Broadchurch 2 is on trial. The charge: that Broadchurch isn’t as good this time round.
The Defence
Season 2 isn’t bad, no sir, it just wasn’t what you were expecting.
Sequels are hard, especially when the first was a smash hit. TV teaches us that lesson as often as movies do. It is, as was pointed out in The Guardian, a case of second album syndrome. How could this new run possibly measure up to insurmountable expectation? Answer: by dodging expectation.
Broadchurch 2 could have been more of the same: another Cluedo murder within sniffing distance of the briny coast, another picture postcard, like one of those famous tupenny Donald McGill drawings but with more blood in it.
Fans of the show would likely have been happy with that. But Broadchurch isn’t Midsomer-on-Sea, and this time around it’s playing a far more complex, more nuanced story. We shouldn’t be surprised at that. The mission statement in the teaser last year was not so cryptic as we might have thought when it said ‘The End is just the Beginning’.
We’re so used to the hour-long process of crime drama now that, once the cuffs are slapped on and the credits roll, we just expect justice will be doled out. Criminal goes to jail, we go to the kettle, all is right with the world.
It’s to Broadchurch‘s credit that we the audience aren’t allowed to walk away scot-free from a crime. In Season 1 we were witnesses to the investigation (and eventually the murder itself), and now, like the residents of the town that we lived with for eight weeks, we’re a part of the process that follows. Narratively, organically, it makes sense. The impact of a crime doesn’t end with the reading of rights.
Broadchurch 2 dispels the TV myth that justice is as swift and clear cut as other murder mysteries allow us to infer, and the theatre of the court is as entertaining as the dramatic intensity of the questioning room.
Yes, some grumpy Rumpole types have argued that Broadchurch‘s court scenes aren’t realistic, forgetting, m’lud, that such a thing as dramatic licence occurs. If drama were to be concreted in reality, every episode of Casualty would be a 50 minute CCTV feed of people sat in A&E, and the apex of the drama would be old Mrs. Woodley being trollied away for an x-ray after a three hour wait.
Broadchurch plays to our screens in the same manner as a barrister plays to the court. The role this season is to make us re-evaluate all we think we know about the people we think we know. And isn’t that the point of all good drama? Especially crime drama?
With the cast it has, Broadchurch can prove that point in style. Tennant and Coleman remain unimpeachable in their roles. Davey T especially has put extra polish to that NTA Recognition Award, as we’ve watched the mystery of Hardy’s backstory emerge in clumps tattier than his beard.
Newcomers such as Charlotte Rampling and Marianne Jean-Baptiste have added a touch of class and new vivacity to the show. And it’s weird, but it’s nice to see the residents of Broadchurch again. They feel familiar, neighbourly, the faces over the fence.
They’re a reminder that we let this show into our living rooms once and we were rewarded for doing so. At only the halfway point it would be a mistake to abandon Broadchurch. Given his form, Chris Chibnall still has one or three surprises up his sleeve.
> Order Season 2 on DVD on Amazon.
What do you think of Season 2 so far? Let us know below…