I’m
trying to push away the things I’ve heard about Broadchurch being disappointing/dissatisfying after series 1. While that kind of thing can be helpful to
know, to adjust your expectations, I’m trying to go in without assumptions of
what it will or will not be. After the
season 2 premiere, I’m both curious and a little annoyed (note: I’ll do my best to avoid spoilers, including
from series 1, but I will be speaking very generally about things that have
happened.)
Seven
months after the events of series 1, Broadchurch is still in the process of
putting itself back together. Numerous
characters’ lives were affected by the catching of the killer, and the Latimers
approach the killer’s court date with both dread and hope, looking to it as a
final hurdle to get over before starting to pick up the pieces of everything that’s
happened to them. However, against all
expectations (including that of their own lawyer,) the killer enters a plea of
not guilty, kicking off a trial that’s sure to drag every detail of Danny’s
murder through the public eye again –
miles to go before they sleep. At the
same time, hints of a new (old) mystery are introduced as, through Hardy, we
meet someone connected to the Sandbrook case, the investigation that fell
through prior to Hardy coming to Broadchurch.
A fair
amount going on here. Obviously, the
promise of the trial suggests that the show will have much more of a court
focus for this season, although the Sandbrook stuff indicates that there’ll
still be a mystery to solve. Both sides
of that bring new characters along with them.
I’m kind of interested in the court proceedings, although the mysterious
“something” that went down between defense attorney Sharon and prosecutor
Jocelyn is already annoying me – it’s that same, weird “artificially talk
around the super-serious ‘What Happened’ to maintain the suspense” tactic that
the show used with Sandbrook last series (or, for another example, that Lost used with Kate’s crime.) It wore thin there, and I’m already not
looking forward to it here.
That
said, now that we’ve already seen a police investigation on Danny’s murder, I
am interested to see what angles a trial will explore, and the killer pleading
not guilty obviously provides a lot more dramatic potential for all the
characters who were affected by it. I
also like that it’ll be two older women with some kind of history between them
facing off against each other in the courtroom.
Heightened “mystery” aside, both characters seem like they have
potential, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of them.
The
returning characters feel like a bit of a mixed bag for me. Some developments don’t feel that genuine,
while others are definitely believable but are really depressing to watch them
go through. The goings-on of the Latimer
family are what I’m most interested in so far.
In this episode, I like watching Beth and Chloe support each other,
especially in the moments leading up to the courtroom scene, and Jodie
Whittaker has a really compelling scene explaining to Jocelyn why it’s
important for her to take the case. I’m
also interested in what’s going on with Mark.
There are similar “mysterious” references to what he’s up to early on,
but by the end of the episode, we do
get a “what” – it’s just that the “why” and the full details still need to be
filled in, which is the kind of thing I can get behind.
A few
familiar faces in the new cast. On the
trial side, we have Charlotte Rampling as Jocelyn, and the Sandbrook side
features Whoniverse alum Eve Myles (Gwen from Torchwood) and Marvel TV alum James D’Arcy (Jarvis!)
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