Broadchurch (Series 1)

This BBC murder mystery drama stars David Tennant as a disgraced police detective who moves to the British coastal town of Broadchurch to escape the intensity of the city and his past demons only to head the investigation of a young teenage boy found dead on the beach. His new partner played by Olivia Colman is a local who knows the victim’s family very well and had hoped to be promoted to the position he took. Now that I’m a father I was thunderstruck with sadness by the first episode, especially from Jodi Whittaker’s performance of the grieving mother. What I really enjoyed about this show was that it’s a real head-scratcher; it’s not an easy mystery to solve. Also the small town drama is very well-crafted with many wonderful real performances by everyone involved. If I had to find one critique is with the visual style. It looks great certainly but they use some of the same techniques over and over again which can be distracting. The first episode was so raw and simply but then later, with melodramatic music ,there were times I felt they were trying to hit me over the head with emotional cinematic techinques. Still as television mysteries go this is a winner. Do check it out if you like solid writing and the kind of acting that can lift a series to new heights. Grade: A-