Broadchurch: Who Are You, Alec Hardy? [Spoiler Alert]
Broadchurch poster
The story of the murder that forever changed the lives of two families and the entire town. DI Alec Hardy (David Tennant) and DS Ellie Miller (Olivia Colman) unravel the secrets of families that live in Broadchurch while investigating the murder of 11-year old boy, Danny Latimer. This story is a tangle of fates.
Among them all there was one person. Someone, who, as an outsider, took a closer look at the quiet and prosperous town, exposing the true natures of seemingly normal people. Someone, who was "put in the right place, even if he didn't know that."
Who are you, Alec Hardy?
DI Hardy has a problem - he is a good person who found himself surrounded by bastards. He is so kind-hearted and selfless, he cares so much for others, that he suffers as much as people, who were close to the victim, if not more. Alec believed in people. He was ready to do anything to help those, who needed it and who, how it turned out, didn't deserve it.
Without any doubt, he would take the blame, although he knew no one would stand up for him. He listened to the accusations and insults and watched his life falling apart. He condemned himself to ignominy, covering for his wife, and left his family as his penance, preferring that his daughter would rather believe he failed than that her mother's affair ruined the case that was carefully built against the murderer.
Every case for Hardy is his tragedy. He will never be able to accept the fact that people can go as far as killing an innocent child to cover some dirty secrets or raping a woman just for fun. He was the one who carried the dead girl's body out of the water, almost drowning. He was carrying the body of the girl who was the same age as his daughter. He kept dreaming about it for two years. He kept having nightmares and waking up in cold sweat.
Was it constant pressure and stressfulness, the inevitable part of working as a detective, or unbearable grief that was killing Hardy, making his heart fail? Both his heart and his record couldn't bear more tragedies, as if it wasn't enough already, but he knew, that victims of the crimes he was investigating felt ten times worse. He was waking on the edge, knowing, that death was at his heels, and still he wouldn't quit. Hardy was ready to give up his life if it meant the restoration of justice.
He was waking on the edge, knowing, that death was at his heels.
Once he asked: "What kind of person could leave a child in the water like this?" His heart was breaking for the girl who was murdered. And maybe even in his most terrible nightmares, he wouldn't even dare to think that something similar could happen to his child - that would kill him instantly. Therefore, Alec could barely comprehend, that the person who left the lifeless body of the child float in the river was, in fact, her father.
David Tennant's unmatched performance as Alec Hardy shattered my heart to pieces. While watching the series (which I binge watched) I could feel Hardy's pain, fear, despair, and loneliness. Every time someone insulted him on screen, or openly brought him down, claiming his incompetence as a homicide detective, my heart would sink, as if someone close to me had to be dragged through the mire.Tennant brilliantly played the development of Alec Hardy - a tragic character on the edge of death, who went through nine circles of hell and rose up like a phoenix (or regenerated like the Doctor :) ), finally closing the case that disturbed him for two years and making peace with himself.
"No more broken hearts."
