Other Doctor Lives: Broadchurch: Series 2, Episode 2 (2015)

*Written in 2018*

I was a little underwhelmed by episode 2. While the stuff on the Sandbrook side of the plot is all right, the trial stuff is more all over the place. And since the trial is the storyline I was more intrigued by in the season premiere, that’s disappointing.

Hardy becomes increasingly bent on finally solving the Sandbrook case, and he enlists the help of Ellie and Claire (the woman he knows from Sandbrook) in a tricky gamble. As the trial gets underway, the first witnesses are called in to testify for the prosecution, and the defense doesn’t hold back in cross-examination.

As I said, I wasn’t terribly impressed with the start of the trial. I’m still trying to get a read on Jocelyn—obviously, a big part of that is her backstory, which is being intentionally kept secret, but her general characterization also seems like it’s still getting settled. Furthermore, I don’t know what Sharon is about. As the killer’s defense attorney, she’s of course aiming to cast doubt on the prosecution’s evidence, but the way she goes about it in this episode seems at least as much about stirring up soap-opera drama as it is about defending her client.

The Sandbrook stuff is better. It’s interesting to see how the working dynamics between Hardy and Ellie have changed since they were investigating Danny’s murder. And given Hardy’s “this time it’s personal” attitude toward the case, that puts Ellie in a position of having to be the more clear-eyed one, urging him to be reasonable and less myopic. Additionally, there are some neat interactions between Ellie and Claire.

And what’s Beth up to? Still continuing her journey from last season to figure out how to “be” now without Danny, and while she’s made halting progress on that front, the trial is throwing her for a serious loop. She’s one of the witnesses questioned in this episode, and it’s rough. Whittaker does a fine job capturing Beth’s bewilderment, disgust, and churned-up grief at the questions she’s being asked that, in her mind, are only picking at old wounds and distracting from the fact of who killed her son.

*Written in 2025*

Okay, so series 2 is bugging me even more on rewatch. There are plenty of specifics that I can’t remember from the first time around, but the overall feeling of “yeesh!” is back in full force. Unfortunately, a lot of the issues here reflect badly on Hardy.

When it comes to Sandbrook, Hardy is pretty off the rails. At this point, we’re all the way into the idea that he’s continuing this investigation on his own, without police jurisdiction or oversight. When he proposes an idea that will put Claire at risk and Ellie, you know, suggests doing this through the properly channels, he retorts, “Nobody cares, Miller! That case is tainted, nobody wants to get near it. That’s my failing. I’ve got to put it right.” And just like that, handwave, he’s no longer bound by law or duty to follow the rules

Meanwhile, the trial for Dadnny’s killer is understandably worrying for Hardy, given that the reason Sandbrook still haunts him is because the case fell apart at trial. So when there’s something that could jeopardize the killer’s confession as evidence, and Jocelyn explicitly warns Hardy and Miller that they need to figure out how they’re going to deal with it when Sharon grills them on it, you’d have thought he’d be more prepared to address this. Instead, his cross-examination leaves him twisting in the wind.

And it’s like, this is just another reason why proper protocol matters. When police let their emotions guide them and they break the rules, even if they justify their reasons to themselves, it puts the future court case at risk, and what’s the point of doggedly chasing down the guilty party if their sloppy corner-cutting or unethical choices means justice won’t be served?

Some of the choices Hardy and Miller made in series 1 are now endangering the trial in series 2. What’s more, it makes me mad that the show puts us in a position where the Black female defense attorney talking about police brutality is framed as the bad guy, and we’re meant to go, “Oh, no!” when she grills Hardy about it. And Hardy carefully saying the killer “had sustained an injury” is just gross.

Look, David Tennant is doing his best with the material. The issue is, it’s just not good material.