Broadchurch - S01E06.

So last weeks episode was largely a distraction from the main plot at hand but a well made enough distraction for me to not really care. I just hope this weeks picks up the pace.

Despite the dramatic shifts in focus episode six really is an episode about faith. Faith in Hardy to catch the killer, faith in the town to not completely destroy itself before the killer is even caught, faith in one another to move on with their lives and return to normality. And perhaps most importantly is faith in ourselves. More than with many cop shows with Broadchurch being so drawn out, it demands us to become the detectives as well, to study every detail and have faith that our perception of each moment is the right one to light the way to catching the killer. This show doesn't make it easy for us though, with the sea of red herrings just waiting to snatch us up and drag us away.

This lack of focus makes things sadly feel all a bit silly, really. In the same episode the vicar turns out to be a recovering alcoholic with an assault charge on a minor under his belt and the episode even chose to focus a several second shot of his hand on Tom's knee because we already made the creepy shopkeeper appear to be a paedophile but wasn't exactly..maybe the vicar will be the "real kind" who preys on little boys. Meanwhile we have Hardy pleading desperately down his phone for his daughter to call him back and then right at the end we learn that Susan Wright also has a dark and mysterious past - not that that wasn't obvious already by now. None of these backstories are particularly unusual, especially not on TV, but when you stack them all on another in the same episode it makes you notice that no one in this town apparently, can get through life without running into at least one soap opera plot. And this many tragedies all huddled in such a small space feels frankly ridiculous, has no one had a "normal" life in this town?

The lack of focus frustrates in other areas as well with the balance between red herrings and clues being off entirely. So far pretty much everything that seemingly is a clue, turns out to be a red herring, as the show leads us in circle, after circle. I understand this is supposed to connote Hardy's desperate search for the killer but we have two episodes left and I still really don't have any grasp on this at all. It's clear Hardy's suspect pool is getting smaller, despite his desperation growing, but if last weeks episode taught us anything and had any purpose at all, it's that we can't take anything in this show on face value and because of that my suspicion pool, much like Miller's, only continues to frustratingly grow.

Honestly it's becoming increasingly quickly exhausting because the point is everyone is a suspect. That even includes Hardy himself (who seems like a bomb timed specifically to go off at every crucial moment of the case, is it possible he could be exaggerating or elaborately completely faking his illness? I don't really know why, there isn't really any evidence to support this but his health feels much too scripted to actively get in the way of the case at every turn) who I assumed is meant to be our audience avatar into the world of Broadchurch and if you can't trust your window into this world, then who the fuck do you trust? You can't let your guard down for a moment. If you step back from every line of dialogue, every facial expression, every action and try and think of what alternative meanings each one could have, it leaves you spinning. Earlier in the series I would have praised this, this late in the game it's just a bit annoying really.

Episode 6 really confuses how time works in this show or at least it did for me as well. Each episode largely seems reactionary to the last, with little to no gaps in the narrative between the end of one episode and the start of the next however this episode confirmed that eight weeks have passed between episode one and episode six.

Fuck knows what people have been doing in all those weeks not highlighted in the episodes, with how each episode leads into the next I can only assume they just slept through those. The first quarter of the episode wraps up last weeks episode but if weeks have passed since the last episode, why did they wait so long to have the funeral? And I'm impressed Paul can still have so much rage, such free, reactionary feeling rage to how the town treated Jack, after all this time.

Even Hardy's worsening condition doesn't really make sense if months have really been passing, since we haven't seen him worsening from episode to episode, he just has bad patches but then suddenly here he seems close to death. Thankfully the larger passing of time than I realised certainly gives better context for Hardy's declining mental health. Even if he wasn't a physical timebomb, it looks like his mind wouldn't be far behind for its own break.

The amount of time passing at least gives good cause for the Latimer's to try and return to normal life and try to become a family again. Not that it works exactly, things will never be the same and you have to accept that if you ever want a normal life again. This is something I myself had to do and I found the treatment of this task very respectful, it's clear that those who work on the show have a deep understanding of grief and of people as well.

Either way, Paul's angry message at the town has Hardy coming at him full force for the majority of the episode. And although not a lot of what Hardy finds necessarily has a direct connection to suggest Paul could be the killer, when all stacked together it really doesn't look good. Even if in the end, it's Susan Wright who ends the episode in handcuffs.

It doesn't look good for Paul for reasons outside of the show either. We're practically on the final stretch by this point so the spotlight on him - specifically the DNA swab - doesn't count him out in the same way it would have if this happened a few episodes ago. Plus we can't forget that it is Arthur Darvill - although Broadchurch is a who's who of British Television and Film talent Darvill is one of the most recognisable faces to a younger audience and although we can argue this endlessly, his current relevancy to the now, especially compared to some of the other members of the cast who haven't been particularly relevant for a while, makes him one of the biggest names in the production. And one of the many cop show rules is that the bigger the star the more direct involvement they had in the murder.

Episode Six was a long, drawn out melodrama that seems more interested in leading the audience down wild goose chases than actually rewarding them with any clues or answers  It is by no means bad telly but nothing is looking any clearer by this point and that is fucking frustrating with how late we are in the game by this point. Not enough of the problems had a direct enough impact to ruin the episode at hand, especially when balanced with the great characters and dialogue, but unless they actually address some of the issues raised in this review from the moment the episode opens next week, I can see this whole thing coming apart before the final episode.

Pros;

• It understands grief and respectfully portrays it. 
• Honestly Broadchurch is a wonderfully written show in general with some excellent dialogue delivered by actors doing great performances. 
• This is especially true of Paul who got some great dialogue this week. 

Cons;

• This episode in many ways felt more like a melodrama or an episode of a shitty soap than it did a detective drama.
• Can we have at least one clue that actually sticks? The amount of red herrings we have to wade through per episode is exhausting and takes the fun out of trying to be the detective yourself.
• It just feels badly plotted.

Think About It!

-Locke

What would you rate, 'Episode 6'?