Broadchurch Season 1 Analysis

Broadchurch (Season 1)

Created and Written by: Chris Chibnall

A kick-ass murder mystery show, watch it on Netflix.

This show is about the murder of Danny Lamiter, a 11 year old boy, in a small town Broadchurch. It is an 8-episode show, each of 45 mins. It has similar pace across the entire show, even the 4th and 5th episodes are equally engaging and tight as the 1st and the last episodes. The investigation carries for about 60-70% of the show and the rest 30-40% is the drama, the aftermaths of a family and their suffering for the loss and the conflicts between the detectives, their personal lives and their past baggage. This show is constructed so well in terms of having suspects and clearing them off, they have 2 suspects who aren't cleared till the last episodes, they have 4 suspects who are cleared by the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th episodes each. Each suspect is created with an absence of alibi, a lie and a history of violence and they are cleared off with a smaller crime, which is unrelated to the murder which they were trying to hide from the detectives or through a traumatic past which explains their history and their unusual behavior in the present. This has a lot of scope for drama and it's not just a whodunit. 

I think British detective shows/films are well made because in British detective fiction was A-list literature like Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes whereas in American detective literature was sold in pulp materials, which was considered low art because it was cheap to buy. I think detective stories, if told with a blend of drama, can be made for excellent, chilling and riveting tales. By the end of the 7th episode, I felt such a high that I was going to watch the finale right away and find out who the killer is, that was the sort of suspense that this show built and created. The spirit of Broadchurch and the milieu was captured well, in spite of the mood and tone of the show. I'm not as excited to watch the 2nd season because the murder is solved and I'm not as interested in the drama between the characters.