Tatiana Maslany to guest on Parks and Rec

Yay! My current favorite TV actress Tatiana Maslany, from BBC America's Orphan Black, has been discovered by Mike Schur and will be guest starring on Parks and Recreation this fall, according to EW. She will appear in two episodes as a love interest for Tom (Aziz Anzari). This girl deserves to be a bigger star and we know she's good with comedy, so I'm sure she'll knock it out of the park. Anything that draws more attention to Orphan Black is a good thing. Parks comes back Sept. 26th. 

VIDEO: "Applause"

The official vid for Lady Gaga's Applause: 

She's performing at the VMA's this Sunday, along with Katy Perry, Robin Thicke, Justin Timberlake, Macklemore and Lewis, and Daft Punk. The stacked lineup seems to be in response to last year's disaster of a show, and even though it's kind of a joke that MTV still purports to give out video awards when they NEVER play videos, Gaga shows  there are still some people out there getting it done.

RECAP: The Newsroom 2x06 "One Step Too Many"

Operation Genoa takes front and center tonight as the episode opens with a red team meeting, with Mac, Jerry, Charlie, Maggie and Neal filling in Jim, Sloan and Don about the story they've been investigating for the last 7 months. Of course, everyone is still skeptical and it takes Charlie a minute to convince everyone that he believes it happened, but they still need a witness to corroborate. That witness comes in the form of a general, played by Stephen Root (of tons of movies of course, but who I will always see as Milton from Office Space), so Charlie and Mac head out to his house in Maryland to have him confirm the story. After they knock over his trash cans, he first mistakes them for Jehovah's Witnesses and then seems a lot more interested in watching his March Madness game than in talking to them, but he agrees to do an interview in which he's assured his image will be blurred and his voice doctored.

Meanwhile, Will in this episode is concerned about his falling likability numbers and has commissioned his own focus group to figure out how to get people to like him again. We find out that much of this new preoccupation stems from Nina, who he is still dating, and who has urged him to change his image and not let Mac and Charlie do their own show at his expense. Will insists that it's his show too, but isn't fully confident and is all too willing to go along with Nina's suggestion that he appear on ACN Morning to show off his warm and cuddly side (something that we certainly haven't seen any of thus far). ACN Morning seems to be some kind of take off of the ridiculous Fox and Friends where they force him to put on a helmet and throw footballs through a tire. Will of course, smashes the lights behind it instead, and is subject to a sisterly "chewing out" from Sloan, who tells him to be true to himself, etc. I've never quite bought this whole affectionate Will/Sloan relationship, but I suppose if you're a fan of those two, it's a nice moment. Will also promptly dumps Nina after the morning show debacle, and yet again, it's an example of a relationship that has apparently lasted at least 7 months and we never got to see any of it, so the impact of that is pretty much zilch. I also think we should get some kind of a flashback at some point to the days when WIll was this likable, inoffensive, supposedly Leno-ish news anchor, because with everything we've seen of him, I find that to be pretty unimaginable.

In other subplots, Jim's girlfriend Hallie is in town with the Romney campaign, and they make plans to go on a double date with Neal and a girl she brings along who happens to be a Ron Paul supporter, so of course she turns out to be a delightful wacko, as all Paul supporters are. And Taylor, the Romney spokesperson, is also invited to the dinner because Hallie feels sorry for her, which later turns out to be because she was fired by the Romney people for suggesting ways to improve his standing. This is only known after several exchanges between her and Jim over Romney's consistent gaffes of late, and a verbal takedown of Ron Paul from Neal, so this little storyline was alternately irritating and amusing throughout the episode. In the end, Jim and Hallie's night is cut short when she has to fly to Colorado for a press event and Jim runs into Maggie on one of her outings she mentioned last week- getting drunk in a hotel bar and going home with a random guy. He's concerned about the effect of this on her work, namely, her ability to keep a secret on the Genoa story, but it turns out she lets it affect her work in a different way, by leaving the room when Jerry conducts his interview with the general, which as we'll soon see is a huge mistake.

Maggie and Jerry prepare to interview the general, and as mentioned, he insists on talking to Jerry alone. During the interview, Jerry is increasingly frustrated with the general's refusal to confirm that sarin gas was used, instead phrasing it as "IF we used sarin," so in order to push the story along, and buoyed by his own determination, Jerry doctors the tape, including the raw footage. When showing the interview to the group in another red team meeting, Mac asks for the raw footage, and no one notices the doctored clip (although if you ask me, there's a pretty obvious gap where he fudged the audio), but Charlie still insists on another witness. Jerry blows up at this, and we finally see the real reason behind his pushing the story so hard- he's a hard left liberal who's dismayed by the continual loss of civil liberties and Bush foreign policies under the Obama administration, and convinced that the reason no one in the room wants to believe it is because they like and trust the president personally. Echoes of Glenn Greenwald, anyone?

Right after this scene there's a montage of Will reading various news stories and we jump ahead another 5 months, all the way to the Republican convention (and that's a hell of a lot of news they just passed, including the Supreme Court upholding the ACA, which would have been perfect Newsroom fodder, given all the shoddy media reporting on that day), when suddenly Jim gets a phone call from another general involved in the operation who was previously thought to be dead by the news staff. We then jump back to "present day" and Charlie being questioned by MGH, who confirms that was the moment he gave the green light. Charlie is at first defensive, saying with their witnesses and sources that anyone would have gone ahead with the story, and they were getting huge ratings on the night they ran it, but in the middle of the show he realized, rather ominously, that "none of it was true."

So we basically confirm Jerry Dantana (a very good Hamish Linklater by the way) as the villain this season, after seeing him doctor the tape, but I'm curious as to what the motivations were of all of these witnesses who were apparently lying about everything, if none of it was true. Seems very coordinated- some kind of conspiracy, perhaps? Still, next week looks to be rather action-packed, as we finally get to when News Night aired the Operation Genoa story on a Sunday special and then had to retract.

Aside from all that, I'm thinking they really need to get a handle on this time jumping issue. Another scene that occurred tonight is Don confessing to Mac that he doesn't have the courage to ask Sloan out, because that she's now dating a New York Giant, and despite what fairly little we've seen of their budding romance, the fact is that that situation has now been going on for YEARS, which is faintly ridiculous. This show either needs 20 episode seasons, or to stick within a consecutive period of time, even if it means foregoing big news events you want to get to. It would serve the storytelling a lot better.

RECAP: Breaking Bad 5x10 "Buried"

Another great episode tonight, as the countdown and nail-biting continues. The cold open is an old man coming out of his house to find a wad of cash in front of his car, and then another down the driveway, on the sidewalk, and so on. He journeys across the street to find more cash, along with Jesse's empty car, and Jesse himself lying on his back on the playground wheel, spinning mindlessly, wracked with guilt and misery.

When we get back from the break we see Hank's garage door slowly lift open, and Walt come cruising out of it, looking fairly cool and collected. When he gets to his car he turns around to face Hank one last time as Hank shuts the door on him, and then suddenly Walt bolts into action, peeling out of the driveway and calling Skyler immediately- he pulls over when he can't get her on the line, only to find that she's already on the phone, and when he looks over his shoulder Hank is already outside his house and on the cell, pointedly staring at him. Walt races to the office, but we see Skyler on the phone with Hank, nervously agreeing to meet with him and by the time Walt gets back to the car wash she's already gone.

Skyler meets Hank at a diner, where he hugs her and expresses sock and sympathy over Walt's actions, telling her how it all makes sense to him now. Skyler seems at first relieved and nervous, but as Hank pretty quickly goes from coddling her to demanding she tell him right there and then everything she knows so he can go after Walt with all his might, Skyler's attitude slowly shifts. She tries to say she might need a lawyer and Hank's immediate reaction is to tell her not to because it will only delay his ability to go after Walt. Skyler grows visibly more uneasy at his lack of concern for her and when Hank tells her the cancer is back, this is what seems to cement her change of heart. She refuses to talk and runs out of the diner in a panic, leaving Hank in a haze of disappointment and frustration, having revealed what little evidence he actually has to put Walt away.

Meanwhile, Saul's goons Huell and Kuby are sent to collect the money pile hidden away in the garage, but not before taking the opportunity to hilariously roll in it, like "Scrooge McDuck" as Kuby puts it (and who wouldn't, really?). Saul and Walt are barricaded in Saul's office, trying aimlessly to get a hold of Jesse, while Saul tells Walt not to answer Skyler's calls, as she's now presumed to have cut a deal with Hank and is likely bugging her phone. Walt is dismayed that Skyler went straight to Hank, but nonetheless balks at Saul's suggestion of offing Hank, claiming "family" is off-limits. Walt then takes off in a van with the barrels of money Huell and Kuby bring back, and heads into the desert alone to start burying it (hence the episode title).

Back at the White household, Skyler is trying to call both Walt and Saul, having seemingly decided stand by her man, but Marie knocks on her door, demanding to see her. Hank's standing outside, but Skyler will only talk to Marie, and then goes on to tearfully and wordlessly confess that she knew everything about Walt's activities. Marie is stunned and after learning Skyler knew as far back as Hank getting shot she slaps her sister in the face (physical violence is the Schrader's gut reaction to this betrayal, apparently) and then tries to take baby Holly with her as she thinks Skyler won't talk because she's trying to help Walt get away with it. Hank comes in to stop the sister's fight and order Marie to give the baby back, but as Hank and Marie leave, Marie is as determined as Hank to put Walt away.

After Walt buries the six barrels of money, he memorizes the location, and puts it into lottery numbers stapled to the fridge when he goes home. Skyler is waiting for him and insists she hasn't told Hank anything, but Walt simply collapses in the bathroom from the exhaustion of exerting himself. When he comes to, Skyler is sitting with him, wanting to know if his cancer's really back. Walt confirms it and asks if she's happy about it, but Skyler simply says she can't remember the last time she was happy. Walt offers to turn himself in as long as she promises to keep the money and pass it down to the kids, but Skyler says Hank doesn't have any proof and they should just stay quiet.

Lydia is escorted to the location of the meth production, supposedly to find out what the problem in quality is, but as we soon learn, really to have Todd and his crew show up and blow all the workers away so that Todd can take over operations again himself. Lydia hides while the shooting takes place but doesn't want to see the bodies as Todd casually leads her through the corpses with her eyes closed. Todd of course, as you will remember, seems to have no reaction whatsoever to killing and death, and it'll be interesting to see what part he plays as the series wraps up, now in just 6 episodes.

In the final scenes of the episode, Hank tells Marie he can't go to the DEA with the Walt situation, since he has no real proof and when they find out the guy he's been chasing all this time is his own brother-in-law his career is finished. But he at least wants to be the guy who caught him as his final victory lap, and so it looks like Hank is on his own as he heads into the office. But in a last minute development, none other than Jesse Pinkman has been brought in for tossing money all over the neighborhood, and though he's not talking and simply staring into space in his typical depressed funk, Hank seizes the chance to talk to him alone, and we end on him heading in to confront Jesse...to be continued next week.

Another great episode, with another great cliffhanger, and of course AMC had to force you to stick around for half an hour to see the previews yet again- I had a sinking feeling this was going to be the new norm when it started last week. Of course, the previews seem to have taken a cue from the Mad Men peeps, as when you finally do see them, it's nothing but a quick few shots of random images, with unrelated lines of dialogue being spoken over it and no way to tell what's happening. Not that I blame them of course, with just 6 more to go, why ruin it?

Character Notes:

Skyler- She's never been that popular with fans, but I now find her to be among the show's more interesting characters, as she veers between wild emotional decisions in this episode, all taking place internally, as she goes from fearing and despising Walt to firmly deciding to stand by him in reaction to Hank's attitude and the fact that his cancer has returned. We've seen her be terrified of Walt before, yet obviously there is something that keeps her standing beside him, even willingly colluding with him on the money laundering. It's perhaps a deep-seated belief that he really has done all this for his family's future, but of course she's still naive to the extent of his murders.

Hank and Marie- despite their justified reactions to all this finally being revealed, the show can't help but place you on Walt's side, no matter what he does, and their vow to take him down only solidifies the audience's desire to see him get away with it. Hank and Marie are now the antagonists in the eyes of the audience, no matter how right they might be in their newfound hatred of the Whites.

Pointless Prediction #2: My one from last week seems to be right on track, as Jesse very well could collude with Hank to take Walt down, but I'm going to say that Walt will renege on his no kill policy re: family members, and recruit the murderous Todd to help him get rid of Hank after all.

RECAP: The Newsroom 2x05 "News Night With Will McAvoy"

Given all the focus on women's rights during the last election season, I figured we were in for an episode that advocated feminism, and tonight we got it, as both Sloan and Maggie face the "slut" label and have to defend themselves to varying degrees. This along with quite a few lectures on a whole host of recent news topics- several characters get their own Sorkin-infused passionate speech tonight, addressing the Trayvon Martin shooting, the Sandra Fluke/Rush Limbaugh dust up, and the ethics of coming out on television.

We start off with a massive time jump- I'd been wondering when that was going to happen and sure enough, it turns out to have been a whopping six months since the last episode, when Maggie was scarred by the Ugandan incident. We're now all the way up to March 2012, it's the Illinois primaries, and Will is hosting the show as usual, but this ep takes place all in one night, during one show (hence the title), and there are a myriad of storylines intersecting throughout the hour involving the various characters. We'll just take them one by one, starting with Will, who gets a rare call from his father in the middle of the show. As you'll remember from last season, we were told that Will's father was a drunk who beat his wife and kids, so their relationship is not exactly friendly. Nonetheless, the call turns out to be from the hospital where his dad has just been admitted, and Will spends the hour in a dazed funk, with Mac bugging him to call and leave his dad a voicemail in case the worst happens, while he's reluctant to do so. He prefers to distract himself with Neal's updates about a female journalist he supposedly snubbed in a restaurant, who's now tweeting about him in real time, and insinuating he's chauvinist (to keep things related to our "war on women" theme throughout the night). Mac doesn't like Neal for bringing this up (and I don't think Aaron Sorkin likes Twitter from the sound of it), but she's more frazzled by an upcoming segment in which a kid who will be interviewed about the suicide of Tyler Clementi, plans to use the opportunity to come out to his parents on the show. This gives her a chance to lecture him about his spotlight stealing narcissism, and rails against turning the news into an entertainment medium (which of course it is, especially cable news).

As for Maggie this week, it's been six months since Africa (and no red spiky hair yet), but she has now become a depressed and cynical partier, apparently going out all night and drinking, sleeping with various men, etc. Jim is concerned about this and tries to warn her, but Maggie goes on a tirade about the sexism against so-called sluts, claiming the real question in this debate should have been what's wrong with liking sex, anyway- while also calling out some phony outrage over the Sandra Fluke controversy, pointing out how often articles about her accompanied links to bikini bodied women and hot celebrities on the internet. Jim is pretty much silenced during these rants, as his job in this episode was to listen to her make her point in several heated speeches, but Maggie also gets to weigh in on the Trayvon Martin story, when she cuts down the 911 tape to exclude the operator asking Zimmerman about Martin's ethnicity. Maggie has brushed Jim off on his worry about her behavior as long as it has not affected her work, but she admits in the end that part of her felt the need to see "justice done" in editing the tape and also confesses that she's afraid to sleep alone at night.

In Sloan's biggest storyline of the year so far, we find out that she'd been dating a guy from AIG since Christmas (again, this is all new and happened offscreen due to the time jump) and has just dumped him, when he decided to get back at her by releasing nude pictures she'd posed for while they were together. Sloan is of course appropriately outraged and horrified by this, as she's forced to admit the pictures are really her to Charlie and Reese, and she confides in Don that she knows she'll now only be known as a "slut and a whore." Don and Sloan spend the episode shut in his office, talking it out, and they continue to be pretty great together- both Olivia Munn and Thomas Sadoski have the light comedic touch that works to play the romantic comedy angle Aaron Sorkin originally wanted this show to possess (too much with some of the other couples in the first season, but it works with these two- they have the right chemistry for it). Don helps her to go from "humiliation" to "rage" on the emotional spectrum, so she can then get revenge on the sleazy ex in kick-ass fashion (a punch to the face and a kick in the groin), and she helps him out of a jam he got into by accidentally leaking a joke to the nutty conservative website World Net Daily- and his call to the "editor" of the site to yell at him to remove the story is pretty funny, I have to admit.

Finally, Charlie gets a visit from an old friend (whom he fondly calls a "secret agent") who defends the hypothetical prospect of the military having used chemical weapons under certain circumstances, because, despite all the progress we saw happening over the last few weeks on this story, it all apparently hit a dead end, as Operation Genoa is once again just a rumor they've been chasing for the past 6 months. But Charlie ends the episode officially convinced it happened, so the story looks to progress quickly now after all that non-action (awfully convenient, but whatever). By the end of the show, Will has gotten the news that his father has passed away, and goes on the air a bit shell-shocked for a moment, but then recovers as he embraces his relationship with the audience as being the one rock solid connection in his life.

An interesting episode tonight, lots of things happening all around- but the excessive leap forward really does create an awkward gap that we've just passed by in terms of character development. I know it has to happen in order to end the season with the election, but they kinda just threw out a lot of the stuff they'd been building the season around- I mean, they skipped over the major relevant time period that Occupy Wall Street had in the fall of 2011, and after dumping on it so hard before it had even really taken off in the timeline, it seems kinda unfair to just pass right over it. This show might actually be one of the few that would be better served by a normal 20-25 episode season, where you can really take us through a year if that's what you want to do. And Maggie seems like a completely different person now, which I suppose makes sense after Africa, but those Sorkin monologues have always sounded especially unconvincing coming from her- it just doesn't fit her faintly goofy personality. I hate to keep harping on her every week, but I really don't think any incarnation of that character has worked. Which is too bad because the rest of them have actually grown on me. See you next week!

RECAP: Breaking Bad 5x09 "Blood Money"

The long awaited return of the second half of the final season of Breaking Bad has finally arrived. So let's not waste any time, people. Here we go...

We open with a classic Breaking Bad shot of something we cannot at first decipher, but which turns out to be kids skateboarding in the empty swimming pool that was once filled behind Walter White's house. And then a bearded and disheveled Walt pulls up beside the driveway (which we can now see is abandoned and gated), pulls out a crowbar and heads in, where the inside is no less ruinous than the outside. It's been trashed, emptied and the word "Heisenberg" spray painted across a living room wall. Walt takes his time perusing through the place before finally pulling out the wall outlet where he's hidden the infamous ricin cigarette, which he then pockets and heads back out to the car. It's there that he turns around to face Carol the neighbor lady, who looks shocked and horrified to see him, but Walt just hilariously deadpans "Hello, Carol," as she drops her bag full of fruit all over the concrete.

This was a return to the flashforwards from last season, where obviously something dramatic has gone down, leaving Walt alone and a mess, and in the middle of events that are taking place a year (now 6 months) in the future. When we get back to the episode, we're in present day, as Hank has just exited from the bathroom where he has experienced his brutal awakening and realized that his brother-in-law is in fact Heisenberg. It's a pretty terrific performance from Dean Norris, as this revelation has disoriented, confused and angered him past all reason, and we see him rapidly speeding through these emotions as he figures out what to do next. He and Marie quickly leave the White's house with him feigning a stomach bug, and Hank is so upset that he crashes their car into a neighbor's yard. He brushes off Marie's concern as he barrels toward the garage to compare the handwriting in the Walt Whitman book he's taken to Gale's on the evidence he had stowed away.

At the car wash, Walt and Skyler seem to be trying to head up a normal business, and Walt tells Skyler he thinks they ought to buy another car wash in order to keep laundering all the money they've got (everyone remember that massive room of cash Skyler had stored last season?). She seems to agree but then Lydia shows up (Laura Fraser), complaining about problems with the operation Walt left her, but he blows her off, leaving Skyler to confront and fiercely order her off the premises. Skyler has apparently accepted Walt now that he's newly retired, but she may still be calmly awaiting his impending death (and close to getting her wish, as we see later).

Meanwhile, Hank's barricading himself in the garage with all the Heisenberg research, poring over every detail all over again, in a musical montage scene that's become another trademark of the show. Familiar faces pop up, such as the late Gus Fring, Gale Boetticher, and Drew Sharpe (the boy who was killed last season) in a collection of all the lives Walt's destroyed in his quest for power. Finally, Jesse makes his appearance in a hilarious few minutes where he's tuning out as Badger and Skinny Pete go over the details of Badger's as yet unwritten Star Trek script, and then he heads down to Saul's office, hauling along the two bags of cash Walt handed over to him in the last episode. Jesse wants to give the money to Mike's granddaughter and the parents of Drew Sharpe, an act of charity Saul strongly objects to in typical Saul fashion ("this still makes you two miracles short of a Sainthood, kid"), but Jesse is totally depressed and dejected, wrecked by the death of the boy and his growing disillusionment and fear of Walt.

This leads us to a great scene where Walt takes the money back to Jesse's and attempts to deal with him as he always has in the past, by putting on his "father" cap and reasoning with him in a faux- compassionate manner. Jesse says it's blood money that he doesn't want and says he knows Mike's dead and Walt probably killed him, but Walt firmly denies this outright, doing his best to reassure Jesse that Mike's not dead, and Jesse needs to move on from the child's death. This is where Bryan Cranston is so outstanding as the villainous Walt- Jesse responds to this kind of attitude and he knows it, so he lies straight to Jesse's face in such a sincere and reassuring way that we ourselves almost believe him, even though we all saw him kill Mike! Jesse seemingly accepts Walt's assurances, as he always has, but this time we see that he does not really believe it and his misplaced faith in Walt might have finally disappeared for good. His last scene in the episode shows him giving money to a homeless man and tossing the cash through his car window at random houses all over the neighborhood.

At the White family dinner table, we get a glimpse of Walter Jr., but just barely (I think earlier on we only the saw the back of his head, poor kid), and Walt leaves the table to go throw up in the bathroom- this following the reveal of Walt back at the chemo center confirms that his cancer has indeed returned. As Walt hovers over the toilet bowl he notices the Walt Whitman book missing, and after asking Skyler to explain Hank's mysterious illness again, the man smarter than everybody else in the room decides, on a whim, to check the bottom of his car in the middle of the night and lo and behold, he finds a tracking device. The show has now reached a turning point- Hank knows who Walt is, and Walt knows that he has caught on.

The final five minutes has Walt coming over to visit Hank in his garage, at first play acting concern over Hank's "stomach bug," but Hank isn't buying it and spends the whole chat ferociously glaring at Walt, unable to hide his feelings and pretend to be someone else, as is Walt's specialty. Walt starts to walk away, but then decides at the last minute to confront him over the tracker, and then comes a moment that I doubt anyone saw coming. Hank closes the garage door with the remote and belts Walt smack in the face, tosses him against the wall and accuses him of every nefarious action we've watched him commit over the past five seasons. Walt at first denies, then tacitly "confesses" (in a hypothetical sense of course), telling Hank he'd never be able to prove it or convince anyone, and then tells him his cancer's back anyway, he'll never end up in jail, and probably has just 6 months left to live. Hank orders him to give up Skyler and the kids and Walt flat out refuses. Hank then says he doesn't know who he is anymore and Walt responds with a line destined to become the new "I'm the one who knocks" quote, and it's a beaut. His final words before we fade to black: "If that's true...if you don't know who I am, then maybe your best course would be to tread lightly."

It's a stunner of a premiere, one of their best even, an expertly directed and shot episode, filled with the strange camera angles and lingering, quiet scenes of suspense that Breaking Bad has become famous for. One of the best features of the show is the anxiety you feel while watching it- through every hour it seems anything could happen at any time, and now that the scales have fallen from Hank's eyes, that sense is even more prominent, with the stakes even higher. I can't wait until next week, as we're now counting down to whatever the climax is going to be, and there's just 7 more hours to go.

Notes:

-I have to mention this, at the end of the hour AMC cheated us out of next week's previews by saying you have to stay tuned through the first commercial break of their new show Low Winter Sun to see them- and I'm telling you right now, this is NOT the way to get people to watch that show. If anything it's a major turn-off that creates resentment towards it. That first commercial did not occur by the way, for 25 MINUTES, and even then it wasn't the first thing up, you had to sit through a bunch of ads first. Un-fucking believable. Do this again AMC and we're going to have problems, Walter White style.

-It's utterly pointless to speculate about what's going to happen, especially since we only have 7 episodes left, but I can't help it and I'm going to allow myself one official Pointless Prediction per week. Here's my first: I think that Jesse will cut a deal with the DEA and turn on Walt, since he no longer trusts him and has lost all faith. I reserve the right to completely reverse myself on this of course, depending on what happens in the coming weeks, but for now, that's what I'm thinking. How about you?

REVIEW: Broadchurch Season 1

ITV's Broadchurch is the latest in a growing trend of shows about the impact of a child's death on an insular community (The Killing, Top of the Lake), not to mention yet another show about two mismatched cops paired up to find a killer. And yet, despite the familiar setup at work here, the way the story plays out over these 8 episodes leaves you with a stunning, heartbreaking, incredibly effective pay-off, arguably greater in impact than either of those other shows exploring similar themes.

It's fast-paced writing with wide ranging emotional depth from creator Chris Chibnall, and the fictional seaside town of Broadchurch, England is populated with fully developed and specific characters, all of whom harbor secrets of their own. The number of suspects is constantly shifting, and allegiances and plausible motives are lobbied back and forth like a birdie in game of Badminton- every episode leaves you with newly roused suspicions. When 11-year-old Danny Latimer is found dead on the beach in the first episode, the impact on the town is immediate as people wonder who in their close knit community where everyone either knows or is related to everyone else could have committed this crime.

The detectives assigned to the case are Alec Hardy and Ellie Miller, played by David Tennant and Olivia Colman, and at first the familiar tropes are out in force. He's an outsider, untrusting, grizzled, and socially awkward, having been discharged from his last case in disgrace after failing to catch a killer in similar circumstances. She's a local soccer mom, warm, friendly, and possibly too emotionally attached, her son having been the victim's best friend. They don't get along of course, but as they work together their fondness and understanding grows, and if it wasn't for the two performances this partnership wouldn't be anything special at all, but Tennant and Colman sell it completely by making each character into an understanding and sensitive human being with problems of their own, that we come to know and like over the course of the show. They have a great professional chemistry, and I'd like to see them back again for another season, but who knows how that can happen with the ending of this one- the story is entirely self-contained and leaves you with no loose ends, it's more like a miniseries than anything else.

Despite the skillfulness of the way the mystery is unfolded, the heavy weight of this material is not avoided, and we see the full impact the death of a child can leave on the family affected. The parents of the young boy are played by Jodie Whittaker and Andrew Buchan as Beth and Mark Latimer, a couple who's been together since they were teenagers, are having their own marital troubles and have spent their entire lives knowing everyone around them, never having conceived of something like this shattering their comfortable little world. Whittaker especially is heartbreaking as Beth- she shows how the sunny, cheery personality of a young mom is devastated and ripped apart by grief, never to be the same again. There are several moments that wring genuine tears from the viewer throughout the series, even before the reveal of the whodunit.

And what a reveal it is- unlike The Killing, which didn't know how to wrap up its central mystery, or Top of the Lake, whose priority was in purposely not giving you all the answers, Broadchurch lays bare the foundation, the suspects, the motives, and keeps you guessing until the final episode who killer is. When you finally find out, you realize  the clues were laid out all along for you to have solved it if you were really keeping track (I binge-watched and was therefore blindsided by the reveal, but maybe you'll be smarter than me). Nor does the show cheat you out of seeing the aftermath, the effect on the community, the family's reaction, everything you might want to know.

Broadchurch has already been commissioned for an American version sometime next year on Fox- but for now, the original is must-see television, currently airing on BBC America. Do yourself a favor and check this thing out- you won't regret it. It's as immersive as a great Agatha Christie novel come to life, and just as satisfying.

Grade: A

Trailer: