Regularly hailed as one of the greatest British shows of all time, Broadchurch, the 2013 crime drama starring David Tennant and Olivia Colman, was bound to get an American remake. And like successful US versions of The Office, Shameless and The Night Of, Gracepoint had big (gum)shoes to fill, even if fans of the original have long argued that a glossier adaptation was utterly unnecessary.
But was Hollywood really so wrong to remake Broadchurch?
When Gracepoint is viewed in isolation rather than in direct comparison to its predecessor, it is objectively a well told, character-driven story about a murder in a small town, albeit a sleepy California hamlet rather than a sleepy Dorset hamlet. And perhaps, without the shadow of Broadchurch looming so large, the 2014 series may have received the same acclaim as prestige shows such as Mare Of Easttown or The Killing, especially considering it features an impressive cast including Nick Nolte, Michael Peña and Jacki Weaver.
Tennant, who was imported to reprise his role as Alec Hardy, the show’s jaded big city detective – only now with an American accent and named Emmett Carver – says that Gracepoint was largely intended for those who hadn’t watched Broadchurch.
“I didn’t set out to change anything particularly,” he explained to Starry magazine about his work on both dramas.
“I just tried to tell the story as it came up and through the script and be as truthful and loyal to that as possible. I think Hardy and Carver are very different, actually. They certainly feel very different in my bones.”
Gracepoint is now streaming on Tubi.
Elaborating in Variety, Tennant said of his characters, “Obviously, they both look quite like me, and they’re similar heights. But they feel different for all sorts of reasons, because of the circumstances of everyone around me. You’re playing opposite this extraordinary Rolls-Royce of a cast.
“I’m also very fortunate to play with a Rolls-Royce of a cast back home, but it’s a very different one and that creates a different set of circumstances to be within. It’s such an unusual situation. It’s quite hard to be entirely objective about it myself because it’s the same character and yet it’s not.”
Despite winning a BAFTA for her performance in Broadchurch, Colman was not invited to join Tennant in the US reboot. Instead the role of Ellie Miller was recast with Anna Gunn, still fresh from her success as Walter White’s long-suffering spouse, Skyler, on Breaking Bad.
After creating such memorable TV with Colman, Tennant admits he went into Gracepoint a bit nervous about trying to do the same with Gunn.
“Luckily, she just turned out to be a proper actress,” he told Starry. “Someone who was committed to getting it right, who was open, who was easy to work with, who you could also have a laugh with, who you could throw anything at and she would respond.
“That’s just the kind of professional relationship that you always hope for. It was a huge relief and then a great joy to work with her throughout the 10 episodes. Everyone who knows her work knows how talented she is. I was very chuffed to get to play alongside and also get to know her off set as well.”
While Colman hasn’t offered an opinion on Gracepoint broadly or Gunn’s performance specifically, the Oscar-winner did hose down suggestions she carried any sort of grudge.
“It’s an American show and they should cast American people,” Colman told Digital Spy.
“If it was a British show and we cast all Americans, it would be wrong, wouldn’t it?”
Fed up with being asked about the role of Ellie going to Gunn, an exasperated Colman added, “Sorry, at the moment it’s a bugbear, because everyone has said, ‘Are you really cross?’ It has never crossed my mind as something that’s annoying. If they asked me to do something, I’m sure it would be lovely. If it was a good script – it’s warm and they pay well, so who wouldn’t go?”
Interestingly, Colman was the only actor on Broadchurch who knew the culprit from the outset. The ending was so shrouded in secrecy that none of her fellow actors (including Tennant) clued into the killer’s identity until they began filming the final episode.
Loosely inspired by Twin Peaks and the Steven Bochco series Murder One, creator Chris Chibnall didn’t want Broadchurch or Gracepoint to be a simple whodunit.
Rather, Chibnall set out to show viewers how one murder could turn an entire town into victims. He recalled his experience writing scenes in Law & Order: UK in which a family member had to identify the body of a loved one.
“I started thinking, where does that person go after they’ve been in this one scene? When they walk out of the morgue or office, how do they live their lives?” Chibnall told Fast Company.
“And I realised: that’s a show! In that sense, Broadchurch is that one scene from Law & Order extrapolated into a strand that explores a family’s grief and how they try to keep going.”
Because Gracepoint deals with the ripple effects that the loss of someone has on those left behind, Tennant said the series will leave viewers feeling haunted.
“I think it’s very hard to watch the first episode without your heart breaking for the family, actually,” he told Starry.
“That’s helped by the fact that they’re played by Michael Peña and Virginia Kull, who both really take you on this harrowing, awful journey of two parents who lose a child.
“It just takes you on the journey. It kind of grabs you and takes you on this journey, which is bewildering and thrilling and gruelling and gruesome, and yet, at the same time, I think impossible to turn off.”
Gracepoint is now streaming on Tubi.