Review of Broadchurch

Like a few of the other negative reviewers, I'm really typing this review in a bid to balance out the insanity of the glowing, virtually dripping 10-star reviews that have resulted in the 8-star overall rating. I imagine there are other people like me who don't watch actual TV as it is aired and instead use sites like this to assess whether an already aired show is worth investing the time to watch. The more shows I watch, the more I realise that it is the REVIEWS that are more fascinating than the actual shows. I watched the first season of Broadchurch. I try to see through the eyes of these 10-star reviewers, looking to understand how they could possibly have watched the same thing I did, sit down and give it 10 stars, 10 out of 10, perfect, no flaws, magnificent television. I cannot see it. Some of these reviews even go further, using the show as an example of how much better British TV is than US TV, suggesting that it is more about realistic characters and story than guns and action. It is also common in such reviews to suggest that people who disagree with their high ratings are either mentally deficient or unable to focus their attention on anything that doesn't have lots of shooting and car chases. This grows extremely tiresome; if people want to grossly overrate Paint by Numbers, formulaic TV that is one thing, there really is no call for insulting anyone who doesn't agree with their opinion. Broadchurch follows the same tried and tested formula that a lot of other season-long murder-mystery shows follow; start proceedings off with the murder of a child to get people feeling sad and wanting to know 'whodunnit', then pad the season out with endless red herrings, scenic shots, gimmicky lead police detectives, endless slow-motion scenes, whatever it takes to fill the space between the pilot and the final "big twist reveal" episode. I get why this formula is so often followed; it makes for easy pay cheques. Put your own "stamp" on it with a location that hasn't been done before, give the cops new gimmicks, knock out a lazy script with weak dialogue and Bingo Bango Bongo, job done, fingers crossed for a second season to keep the that easy pay cheque rolling in. In this case, the new location is Dorset, pretty little seaside town (much like a lot of the Scandinavian offerings in this genre, have the setting be a "character" in itself, save more energy on writing actual character development by having lots of shots of cliffs, the sea, the beach, the high street and quaint residential streets). Bonus - entertaining Dorset accents. Cop gimmicks? Let's make the lead male cop pig-ignorant, loud and give him a heart problem that will have him toppling over left and right. Female cop...let's make her local bumpkin PD, everybody's best friend with a heart of gold - THAT will make for a nice, clashing dynamic. The red herrings are your standard fare, neighbours and close friends with dodgy pasts, plenty of misdirection down child-molestation paths that lead to nowhere. Can't have guns and shooting, don't want to sink to the level of those lowly Americans...how about a crossbow, one that doesn't get fired to boot? WE are better than that. There is nothing of substance here, it is absolutely bog-standard, formulaic TV. SOME shows can follow the formula yet still offer something of worth, be it in the dialogue, the characters, the casting of an actor who elevates the show simply by virtue of their involvement, the pulling off of the twist in a pleasing or at least acceptable manner. This show does not do any of these things. The actions of the characters are not believable, almost all character decisions contrived plot devices, done purely so the writers' can create "drama", soulless puppets at the mercy of their whim and fancy. Some of the acting is decent enough, most is acceptable, some is very weak, most notably that of the actor who played the biggest red herring, poor old Nige. The only emotion he exhibited that seemed believable was the constant, childlike joy in his face that he probably couldn't hide at being cast in a role. Good for you, son. The big, season-ending twist was as lazily written as the rest of the show, not something that was cleverly tied-in during the season and then revealed in a way that makes the viewer look back and connect the dots - it was completely disconnected from the preceding seven episodes. All in all, true to the formula at its most basic, do just enough to secure repeat viewership, not a jot more. I'm curious as to where this formula originated; Britain, Scandinavia, the US? The US seems to remake a lot of such British and Scandinavian shows, so perhaps they are just jumping on the bandwagon. The funny thing is that the US shows typically get panned by fans of the original British or Scandinavian versions - "don't settle for this sorry knock-off, watch the original" - ignoring the fact that it is the same base formula and usually of similarly low-quality writing, rarely that much worse than the original slop it was rehashed from. I am not American, I grew up in England and now live abroad, I don't love the US and hate Britain; I'm just tired of this type of TV being lauded as something "elevated" and "superior". It really isn't.