Sorry for the short review, I didn't have much to say. I want to forget the series as quickly as possible.
Is anyone else aside from me feeling disappointed by the series finale? After watching the finale I now feel that I have effectively spent the last 10 weeks re-watching Broadchurch. It would have been alright if the killer was someone unpredictable, and not in any way related to the Millers, but it wasn't. When Joe was arrested, and then confessed I was about to throw a chair at my screen as that would have meant that the killer was identical to Broadchurch’s. Luckily though there was a twist where the killer ended up being Tom Miller. Tom saw Danny and Joe together, and in an act trying to protect his friend he ends up killing him.
It would have been much more satisfying to see somebody not in the Miller’s family turn out to be the killer. Someone like Paul, who has been acting strange for weeks now. The episode also felt really rushed as if they were trying to get a confession about the murder out in open as quickly as possible. It was about 20 minutes into the episode when Joe Miller confessed to it all. In fact the opening 20 minutes were pretty much a carbon copy of Broadchurch. It would have been good as well for some build up to the confession instead of him just admitting it straight away. I am really failing to understand what the point of the series was, we got told after episode 7 that Gracepoint would diverge away from Broadchuch, but it didn't it followed the same path, and only the smallest of things changed.
The only thing I can appreciate that happened in the episode was the reactions of characters after the news quickly reached the town about Joe being the killer. Most notably Ellie, her reaction was pure class; she was in complete shock and in denial. It was as if she had been punched in the face. She was completely in the dark about Joe and his secret meets with Danny as well. Just when things were already bad enough for Ellie, Beth goes to talk to her and just throws her words back at her "How could you not know". It was quite ironic how she gave Susan such a hard time about not knowing what was going on under her roof, when she didn't either.
Elsewhere, Paul finally got his moment to shine, when he got the chance to finally give Danny a memorial service. It surprisingly wasn't held just inside the church, it was held on a beach like a bonfire as well. I am partly gutted my prediction about Paul was wrong, I was convinced it was him, and I think most of the audience wouldn't have minded if it was him compared to who it actually was. We also got to see Ellie visit Joe in prison where she told him they needed to protect their son. I don't know what is worse her son killing someone or her husband having sexual feelings toward a young boy.
The ending of Gracepoint focused on Carver replaying an old interview with Tom and Joe, when he asked "Did Mark ever hit Danny" Tom then would look toward Joe. I think that was the moment he realized it was Tom who killed Danny not Joe. He was ringing Miller. It is a shame we didn't get to see the confrontation between them two, it would have been explosive.
Summary
I was utterly disappointed by the finale, sure they kept their word and changed the killer, but I at least expected it to be outside the Miller family. The first half of the episode leading up to the confession was fairly rushed, which meant in the last half we were watching just the aftermath of the killer being revealed which if I am honest made me lose interest. The series as a whole felt like a waste of time, especially since nothing much changed from the original when we got told after episode 7 it would be a whole different show.
As always thank you for reading! Let me know in the comments what you thought of the episode!
