Farewell Broadchurch 3. No more Millaaagh & Hardy. It's criminal.

[ThaliaLuxurySpa]

But we're not abandoning you yet.

Continuing where we left off, everyone...

As I stated on the end of thread 2 : Broadchurch.
Mark waltzes off to wallow in his grief while Beth, the heartbroken mother of a murdered child and a wronged wife holds it all together to bring up her 2 daughters and help others as a counsellor.
It was a bit ironic when Hardy tells Ellie at the end that not all men are bad and she , the wife of a murdering paedophile nods sagely.
Jesus wept.

Yes Holly who are the decent men in BC? I'm not sure even Hardy totally fits - by S1 he had already buggered off from his wife and child, and while it was fun to see him have his Liam Neeson moment this series that was male bluster rather than actual fathering.

And the women have a rough deal.
Trish had 2 stalkers as well as 2 violent rapists, but the promise of a take away is meant to make things better - or rather, she is expected to accept the offer to make Ian feel better.
Cath is the wife of a serial philanderer.
Harvy's daughter has already been subject to sexual abuse by way of image sharing.
Beth and Chloe - both abandoned by Mark
Ellie - also left holding the literal baby when husband accused of murder
Lucas's wife and Leo's GF - both victims of co-ercive control.
At least Ellie and Beth and Maggie are shown to be taking control of their own lives - which is why the scene with Trish saying yes to the takeaway jarred. But She'd just been told by a male vicar to forgive and move on, so that's alright then.

The male vicar who was also buggering off, sorry moving on, because his parishioners didn't pay him enough attention any more - boo hoo poor little him.

I'm confused. Who is Clive and who is Lucas?

The taxi driver is Clive Lucas.

I think the series actually did a good job highlighting the number of ways in which men are in control/take the piss/make it all about them, let alone the violent crimes some commit etc.

The weak spot was Trish agreeing to ex coming round - I thought this jarred, and was out if character for Trish - we saw her stand up to Kathvwhen cornered, even though she was also in the wrong (having slept with Kate's dh), so I don't know why the scriptwriters chose submission at that point.

Otherwise, I liked the symmetry of seeing Beth and Ellie at the end - laughing, happy with what's left of their families, which mirrored how we first saw them in s1 I think - 2 families, getting back in track.

I think the series was actually very good at not 'just' highlighting how awful rape is - there was a shitload of other dodgy behaviour, from just about every male character in it, and whilst it was highlighted to us as viewers, it was also shown to be just part of life (as it so often is). A true mirror. If all the dodgy behaviour had been tackled, then there would have been a lot more 'but not all men do that' defence - but this way, with each man having something unsavoury about him, but also shown to be human, I think it highlighted more just how much is accepted by society as a status quo.

Just caught up with the ending after losing interest a couple of times during what seemed to be a very much drawn out eight episodes. First series was excellent, I didn't make it through the second and the third was OK but really nothing special. I really think there's an element of Emperor's New Clothes with Broadchurch, after the first series. What really bugged me was the fact that they felt the need to have Miller and Hardy recap for the viewers at least twice every episode. We can keep up, please don't spoon feed us.
Anyone who says this is better than anything else on television obviously isn't watching Line of Duty. More drama in each episode than a whole series of Broadchurch IMHO, no red herrings or 'they could all have done it' moments and, most importantly, never underestimates the intelligence of the viewer.

Can I ask a quick question? Why did Clive Lucas have the trophy drawer? Did I miss the explanation?
The final episode left me feeling rather sad & I HATED hearing Leo's confession. It really made me feel ill

PigsEar I think It was a trophy draw of sorts, it gave him a sense of power that he had those objects people had left in his cab and the sense that he could get into their houses if he wanted.

Rokerwriter I agree with you re '......emperor's new clothes.'
Broadchurch is good.
But it's not that good.

Line of Duty. Do I need to have seen s1-3 do you think or can I just start watching this series? I've never seen it before.

I'd try to find the previous series if you can :)

There are threads on here about LoD

I'm watching LoD without having seen previous series and it's fine. Loving it. However I now want to watch the previous ones so would prob start from the beginning if I knew then what I know now!

Also the LoD thread on here has a few spoilers here and there so I keep skimming over if I see anything.

I'd watch the first 3 series first. They are on BBC IPlayer. LoD is great. Way better than Broadchurch which I found very cheesy in places.

To be fair Hardy and his wife split up because she was having an affair didn't they? The Sandbrook case went wrong because she left the crucial piece of evidence in her car while she went off to shag OM and the car was stolen, and Hardy took the blame publicly because he didn't want Daisy "to know that about her mother".

I STILL don't understand why Danny argued with the postman and now I never will

Hmmmm i think the reality is that the first series was good, but the other 2 were pretty rubbish ( especially 2). There is way better crime drama.out there. Emperors new clothes indeed.

I've been itching to join in this thread! I've just finished season 3.

I feel sorry for all the Latimer's, I don't think anyone can know how they'd react in that horrific situation, Beth was strong she channelled her grief into helping others, Mark came across as someone who was so blinded and suffocated by his own grief that he couldn't see/think/exist as anything else and I think that's quite a plausible outcome of your son was brutally murdered by a friend and you knew he was walking free. I can see Chloe and Beth's POV too that he should be ok for them and it hurts like hell that they're not enough.
Maybe I'm just a writers dream and fell for it all but that's just my opinion.

I thought this show was spellbinding and the writing and acting was superb, I did call the culprits quite early on in each series though and now DH thinks I'm a TV wizard of some kind!

I am now more inclined to watch dr who though which so far I've dipped in and out of.

I think people are being a bit hard on Mark too. I totally get Beth's frustration with him and the thing about men making everything about them. But splitting up (which Beth implied would have happened anyway, even without Danny) did make it logistically and psychologically harder for him to step up and throw himself into family life. All of us would be inclined to brood and become self-absorbed. I think the worst you can say of Mark is he failed to be superhuman in the face of terrible grief (Beth didn't and all power to her, but it's a pretty high standard).

And compared to the specimens we've seen in S3 he's a prince among men!

The fact that we're still talking about the Latimers despite the fact they didn't really do much in S3 shows what great, rounded characters they were I think.

Lila
Have you forgotten that Mark Latimer was sh**ing someone else just prior to his son's murder.
Many marriages don't survive an affair, let alone the grief unleashed by the murder of your child.
Beth held it together for her girls.

And he also wanted to carry on the affair afterwards. It was the hotel owner (can't remember her name) who called it off

You're right. I had basically forgotten that (despite having just rematched S1!) because it gets so overtaken by everything else. I'm not sure we can take as serious intent the fact that he wants to carry on the affair immediately afterwards as a sign of anything much because he's just traumatised at that point. But still.

Hm, why am I a Mark apologist?

I'm completely on team hardy, he's a bit of a grump but I don't think he abandoned his wife and child. The wife had an affair and ruined the case. He took the fall presumably so his wife could keep her job to support their child and keep her relationship with that child intact, since at that point he was probably quite ill with his heart thing and might have died.

I think he was quite courageous to walk away from the daughter he obviously adored for what he saw as best in her interests.