Broadchurch ITV Closure 22nd April 2013

(Rated 5/5)

Broadchurch will return... but should it?! Now we know who killed Danny do we really need anything more? Series one had all the ingredients of a truly cracking whodunnit and suitably traumatised lead investigators with mysterious pasts - well in fact who did not have a mysterious past on the show?! - but to me it felt like an extremely good but self-contained piece. When something is that good should it really be repeated or stop when the going's good. Then again The Killing and other shows have successfully done it. I just hope it does not get over-milked. The acting was truly superb from everyone - I was particularly moved by Pauline Quirke's performance during her revelatory story... and then later Olivia Coleman in response to the final awful resolution. David Tennant was brilliant at stepping into a fully-rounded, damaged and flawed slightly cruel; later sympathetic character - even though I struggled for just a while with "DT is always nice DT deep-down really and that's it" - goodness knows how I will respond to him in The Politician's Husband when he will apparently be truly not nice! Arthur Darvill also did very well in a non-RoryPond role as the supportive yet challenging vicar... and Jodie Whittaker truly heartbreakingly wonderful as Danny's mother. The linking theme is abuse and love of children - where the two may even meet and the rights and wrongs of that - very emotive and powerful.

Broadchurch – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2013

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Doctor Matt and The Ponds - a very mini review

Farewell Amy and Rory Pond... the Weeping Angels finally got yas...

(Rated 4/5... on a scale where I'd rate Doctor Chris and Rose at 6/5 and Doctor David and Donna as 7/5.)

This little snippetty review is really just to say something about the relationship developed between The Doctor (Matt Smith), Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill). For me, amidst all the excitement of monsters, aliens and Sci Fi, the interaction between the Doctor and his companions - how he influences them and vice versa, and each companions particular story - is the most interesting part. I have a big penchant - not nose or chin - for relationships!

I think writer Stephen Moffat has great storytelling skill - he is superb at that - and keeping you on your toes with excitement and Geronimo! ... here we go! But something lacks in emotion between characters and from them. The dialogue is genius and witty in the extreme... totally yowza! And the delivery of that dialogue from all three lacks nothing at all. Oh and have to mention Alex Kingston as River Song too and her contribution in chemistry with The Doctor - charged? yes - highly? no.

The acting is faultless. Every actor brings something different to The Good Doctor - the very best of themselves - and just as Chris Eccleston and David Tennant nailed that - so does Matt Smith. And wonderfully fantastically brilliantly they all look like they could be an alien and give us the majestic, strong yet traumatised doctor from the North, the all-round funny yet high EQ expressive doctor from North of the border and the professor, public school-boy doctor from somewhere a little bit posh ;)

BUT there is an emotional quality that Russell T. Davies and his Whovian team of actors - Billie Piper's Rose Tyler and Catherine Tate's Donna Noble in particular with their respective doctors - gave that, for me, never comes out in the Moffat-lead series. Russell's writing and their performances tore at my heart strings in ways these guys just can't somehow. I was addicted and couldn't get enough. Now I love it but can cope without.

So I do feel sad to see The Ponds go... but not as upset at the loss of Rose... or devastated at the loss of Donna.

The Eleventh Doctor and The Ponds – Review by TheRestrictedReviewer © 2012

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