The first one is that of the trial of Danny's killer who was revealed in the series 1 finale; this court case goes on for every episode, putting various characters in 'the block' to give a witness. Now on paper this could seem a bit boring to some, as it is set almost entirely in the court room and we hear descriptions of various scenes from the first series. But the reason I didn't think it was boring was that of the writing, Chris Chinball does amazingly well with scripts, he makes you listen to every word that is being said, the suspense of the dialogue is carried out wonderfully by the brilliant acting of the cast. Two new characters are brought in for this court case, one is defending the killer, the other is trying to prosecute; these two women have history which is only hinted at but not explored fully but it does add a little extra something to the events as they are both well defined characters each with flaws and strengths which you enjoy watching unfold; so the relationship between these two is only minor but still quite engaging. During this series-long trial you also see the damage it is doing to our main characters, including Danny's family and Ellie's which makes for some very emotional and powerful scenes, especially towards the end.
The second arc that is that of the Sandbrook case which was briefly mentioned in series 1 as a case that David Tennant's character Detective Hardy wasn't able to solve, now due to circumstances it's all been dredged up and he has sort it out with the help of Ellie. Another two main characters are brought in for this story too, that being Hardy's original suspect and his wife who is a witness under protection. These two work brilliantly together and are played by the fantastic James D'Arcy and Eve Myles respectively. As I've said before the acting in this show is perfect, D'Arcy plays such a powerful presence in the scenes he's in which makes you all the more engaged in this mystery, especially is the fact that the murder mystery aspect was what drove the first series entirely. So although the plot only got half the time to be explored, due to the court case, it was still very good at not giving anything away and throwing us a few red herrings until the final episode.
Now I'd heard that this series of Broadchurch was getting mixed reviews and I think that is because it had to split its focus on two mostly unrelated story arcs which may have brought it down just a bit. Also is the fact that I think Broadchurch is something which should be treated like a film, I didn't watch it from week to week, I recorded all the episodes and watched it in one big batch which pays off considerably as you don't loose the suspense or rhythm. Apart from that, Broadchurch still has stunning cinematography in it's camera shots, excellent writing by Chinball and a very talented cast; I look forward to seeing where series 3 will go,
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