The second series of Broadchurch picks up after the events of the first and finds its residents in a different, yet similar kind of turmoil as Joe Miller goes on trial for the murder of Danny Latimer.  What was supposed to be an open and shut case instead transforms into a fiasco with twists and turns and revelations.  For D.I. Hardy and D.S. Miller, it is doubly hard, only for the fact that they must also deal with one of Hardy’s cases that rears its head from the past.  Said case involves the murder of a twelve year old girl and the disappearance of her cousin and having gone unsolved for so long, it is a wound that has never healed for Hardy.  Together, Hardy and Miller must deal with their problems, both personally, professionally and shared, never knowing what will happen, only that they must get through it if they are to continue on with any peace of mind.

The entire cast from series one returns with a few new faces and it remains as gripping and emotionally draining as the first.  Though it might take a bit out of you, that does not make it a bad thing.  To get as invested in a show as you do in this one is a sign of success that its makers have done their job right.  You feel for each and every character, even the villain.  Even though what he did was vile and reprehensible in every sense of the word, you empathize with him just a little knowing that his life is just as over, never to be reclaimed.  The secondary case is just as riveting as the Latimer trial as David Tennant and Olivia Colman put in performances just as strong, if not stronger than the ones they did previously.  Colman especially delivered as her family has fallen apart and she finds her friends deserting her.  With no one but Hardy and the job to distract her, she throws herself into it all the while trying to fix what was broken with little hope that she will succeed.  Hardy meanwhile is a man shattered in body and spirit.  He might have solved Danny’s murder, but the physical toll coupled with the ghosts of the past have served to do nothing by wear him down to a shell of the man he used to be.  As the trial wears on and new facts are made known in that old case, he is determined to pull himself up and watching Tennant do so is acting at its finest.

Even with Colman and Tennant on top of their game, the rest of the cast was just as good.  You believed the grief that Jodie Whittaker and Andrew Buchan exhibited as the parents of Danny, so much so that you nearly grieved with them. Arthur Darvill who played Reverend Coates was quite earnest in the role, though he had less to do this time around which was a bit of a shame.  Charlotte Rampling as the prosecutor and Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Joe’s defense attorney were quite fantastic as they battled it out in court as was most everyone else.  Eve Miles was extremely effective as the broken down yet duplicitous wife of James D’Arcy, the man accused of killing the young girls of his former neighbour.  Even minor characters like Susan Wright played by Pauline Quirke, the woman who seemed to have a vendetta against the world would give a performance worth remembering.  To say this was riveting drama would almost be a disservice to the show.

While the actors were talented beyond measure in this program, it was all thanks to Chris Chibnall and his scripts for truly making it what it was.  Without those words, you could have all the talent in the world and it would have mattered little without a decent script to work from.  Chibnall has proved himself a master of the craft with this series, painting the most visceral of emotions for our cast to work with.  Where the first series dealt with the loss of Danny, this one would deal with the grief and the anger which came afterwards.  Though both series were powerful in their own ways, you would almost have to say that this one was just a bit better because while the tearing down of things is fairly easy, it is the building back up of them that is truly hard.

One of the most interesting things you will notice throughout the show is the dichotomy between the subject matter and the setting of our story.  This town, which is not actually called Broadchurch, is beautiful.  It stands in complete contrast to the tragedy that takes place and as such, really enhances it to seem completely abnormal and out of place.  Where setting and cinematography usually matter, here it is even more so and the town becomes a character in its own right.  Through the ups and downs, the tears of joy and betrayal, in the end, the little town of Broadchurch manages to receive its happy ending, or at least as happy as it can be.  With a third series having already been commissioned, one can only wonder what is next in store for this once sleepy little community.