Gracepoint Mini-Series

The following review contains spoilers for the mini-series, Gracepoint, episodes 1-6.

Gracepoint Promo from Fox

The mini-series, Gracepoint, has four episodes left. The series, staring David Tennant and Anna Gunn, is a remake of the BBC series, Broadchurch (Also starring David Tennant, along with Olivia Colman). I have not yet watched Broadchurch but definitely plan on starting it soon.

Gracepoint is about a small U.S. coastal town. The quiet town as rocked by the murder of a 12-year-old boy. The lead investigator, Detective Emmett Carver (Tennant) is an outsider in the town, seeking redemption after leading failing to solve a child’s murder years earlier. Besides  Carver’s investigation the story follows  the relationship with his estranged daughter and his failing health. His partner, Detective Ellie Miller (Gunn) was born and raised in Gracepoint and close family friends with the victim’s family. Her son was friends with the murder victim.

While the show follows both Miller and Carver’s lives and investigation, as well as snippets from other residents, the show is heavily filter through Carver’s suspicious view of every town member. This is balanced out well by Ellie’s often blind trust and optimism towards the people she grew up with.

The story itself is interesting as it continues to unfold. While it’s a bit cliché, the show does well with the “little town where everyone has a secret”.  It seems every episode the suspect pool for the murder shifts and very few people are not under suspicion.

Fox has a constantly running Gracepoint poll where you can vote on who you think the murder is and see what percentage of voters suspect each Gracepoint resident. I haven’t been on there much, but I’ve checked it a few times after key episodes and it’s interesting to see how suspicion moves from the viewers as more characters secrets are revealed or hinted at.

I’ve enjoyed watching the show a lot. It’s interesting watching Carver in particular as he sees the bad in everyone and Ellie tries to keep him from stirring the entire town with conjecture. I like the complicated characters and the complicated relationships between everyone in the town, including outside reporters and Carver. It makes for interesting confrontations and group dynamics.

Needless to say, I also love watching David Tennant act and use an American accent. Anna Gunn is also great in the show, she grounds the other characters and works great as an anchor for the viewers as Tennant’s character is often quick moving and quick changing. Tennant and Gunn work very well together and translate their character’s complicated relationship well.

One of the main criticisms to Gracepoint I’ve read online is many people saying the show is practically identical to Broadchurch except with more whales (whale watching is a big thing in Gracepoint) and different names. I can’t speak to this, as I haven’t yet seen Broadchurch, but  I will be watching Broadchurch after this.

Gracepoint airs on Fox on Thursdays at 8 p.m. central time.