The usual “big” shows – AMC’s “Mad Men,” CBS’ “The Good Wife,” Netflix’s “House of Cards,” FX’s “Justified,” to name a deserving view -- have as usual been getting most of the attention lately from critics who pride themselves on championing television’s top dramas. But I’d like to throw some renewed support here to one that seems to have slipped under the radar – BBC America’s “Broadchurch,” now in its second season.
Admittedly, I didn’t see the need for a continuation of this devastating tale about the loss and despair that overtake a small ocean-side town after the murder of a little boy. The story told in the eight episodes that comprised the first season felt very formal and complete, coming to a profoundly depressing but perfectly fitting end. All of the characters involved, from the family of the little boy to the family of the killer to the detectives charged with solving the case and all of the townspeople in between, were left to put back together the shattered pieces of their lives. The ending accurately reflected and respected the devastating pain people find themselves in after so wrenching a loss and so terrible an act.
In other words, in season one “Broadchurch” felt achingly real in its presentation of death (in this case murder) as a malevolent berserker capable of destroying everything in its path, leaving behind lives forever compromised. You would never know it from the way characters on most television series bounce back from such things – especially on crime dramas with their murder of the week structures -- but the impact of loss can be relentless, and grief often lingers for longer than most people realize, sometimes refusing ever to go away.