A note For every episode of Gracepoint on Fox I ll be doing a quick rundown of what happened before embarking into a breakdown of what was different or similar in Gracepoint s arguably better BBC America sister Broadchurch. ( Gracepoint is a remake of Broadchurch in case you ve been out of the loop entirely.) Viewers who want to know everything about Gracepoint can read until the Broadchurch business begins while viewers of both series or viewers just a tad bit interested in Broadchurch are free to read through to the end.
Optimistic viewers may have very well tuned into Fox s Gracepoint because their answer to the question Why remake Broadchurch when there was virtually nothing wrong with it in the first place was Why not
I mean really what s an hour more of our lives wasted sitting in front of the TV with a bag of crunchy Cheetos What do we have to lose by seeing someone else s spin on this classic murder mystery Well if we re judging the premiere alone here there appears to be very little spinning at all.
We open with a look at the boy who will be at the center of this entire series Danny Solano.
He s alone crying and standing on a cliff overlooking what is presumably the Pacific Ocean (we are set in California after all) in the middle of the night. So naturally the next shot is of Danny s mother Beth Solano (played by Virginia Kull) striking up out of bed and out of her dream. Was it all a dream Did Danny jump Well there s your first reason to keep watching.
Her spin around the kitchen during the typical American standing breakfast introduces us to the rest of the Solano clan Mark the husband (Michael Pe a) Chloe the daughter (Madalyn Horcher) and Beth s overbearing mother. As far as they know Danny has been long gone for his early morning shift at a nature conservancy along the water where he records sea life and presumably goes out on boats quite a bit in the early hours.
Without a second thought we see Mark making his way to work (he s a plumber) through the sleepy California seaside village where we meet townies varying from a priest and an innkeeper to a blonde woman with a slick bob and eerie gaze. We the viewers know the tragedy and subsequent media firestorm is coming and our first hint is Mark s nod to detective Ellie Miller played by the fiercely talented Anna Gunn.
Because we like Anna Gunn from her Breaking Bad days it s strange to see her character trotting through this sleepy town among fellow detectives and police officers without the slightest bit of worry. She s also ditched the 1991 Jeep Grand Wagoneer. Good riddance I say.
Miller is just getting back from vacation and expecting a promotion from the chief but soon we learn that he s ditched her raise in order to hire another supposedly better than her detective to fill the position. She asks what happened to the we need more women idea and he shrugs. When does he start she asks. Last week he responds.
In a barren field next to the ocean stands detective Emmett Carver who is played by Doctor Who himself David Tennant. He s scruffily dressed and looks concerned an appearance he keeps throughout this pilot. He s been called there for an apparent trespassing but then a call comes in about something down at the beach.
With Danny now on our minds we re directed back to his mother who s on a soccer field looking for her son. A teacher approaches her about Danny and asks why he wasn t at school and panic sets in. The next two minutes are filled with Beth Solano s panicked attempt to find her son. She calls his cell. She calls her unhelpful husband. She calls Jack Reinhold who runs the kayak shop and conservatory where Danny volunteers almost every morning. According to her calculations Danny has been missing for hours.
Beth gets into her car and sets out to find her son but she quickly hits a huge backup that reaches all the way to the beach. She asks a fellow traveler why they re all stuck there and the woman tells her that they ve found the body of a boy on the beach. She starts to run and makes it all the way past guards and caution tape and onto the beach to find detectives Miller and Carver and the body of her son which is covered with a yellow towel.
Miller tells her to step away and we learn that Miller s son Tom and Danny were close friends. Danny s body is positioned in such a way that it looks like he fell off the cliff and onto the beach but this can t be a slip and fall accident because they just don t make ten episode series about accidental deaths.
Beth (Virginia Kull R) and Mark Solano (Michael Pe a L) learn some troubling news. Cr Ed Araquel/FOXHours after Beth is calmed and turned away Miller and Carver go together to the Solanos home to tell the family about Danny. The expected wails ensue while they deny the possibility that Danny committed suicide by jumping from that cliff. The last time Beth checked on Danny was around 9 p.m. when she peered into his room and caught him reading. The father s story is that he was out until 3 a.m. or so on a job. Hmm let s keep an eye on that one shall we
Meanwhile news of a body on the beach hits the Gracepoint Journal offices where we meet the cocky and largely unlikable journalist Owen Burke who s played by Kevin Zegers of Gossip Girl fame. Rather than wait for an official statement he ventures to the beach where he finds Danny s sister laying a stuffed monkey at a makeshift memorial. His impression is that the boy on the beach must be Danny so he calls his aunt who just happens to be Miller. She denies the suggestion but with those itchy Twitter fingers of his he tweets out that the 12 year old boy found on the beach is Danny Solano. That tweet catches the eye of a young journalist by the name of Renee Clemons at the San Francisco Globe and although her editor tells her that a 12 year old boy doesn t hold the public s attention like a younger girl would she s still determined to get her big break and embarks for Gracepoint.
While Owen waits for the retweets to start flowing in the Solanos learn that the detectives are now looking at Danny Solano s death as a suspected homicide. After initial questioning a preliminary biopsy and a timeline of events is established the coroner believes that Danny died between 10 p.m. on Thursday night and 4 a.m. Friday morning from blunt trauma to the head. Danny would have actually been facing his attacker they tell the Solanos. Now all they ve got to find are a few leads and suspects.
Suspect 1 Jack Reinhold the fisherman
Nick Nolte stars as Jack Reinhold. (Ed Araquel/Fox)Looking not unlike the Gorton s of Gloucester fisherman Nick Nolte is more tattered and warbly than ever before as Jack Reinhold. Jack says he has known Danny since he was just a baby cradled in Beth s arms. Danny s been attending his early morning nature activities (which includes recording whale migrations) for years. The way Carver and Miller are posing the questions he s the first lead suspect in their minds. After all he very well could have been the last person to see Danny. Jack s standoffish behavior isn t helping either. Rather than working with the detectives to help find Danny he s offended that they re questioning him in the first place.
Suspect 2 Gemma Fisher the innkeeper
She seemed a bit too invested didn t she Gemma was featured in the opening sequence when Mark was on his way to work and now she s managing the inn where Carver is staying. She d know just about everyone in town and would/could have a way of cleaning it all up. She also seemed quite insistent on getting the case over with because she wants that beach cleared for her guests. In any case why feature her so much if she means little to nothing Also as the only character with an authentic Broadchurch accent she has to be up to no good.
Suspect 3 Mark Solano the father
Come on we all know that job he was on until 3 a.m. is a big ol lie. Even Beth knows that. He seemed convincingly emotional when he identified his son s body at the morgue but murderers have a tendency to be very good liars. Also since he is presented as the loyal husband type there s always the affair possibility and we can t let another bad thing happen to Beth. She s been through enough already.
Suspect 4 Tom Miller the friend
For the most alluring theory of the night we start with the suspicious behavior of Ellie s son Tom. Following probably the worst day of her life Ellie comes home to her husband Joe and is tasked with telling her son about his friend s death. He reacts appropriately but when Ellie exits the room he quickly wipes the string of texts from Danny from his cell phone and dashes over to his computer to wipe it clean. What is he really hiding Is this tiny boy full of big evil secrets
There s also the small blonde woman who seems to always be around and Mark s co worker who looked a little sketch in that truck. We ll just have to see how those develop since we ve already got a full slate of suspects already.
Episode 1 ends with Carver holding a press conference and boldly announcing that they will find who killed Danny Solano. Well now they ve got nine whole episodes to do just that.
How Gracepoint Episode 1 stacks up against Broadchurch
Fair warning There are spoilers in these here parts.
(P.S. If you want to watch these two shows alongside one another (just like me ) the BBC America show is available rather unattainably on Amazon (No free Prime streaming unfortunately. Episodes run $1.99 a pop.) and Netflix (No luck here either. It s only available as a DVD through the streaming site). Because I am so gracious I will be on the lookout for episodes if they air on BBC America (where they originally aired last year) in the coming weeks or if Netflix/Amazon decides to change their Broadchurch policies. If anyone else has any better ways of watching the show please do tell.)
Jodie Whittaker as Beth Latimer. (ITV)Similarities As Hank Stuever warned in his full review of Gracepoint this pilot was almost shot for shot exactly the same as the first episode of Broadchurch. You ve got your sandy beaches and worrisome cliffs. The crime is the same and the mother s reactions are exactly the same Both get stuck in traffic both run to the crime scene both collapse. The pauses and cries are echoed almost exactly. There are several lines that are duplicated in both series. If you watch these episodes side by side you honestly start to get a little creeped out.
As with Gracepoint the female detective in Broadchurch knows the boy who fell and is torn between comforting the mother and shunning her away. She s the one we re supposed to care about while the male detective is also similarly stone faced and rather well cold hearted about the situation. (There are some serious tonal differences in the American version but let s save that for the Differences section.) The journalist in Broadchurch named Olly is still slimy although he s less obnoxious than Owen. The same sort of bigwig journalist comes from the north to show these little guys how to really report. The same suspects pop up like the fisherman and the innkeeper and even the blonde bobbed one with the oogly eyes. To a cheapening degree the characters and scenes and a majority of the dialogue are identical.
Differences Now as far as differences we can only point to different actors different names tiny little changes in facts and a different overall tone.
The most noticeable change since Tennant is still around is the chemistry between his character and detective sergeant Ellie Miller (whose name is the same in both). I don t know whether or not Fox s craft services was running subpar to Tennant s liking or maybe he just really hates northern California but his character seemed quite a bit harsher this time around than in Broadchurch. Maybe there was some tension between him and our beloved Anna Gunn but the chemistry that bonded Tennant and the original Ellie (Olivia Colman) was non existent here. There was no gentleness between the two which may have been an intentional change for us rough and tumble Americans and I found it far more unpleasant to watch.
To speak to itty bitty details Broadchurch s Danny was 11 while Gracepoint s Danny is 12. The original Danny was thought to be on his paper route early Friday morning not working with an old fisherman. That being said the hairy fisherman subject in Gracepoint was a balding newsstand owner in Broadchurch. Names are changed here and there. Broadchurch had the Broadchurch Echo for obvious reasons. The Solanos in Gracepoint were originally the Latimers. Our Emmett Carver was Alec Hardy in Broadchurch since Tennant would probably totally be weirded out by playing the exact same character again with exactly the same name. Also it should be noted that Broadchurch was far more white washed than Gracepoint. While Broadchurch s family was all white Gracepoint s Mark is Hispanic. Location plays a part here as well with Gracepoint located in northern California and Broadchurch in England. A larger difference to definitely note here is that Danny died of strangulation in Broadchurch rather than a head wound. That s something that could eventually lead us to a different killer if that s what Gracepoint really wants to do.
And at the very end of Gracepoint s pilot a humpback whale emerges from the dark water while in Broadchurch there was no whale tail. Is this important Not unless the whale has something to do with Danny s death. And how likely is that Well with 10 episodes as opposed to Broadchurch s eight I guess you could say that Gracepoint is capable of any kind of red herring imaginable.
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