Broadchurch is a brilliant multi-layered police procedural with a slightly unsatisfactory resolution.

Each episode in Broadchurch’s first season is shot beautifully, thanks in part to the small town’s majestic cliffs and crashing waves. An 11-year-old, Danny Latimer is found dead in the tourist town of Broadchurch. The show alternates between being an emotional drama and a suspenseful whodunnit, and shines on both counts. We feel the pain of the Latimer family as they deal with the death of Danny. Jodie Whittaker is great in her role as Danny’s mother. Andrew Buchan, playing the father, also has a heart wrenching ‘I love you, 3000’ moment. The police detectives in the case are DI Alec Hardy (David Tenant) and his lieutenant, DS Ellie Miller (Olivia Colman), two polar opposites, who begrudgingly work with each other.

As I’d mentioned in one of my earlier reviews, I love it when a show/book asks us to be armchair detectives. Broadchurch is a classic example of that genre, as it keeps you guessing till the end with a roulette wheel of suspects. David Bradley, who played the much-despised Walder Frey in Game of Thrones, plays a complex character in Broadchurch, the owner of a local newspaper stand who also happens to be an ex-convict. Like the other characters who find themselves in the cross-hairs, we assume he is the killer, but when we find out the truth, it’s gut-wrenching and I ended up feeling sorry for Walder Frey.

Ultimately, when the final reveal arrives, it feels like a bit of a letdown, as you are led to expect something a lot cleverer from this brilliant show. The lack of a flourish might irk a few, but there’s no denying that Broadchurch is one of the best-written police procedurals in recent times. And, I’ll definitely be paying the quaint little town of Broadchurch another visit.