Just finished watching episode 7, I’m really enjoying it. They’re definitely keeping us guessing until the very end. It seems like of all the suspects in the first episode no one has been ruled out and no one has been added to the suspect list, so we’ve had 7 episodes of moving each suspect into the prime suspect position and then away from it.
I don’t think I could venture a guess about who exactly did the murder. I think they’re going to try to surprise us with an unlikely murderer or an unlikely situation which lead to a non-premeditated murder kindof a wrong place wrong time thing. I’ve had a feeling from the begining that it won’t be a single person who did it but I admit there is no good reason for me to think that.
I think that the lack of mention of social networking or indeed technology is a flaw in this series. I’m sure it will play a part in solving the case given the final scene in episode 7 but it would have been a lot less frustrating for the viewer if they handwaved away potential evidence on social networking or computers instead of pretending that computers don’t exist.
Isn’t Nigel still pretty much in the frame, especially after the revelation that Danny used to go poaching with him? (Also, why the heck did he take the dog, Vince?) Mind you, it probably is not him, because it is too soon, and there is time for at least one more major twist.
Given that the newsagent has now been effectively cleared (and has killed himself) perhaps there was something to his claim to have seen Danny talking to the postman (I think it was) after all.
We have known almost from the start that the detective’s kid (forget his name) knows something important that he is not telling (and has evidence on his phone and hard drive that he is worried about). However, I can’t really see him being the murderer, though maybe culpable in some way. For one thing, he surely would not have been able to to move the body to the beach all by himself.
I find it very weird that the police have not done more follow up on the drug connection. Surely that is important (or would be in real life).
I am a bit suspicious of the hotel owner. She was involved in supplying the drugs, wasn’t she? (I am no longer sure since that aspect has been totally ignored for several episodes now.) The trouble is she was supposedly screwing Danny’s father at the time of the murder. Are they alibiing each other, maybe?
Who is left: The vicar, the detective’s husband (her son could be protecting him, I guess), the journalists, the guy who thinks he is psychic, the sister, her boyfriend (no, too ethnic), the mother even? I think that is about it. I can’t really see it being any of those, but…
I hope I’m wrong but have a horrible hunch it might be Ellie the detective’s husband. I thought they lingered just a bit on him on the last episode and he’s slipped too far under the radar so far.
Are they showing this in the US at the same time as the UK?
And isn’t Olivia Coleman just the best thing since sliced bread? I can’t think of a single thing she’s been in where I haven’t thought she was brilliant, right from her old Peep Show days. I even thought she was great as Carole Thatcher in The Iron Lady.
I would be pretty annoyed if it wasn’t one of the main suspects, no one has ever considered Ellie’s husband. I could definitely buy him covering up for his son’s involvement maybe not that he knew about it but that he didn’t report something suspicious. But if they throw him, or the postman into the mix in the final episode I’d think that they are screwing with us.
I’m not actually a big mystery fan so maybe I’m not the best audience but I think it’s breaking my internal code of correctness if the clues that lead to the killers identity aren’t present during the course of the story.
But that being said it is not really 100% a mystery series, it is doing an excellent job showing how a child’s murder can affect a family and the community so maybe that’s what the writers were aiming for.
I don’t think the detective’s husband was ever presented as a suspect, unless I missed that part. I would add to the list the boy’s father (two missing hours in his alibi) and Susan whasserface, she doesn’t have a motive but her cigarettes were near the corpse.
Forgot to mention, it’s not being broadcast in the US currently but apparently it has been bought by BBC America. I’m watching it by downloading it mostly legally from iTunes (I got UK iTunes gift cards from a British friend).
If there is a satisfying ending I can see this being remade for the US audience, but hopefully by someone who is happy to leave it as an 8 part series. I can’t imagine it being a success if they try to pad it out to 25 episodes, or worse have a second series.
I’ve been thinking the same; and he didn’t like David Tennant talking to his son on the stairs at that wake. But it would seem a bit crap - the perp just for the sake of a twist.
I hope it turns out to be David Tennant, and that he killed the other kid in the North-East who was mentioned. Then he can be chased by Olivia Coleman, suffer a dizzy spell at the cliff-top - done and dusted.
Blech, I don’t think they could have chosen a worse murderer. I suppose they did do the bare minimum to indicate that he could possibly have done it, but it was all done at the last minute and was pretty subtle, was there any other indication besides him getting annoyed at Tennant talking to Sam at the wake?
The technicalities were annoying as well, is it possible to track a phone to such a small range? Also I think it is probably pretty difficult to strangle a person to death in the heat of the moment, a person will lose conciousness pretty quickly but I think the brain needs to be starved of oxygen for a few minutes before death will occur.
It hasn’t totally soured me on the series every episode was very well plotted (except for one small detail) and the acting was superb.
Also, WTF Broadchurch will return?!? what, has Jessica Fletcher moved into town?
What most annoyed me was the utter lack of explanation as regards the rest of the very shady folk in Broadchurch - did it just turn out that the cocaine, crossbows and sexual intrigue were irrelevant rural hobbies? If they intend to explain the others over future series, I won’t be joining them.
But I would have forgiven everything had Danny’s mother, on seeing the ‘Ole Ben Kenobe’ apparition of her dead son, lurched forward to hug him on the cliff-edge. Bazinga.
What annoyed me about the final episode was that the plot was wrapped up about a quarter of the way in, and the rest of the episode was given over to people emoting. Actually, the whole series, in my opinion, had far too much emotional agonizing almost swamping out what was otherwise a fairly decent plot, and although some of it, such as the family’s reaction, was at least relevant (though laid on with a trowel), other stuff such as Hardy’s illness, was completely extraneous and irrelevant.
I too was gobsmacked by the Broadchurch will return message. How on earth can they do that? The two detectives are, respectively going to die and retire, so we won’t get that team solving fresh crimes amongst fresh casts of victims and suspects. On the other hand, surely there cannot be scope for another murder mystery amongst that fairly small cast of other characters, most of whose secrets and dark sides we have already learned about.
Yes, pretty much that, I think. Nigel had the crossbow for his poaching. That a town like this should have a bit of minor drug taking/dealing amongst some of the kids and a bit of adultery amongst the adults (and, indeed, a bit of petty crime, such as poaching), is just realism. As I said before, though, it does seem odd that the police did not take the drug aspect more seriously (especially as it looked, until the end, as if Danny had made a fair bit of money from it).
Loved it. It was kind of like the smart boxer who leads you in (the overarching theme of media) and then hits you with a massive haymaker (the slyly hidden adult/teen theme that, on reflection, permeated the whole 8 parts).
And what brilliant acting, literally all the way through. Jus the best collective performances I can recall - Olivia Colman is just stunning.
I’m not with you? They weren’t ‘shady’; Nige was a big kid, people dabbled in drugs, people had affairs - I’m trying to work out what wasn’t realistic to you?