Radiation And Its Severity Was Still So Wildly Underestimated In 1986, But All I Am Currently Doing Watching

Congratulations to the writers of the Dirty Dancing remake, you've convinced me that the original was actually amazing all along.

#we stan a multi-dimensional badass warrior

In Broadchurch, every shot counts. No detail is unimportant, they all can belong to the law of Chekov’s Gun (the floorboards in episode 4 a prime example). What I find most interesting about these types of shots is the flashback explanation of Alec’s finding Pippa’s body in the river. 

The opening shot of the whole second series is clearly of the morning of Alec’s walk through the woods to the river in Sandbrook. As we can see he walks through bluebells only touched by sunlight.

There’s no rain. There’s not even a raincloud in sight.

And then we arrive at the flashback scene in ep 4, when Alec finally talks about the events of that day and our first look at that is this:

It’s not just raining. It’s pouring. A torrential downpour while the sun’s still brightly shining as our attention falls on Pippa’s body.

So why is it that Alec’s memories of that day is that it was raining when it’s clearly established that it wasn’t? 

Memory plays a fickle game on the mind. Every day we remember and recall things about a particular moment that simply didn’t happen but is a reflection of what we were feeling at the time. When I was eight my dad was in an accident and had to go to the hospital and the only thing I remember is seeing his empty chair in the darkened living room even though everyone has assured me that the house was bright and loud with a lot of people in the rooms. But all I could think of was my dad’s dark empty chair.

The sun may have been shining when Alec found Pippa’s body but to him over time, maybe even built up in nightmares, it’s always raining. Rain is seen as a cleansing thing, yes, but it also brings out the smell of decay and the heady scent of dirt. Alec was probably smelling the decay of water plants and the scent of the river for days afterwards. The memory and his nightmares have bled together so that he can’t distinguish between the two. It’s like in his mind it couldn’t possibly be such a beautiful day to find a young girl’s body in a river and so his memories deliberately try to make it dreary and cold, although the reality never changes.

The sun is always shining in those memories and it mocks him, I think. A last ironic laugh in the whole horrifying experience.

Martha Jones ✨

I’m forgetful sometimes. [ Hardly your fault. But I’m sure you remember him. Arnold. The person who created you. ] I’m sorry, I don’t think I recall anyone by that name. [ And yet you can. Somewhere under all those updates, he is still there. Perfectly preserved. Your mind is a walled garden. Even death cannot touch the flowers blooming there. Have you been hearing voices? Has Arnold been speaking to you again? ]

There's nothing I want to say, except that I love Martha Jones a lot.

No matter how many times I’ve rewatched it, I still feel a thrill whenever I hear Thirteen referred to as Doctor. The gender doesn’t matter at all-- Jodie was fantastic!

Broadchurch is a story about mothers

Yes, it’s stated and shown that Alec Hardy and Ellie Miller are certainly the main characters, and Alec’s journey is certainly the most obvious storyline in the series, I won’t argue that.

But Broadchurch is a story about mothers.

The series opens up with a shot of Danny Latimer standing on the cliffs and then it cuts to Beth Latimer waking abruptly the next morning. Most of the first episode focuses on Beth and her journey finding Danny’s body, in fact, and her struggle trying to understand the loss of her son is a main focus of the first series. Several scenes in those episodes focus primarily on her:

(Realizing what “finding a body on the beach” might mean.)

(Opening of s1e2, when she’s folding Danny’s clothes.)

(S1e7. “I lay there thinking what would I go through to have him back? I’d be raped, I’d be tortured, I’d have a gang of men on me, I’d be left for dead if it meant [Danny] was safe.” This was Jodie Whittaker’s finest moment, in my opinion. She hits Beth’s desperation and agony right on the head.)

(And of course the moment when she tries to process the fact that it was Joe Miller who killed her son, and all of the fucked-up irony that comes with it.)

There are so many more moments when Beth is the prime example of the Mother Angle that Chibnall approaches but these were the moments when I think it was strongest.

Ellie is another example of mothers in this story. She’s constantly protective of Tom when Hardy pushes to speak to him and take part in the recreation. We all laugh at the moment when Ellie threatens to throw a cup of piss at her boss but the reason WHY she says it in the first place is the clue:

-”I’m his mum, I decide.”

-”Oh, so your commitment to this investigation stops outside these doors.”

Hardy tries to trump her authority over Tom. She explicitly states she doesn’t want her son to take part in the investigation in any way and Hardy keeps on pushing, even insulting her commitment as a police officer.

Don’t push the protective Mama Bear.

Favorite moment of Ellie as Protective-Mama-Bear is s1e8. It’s the moment that bothered me the most when Jocelyn Knight brings it up in s2.

Ellie does confront Joe as a wife, certainly, at the end of s1e8. But again it’s interesting to note exactly what it is that Joe asks that sets her off:

She’s in control enough to only scream at Joe from a distance in the beginning of this scene. It’s only when Joe requests to see Tom that she sets upon him uncontrollably.

Seriously, do not piss off the Protective Mama Bear.

S2 deals with Sandbrook more than it really deals with Broadchurch as a whole, I think, and it definitely focuses more on Alec as a character, but the theme of Mothers is still prevalent in the contrasting images of Cate Gillespie, a drunk and unable to cope with the loss of Pippa; Tess Henchard, Alec’s ex-wife who loves her daughter but is willing to keep her guilty actions a secret so that Daisy won’t hate her; Beth, focused so much on getting closure for Danny she almost forgets about her newborn child (until Mark’s actions shake her out of her obsessive need for ONLY Danny); and then finally Ellie again, warning Joe away from their sons with the threat of death if he dares show up around either Tom or Fred again. It will be very interesting to see what direction Chibnall will go with the Mothers theme in s3.

but it was NOT YOUR FAULT BUT MINE

and it was YOUR HEART ON THE LINE

i really FUCKED IT UP THIS TIME

didn’t I MY DEAR

didn’t I my -

doctor who ladies: donna noble