Other Doctor Lives: Broadchurch: Series 1, Episode 4 (2013)

*Written in 2017*

The web’s getting more tangled, both in the investigation and in the lives of Danny’s family, the detectives, and the villagers. You wouldn’t have thought every single person in a sleepy seaside town would be hiding a dark secret of some kind, but that’s sort of what’s going on.

A new piece of important evidence is discovered, and the police begin taking a stronger interest in several subjects. Meanwhile, Ellie tries to connect more with Hardy. Danny’s family, concerned that the lackluster media attention on the case is preventing the word getting out and potential witnesses coming forward, debate over whether or not to open the media floodgates themselves.

Just generally, I’d like to say this: when you live in a small village where a boy has been murdered, don’t act super shifty if you weren’t the person who murdered him! This show has kind of the opposite problem as The Assets. Whereas, on that show, the mole is twitchy as hell from the get-go, this one features basically everybody hiding something and lying to the police about stuff that doesn’t ultimately connect to the investigation. There’s a point where it stops being suspenseful TV and starts being, “Just tell the police what’s up so they can stop wasting their time on you!” It’s not really a spoiler to bring that up here, since a) like I said, everyone’s acting shady, and b) clearly, they didn’t all kill Danny.

Hardy’s backstory has been coming out in drips and drabs, and we get a little more forward momentum here. While the full circumstances behind his dour outlook and the failed case that brought him to Broadchurch under something of a cloud still haven’t been revealed (naturally,) we’re getting a bit closer to understanding him.

And as for Beth? She doesn’t have a ton going on in this episode, at least not much that’s seen onscreen. In the discussion over media attention, decisions are made that change things for the family quite a bit going forward, but at this point, we don’t see a lot of that happening. As such, there isn’t too much for Jodie Whittaker to do.

But on the subject of Beth, I do want to mention one scene she isn’t in that still involves her, where an out-of-town reporter is pitching the story to her boss, who asks, “How photogenic is the mother?” So gross, but I’m sure it’s sadly true to life.

*Written in 2024*

Before I get to David Tennant, I want to restate that I really enjoy Arthur Darvill’s performance as Paul. It’s not a hugely demanding role, and there’s a certain “everyman” overlap with Rory, but he does such a nice job with it. In this episode, I like the scene where he talks with the police about running the school A.V. club, which is how he knew Danny.

This episode gives us a strong helping of Socially Awkward Hardy, which I greatly enjoy. Ellie invites him to dinner—because that’s what people do—and it wouldn’t be a stretch to speculate that Hardy has never accepted a dinner invitation in his life. When Ellie presses him to make sure he isn’t backing out, he just mumbles his confirmation that he said he’d come, and when he comes to the house, he shows up with wine, flowers, and chocolates: “I wasn’t sure which to choose, so I just got them all.” During dinner, he responds to questions with tangents, circling back to the answer only after the question has been forgotten.

In addition, Hardy is thrilled when a new piece of potential evidence falls into their lap, exclaiming, “Outstanding! Out-bloody-standing! Miller, we’ve got them!” It’s not full-on “Sherlock celebrating a serial killer” inappropriate, since his excitement is specifically related to the police’s ability to catch the killer, but Ellie is clearly uncomfortable with his display of happiness. And later, when Maggie urges Olly to go to the police with some potentially relevant information he's uncovered, Hardy hasn’t forgotten some ethically dodgy journalism from Olly back in the pilot. “Well, we always love hearing from Oliver,” he gripes.

It's interesting to see David Tennant playing this aspect of Hardy. His Doctors and Crowley all act in socially inappropriate ways at different times—the Doctor because they’re an alien who isn’t terribly preoccupied with human norms, Crowley because he’s a demon who often makes a point of going against human norms. But for all of these characters, it’s a deeply charismatic social awkwardness, and you can’t help being drawn in by it. In contrast, Hardy almost has an anti-charisma. He’s not an energy vampire or anything (a la What We Do in the Shadows,) but he's so much stiffer and more muted than any of these more eye-catching characters Tennant has played. He’s a depressed loner who doesn’t play well with others, and he just doesn’t really know what to do with himself in a highly personable setting like Broadchurch.