Broadchurch vs Gracepoint - One Viewer's Opinion
I'm certain that not everyone who reads here is interested in Broadchurch and/or Gracepoint. So, for the benefit of those folks, I'll put the rest of this under the cut.
In the first place, I'm very grateful that, despite doing almost a line-by-line remake of the finale (to a certain extent), the producers managed to come through on their promise to make the outcome of Gracepoint different from Broadchurch's. (No, I'm not going to spoil it for those who may end up watching it on streaming at the FOX TV website.) And a delicious plot twist it was too, changing the dynamics of where the characters were left at the end of the show completely. In that way, I found the show quite satisfying. Frankly, if the only version of this I saw were the US one, I'd be singing its praises.
However, comma...
To be honest, while in many ways each production had its own strengths that make any comparisons difficult, my overall opinion of the US remake is vague disappointment.
Frankly, the acting in the Brit version was far and away stronger - infinitely more gripping. The acting in Gracepoint was... flat. There's no other word for it, really. For one reason or another, being in a position to watch the two dramas literally side by side (I own the Broadchurch DVDs, and managed to talk my hubby into watching it not very long ago) merely reinforced the idea that remakes rarely reach the same levels of quality as originals.
I didn't get the same sense of pending danger from Jackie Weaver's Susan Wright in Gracepoint that I did from Broadchurch's Pauline Quirk's. Nick Nolte, while excellent as always, simply didn't do as good a job as Gracepoint's Jack Reinhold as David Bradley did in Broadchurch as Jack Marshall - I didn't get the same depth of pathos from Reinhold's story, the same sense of hopelessness as that character got maligned.
Even David Tennant, whose acting I very much admire, was flat - and I find I'm wondering if that's more because of feeling limited or unable to emote properly while maintaining the American accent. I certainly was much less willing to form an emotional attachment to Emmett Carver than I was to Alec Hardy. A few scenes where he could have dug deep and shown more pathos were remarkably stony: when he tells the story of Rosemont to the local reporters, for example. As Alec Hardy, he was barely coherent at the end, so emotionally battered his character was by the failed investigation and his wife's betrayal. As Emmett Carver, he was ... hollow. Empty. Lifeless.
Then again, there were a few things I initially enjoyed which, after some thought, became points of disappointment. Primary among those was the introduction of Emmett Carver's daughter. This is a kid whose separation from her father wasn't all that long ago, which means she's a cop's kid and knows how the police deal with certain situations. Specifically the death and/or disappearance of a child. For her to be all pissy because her dad is wrapped up in the disappearance of the Miller boy after another child's death took Julianne Carver and made her into something far less than sympathetic. No matter what her dad may or may not have done before, she should have known better.
Another of the changes made to Gracepoint that I felt diminished its impact was the choice not to make the physical similarities between Joe Miller and the plumber's assistant a plot element. I'm sorry, but "same height, same build" just isn't quite as convincing as "same height, same build, bald head..."
Finally, and I'm sorry, but Olivia Coleman so far outshone Anne Gunn as Ellie Miller that it wasn't funny. With Coleman, we definitely saw an emotional journey that took an optimistic, jovial, believe-the-best-of-people Ellie and turned her into a cynical, bitter, supremely betrayed and vulnerable one. Anne Gunn simply didn't sell it - neither the bright-faced, cheery Ellie at the beginning, nor the journey that stripped that away. Of course, considering the changed ending, Gunn naturally wouldn't be the same woman Coleman became in Broadchurch - but, you know, after having come up short for most of the rest of the show, that part she sold exceedingly well.
In conclusion, I suppose, I should say that making comparisons isn't a great idea. Each of the productions deserves to be judged on its own merits, rather than have it be a contest between the UK way of making dramas and the US way. I did, actually, become invested in Gracepoint - to the point that the power outage my neighborhood suffered the night of the finale (we had a REAL winter storm that blew over trees & knocked over power poles, etc - as well as dumped 2+ inches of rain on us in 12 hrs) was quite frustrating. I was on the computer watching it stream the very next morning, bright and early.
I don't do that for most other TV shows I consistently watch. So there must have been something to it that made it shine brighter than most US-made TV.
Would I watch a second season of it?
Maybe, if Tennant were in it again. But that would be more an expression of loyalty to Tennant rather than interest in seeing where the writer/s want to take the story next (altho the ending of Gracepoint was a pretty clear cliffie, if one wanted to take it that way.)
So there ye go.
Needless to say - again - I'll be anxiously awaiting Broadchurch 2 on BBCA. Now that looks to be as good as the original.
In the first place, I'm very grateful that, despite doing almost a line-by-line remake of the finale (to a certain extent), the producers managed to come through on their promise to make the outcome of Gracepoint different from Broadchurch's. (No, I'm not going to spoil it for those who may end up watching it on streaming at the FOX TV website.) And a delicious plot twist it was too, changing the dynamics of where the characters were left at the end of the show completely. In that way, I found the show quite satisfying. Frankly, if the only version of this I saw were the US one, I'd be singing its praises.
However, comma...
To be honest, while in many ways each production had its own strengths that make any comparisons difficult, my overall opinion of the US remake is vague disappointment.
Frankly, the acting in the Brit version was far and away stronger - infinitely more gripping. The acting in Gracepoint was... flat. There's no other word for it, really. For one reason or another, being in a position to watch the two dramas literally side by side (I own the Broadchurch DVDs, and managed to talk my hubby into watching it not very long ago) merely reinforced the idea that remakes rarely reach the same levels of quality as originals.
I didn't get the same sense of pending danger from Jackie Weaver's Susan Wright in Gracepoint that I did from Broadchurch's Pauline Quirk's. Nick Nolte, while excellent as always, simply didn't do as good a job as Gracepoint's Jack Reinhold as David Bradley did in Broadchurch as Jack Marshall - I didn't get the same depth of pathos from Reinhold's story, the same sense of hopelessness as that character got maligned.
Even David Tennant, whose acting I very much admire, was flat - and I find I'm wondering if that's more because of feeling limited or unable to emote properly while maintaining the American accent. I certainly was much less willing to form an emotional attachment to Emmett Carver than I was to Alec Hardy. A few scenes where he could have dug deep and shown more pathos were remarkably stony: when he tells the story of Rosemont to the local reporters, for example. As Alec Hardy, he was barely coherent at the end, so emotionally battered his character was by the failed investigation and his wife's betrayal. As Emmett Carver, he was ... hollow. Empty. Lifeless.
Then again, there were a few things I initially enjoyed which, after some thought, became points of disappointment. Primary among those was the introduction of Emmett Carver's daughter. This is a kid whose separation from her father wasn't all that long ago, which means she's a cop's kid and knows how the police deal with certain situations. Specifically the death and/or disappearance of a child. For her to be all pissy because her dad is wrapped up in the disappearance of the Miller boy after another child's death took Julianne Carver and made her into something far less than sympathetic. No matter what her dad may or may not have done before, she should have known better.
Another of the changes made to Gracepoint that I felt diminished its impact was the choice not to make the physical similarities between Joe Miller and the plumber's assistant a plot element. I'm sorry, but "same height, same build" just isn't quite as convincing as "same height, same build, bald head..."
Finally, and I'm sorry, but Olivia Coleman so far outshone Anne Gunn as Ellie Miller that it wasn't funny. With Coleman, we definitely saw an emotional journey that took an optimistic, jovial, believe-the-best-of-people Ellie and turned her into a cynical, bitter, supremely betrayed and vulnerable one. Anne Gunn simply didn't sell it - neither the bright-faced, cheery Ellie at the beginning, nor the journey that stripped that away. Of course, considering the changed ending, Gunn naturally wouldn't be the same woman Coleman became in Broadchurch - but, you know, after having come up short for most of the rest of the show, that part she sold exceedingly well.
In conclusion, I suppose, I should say that making comparisons isn't a great idea. Each of the productions deserves to be judged on its own merits, rather than have it be a contest between the UK way of making dramas and the US way. I did, actually, become invested in Gracepoint - to the point that the power outage my neighborhood suffered the night of the finale (we had a REAL winter storm that blew over trees & knocked over power poles, etc - as well as dumped 2+ inches of rain on us in 12 hrs) was quite frustrating. I was on the computer watching it stream the very next morning, bright and early.
I don't do that for most other TV shows I consistently watch. So there must have been something to it that made it shine brighter than most US-made TV.
Would I watch a second season of it?
Maybe, if Tennant were in it again. But that would be more an expression of loyalty to Tennant rather than interest in seeing where the writer/s want to take the story next (altho the ending of Gracepoint was a pretty clear cliffie, if one wanted to take it that way.)
So there ye go.
Needless to say - again - I'll be anxiously awaiting Broadchurch 2 on BBCA. Now that looks to be as good as the original.