” and “you’re a wanker”. And in a way she’s
right, and we love her for it. And she’s so un-ITV. Ellie’s almost been
our eyes and ears through the investigation of the first series, we’ve been
through her journey too, which will make it all the more rewarding to see how
she copes now.
The first series was all about seeing how one small town
dealt with the murder investigation of one of its residents, with our
suspicions lying on all of them at some point during it. The main focus was
realism, something that is strongly in focus here. Gone is the grief, replaced
in the parents by regret and anger and bitterness.
Not that you’ll regret watching this, I might add, it’s
glorious. If the series keeps this up, it’ll be among the top dramas of the
year - again. I was slightly surprised that, in showing the identity of the murderer
again, this episode would literally spoil the whodunit of the first series. But
then as the characters themselves say, everybody has heard of the story of the ‘boy on the beach’. Everybody saw the first series. And now everybody
needs to see this.
many thanks to
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