Last week's episode of Broadchurch was outstanding. It was bold, focused and deeply moving. Tonight's episode, the penultimate of the series as well as the entire show, unfortunately fails to recapture that glory. This isn't an actively bad hour of TV, but it does return to the sort of just-about-fine-but-nothing-really-special standard that the Broadchurch's third series has mostly been defined by.
While last week's episode did a complete 180 on the Mark/Joe subplot and made it something actually worth all the time invested in it, episode seven stutters again. Joe's name is dropped in once, if I recall, and the aftermath of Mark's attempted suicide isn't focused on enough to recapture any of the emotion that last week's final scene brought. Andrew Buchan, Jodie Whitaker and Charlotte Beaumont act the hell out of their moments in the spotlight, but there's little depth to anything they're given to say.
This mostly stems from the fact that this whole subplot has shifted gears dramatically so near the show's resolution. The rest of series three hasn't laid enough groundwork to allow the central investigate to be sidelined, and therefore we still spend the bulk of our time there tonight. It creates a strong feeling of momentum heading into the finale, but it's tough not to feel disappointed by just how cold all of the Mark and Beth scenes felt tonight.
That wasn't the only issue, either. Episode seven is also plagued by a scene so poorly handled that it sticks out like a sore thumb - if you couldn't tell, I'm talking about the iPhone torch tribute to Trish. In what feels like a blandly modernised version of Danny's send off back in series one, the entire town of Broadchurch appears on the street and shines their phone torches in the air, to show support for Trish. It's a well intentioned scene, there's no doubting that, but it seems fundamentally torn in its goals. Does it want to act as a loving tribute to a shaken character, or does it want to break the fourth wall and address every sexual abuse victim watching the show?
It sort of feels more like the latter, which is nice and all, but it stops the episode dead. After a steady stream of police interviews and new evidence, everything grinds to a halt for a few minutes. The scene does accomplish one thing though - Trish and Cath are friends again! I'd like to say I care but Cath has been shown as such a horrible person and Trish's characterisation this series has been sloppy at best, so I'm not really sure I do.
The interview scenes are all handled well, they've made for a lot of Broadchurch's most consistently solid sequences this series and tonight was no exception. A lot of suspects were covered tonight too, which is always nice to see, but it didn't all click together as smoothly as other instalments. This is a shaky episode of Broadchurch at best, and a badly timed misfire at its worst. If the show heads into its finale on the same footing as it tackled this episode, it'll be hard not to walk away from a once terrific series without a sour taste in the mouth.
Grade: B-
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