I know it’s
been an inhuman length of time between the final episode of Broadchurch and
this blog entry but I’ve been off work poorly and just haven’t had the energy
or time to do it. I’ve been itching to though. I was off work for the Easter bank holiday and, despite having felt ill for days, I toyed with the idea of staying up late to blog but by the time the episode concluded, I was really not feeling well. Since then, I've been unable to look at a screen for longer than five minutes without getting a headache so apologies that a) this entry is disgustingly late and b) it may be badly written as I'm still feeling very sorry for myself.
As we all
know, last Monday was the final ever episode of Broadchurch and while I felt
strangely nostalgic as the final credits rolled, I couldn’t help but feel
disappointed with the overall outcome of the “whodunit” storyline. For anyone
who hasn’t caught up with the final episode or anyone intending to knuckle down
and watch all three series for the first time, it’s probably wise you don’t
read this entry as I don’t want to spoil anything for you.
My last
blog entry centred around the penultimate episode of Broadchurch, which drew to
a close as we learned some DNA had shown up on the sock found in the grounds of
Axehampton. In my blog, I predicted that the DNA would be linked to the
notoriously creepy taxi driver, Clive Lucas, and I was absolutely right. I also
suspected that Clive’s stepson, Michael Lucas, was somehow involved with the
attack and again, I was right. My overall guess was that Arthur Tamworth, the
owner of Axehampton, was Trish’s attacker and unfortunately, I couldn’t have
been more wrong.
It would
seem that Chris Chibnall, the mastermind behind Broadchurch, quite simply had
created the character of Arthur and his faithful canine companion in order for
the dog to discover a vital piece of evidence. They had no other parts to play
in the storyline. I have to say: I was disappointed. Surprised and
disappointed. Similarly, with the character of the vicar and the woman from
Tinder that Miller met for a date, Arthur’s character appeared surplus to
requirements. Mentioned a handful of times. Seen occasionally. Seemingly words
on a page which were eventually forgotten about. Lazy writing perhaps?
At times,
it felt that Chibnall was too afraid that the audience would struggle to
maintain an understanding of the previous series if familiar faces didn’t pop
up now and again. This was why we were blessed with the somewhat unnecessary
ins and outs of the Latimer family. Having said that, in between the harrowing
scenes between Miller and Hardy and the self-confessed attacker (spoiler: it
was young heartthrob Leo Humphries), there were some really nice moments
between Beth and Mark Latimer.
Ultimately,
they were accepting that their marriage had ended and we watched as Mark drove
away into the sunset in his plumbing van, leaving us to wonder whether he was
still suicidal or whether he was simply thoughtful and reminiscent of the years
gone by. Rather like ourselves as the audience as we pondered over the three
series.
Because
the writer and directors and producers have all confirmed that there will be no
further episodes of Broadchurch, it leaves an abundance of unanswered
questions. That’s the beauty of a final ever episode. It leaves people asking
and wondering about what would happen next. People formulate their own theories
and others tend to swallow it whole, as there’s nothing else for them to
believe.
As I’ve
left it a week before writing about this episode, I’ve had time to sit on my
questions before typing them out. I’ve followed the hashtags on Twitter and I’ve
read what people have had to say. The majority of people were thoroughly
impressed with the episode. I wasn’t. And it takes a lot for me to say that,
believe me. I was willing them on as much as the next person. More so,
probably. I have a lot of time for original British dramas. But I couldn’t help
feeling slightly disappointed with what I felt were some questionable
decisions.
So, as it
would turn out, sixteen-year-old Michael Lucas was the person who raped Trish
Winterman but he was essentially bullied into it by Leo, who appeared to have
taken a shine to Michael after he saw his stepdad pushing him around during a
football match. Over the coming weeks, Leo got closer to Michael, who appeared
to idolise him, and eventually Leo worked out that Michael was a virgin.
After
introducing him to some presumably violent porn, Leo offered up his own
girlfriend to Michael in a bid for him to gain some experience. The whole scene
was very uncomfortable indeed, as neither party appeared thrilled about the
prospect of sleeping with one another, and the very fact that it was Leo
himself who had initiated it made everyone feel a bit sick.
After
getting drunk at Trish’s party, “swaggery little shit” Leo – who initially had
his eye on Cath Atwood – spotted Trish in the garden and hit her over the head
with a cricket bat. It’s worth pointing out here that Leo carried around some “essentials”,
such as rope and a bat, whenever the mood took him so he was well prepared on
the night of the party. Drunk and intimidating, he pressured a frightened and
tearful Michael into raping Trish.
This was
my first disappointment. Yes, I suspected that Michael was somehow involved
(for me, it was the part where Hardy was shouting at him and two of his mates
for the distribution of pictures of his daughter. Michael looked down the whole
time, like a dog when it’s in trouble) but the circumstances of this particular
scene were a little hard to digest. Michael was out of his comfort zone. He was
with someone he didn’t really know and someone he didn’t trust. This person had
forced him into an uncomfortable situation before and he had just watched this
person knock a defenceless woman unconscious. All in all, he was a very
frightened teenager. He was also drunk.
Thinking
logistically, I don’t believe it was possible for him to gain, let alone
sustain, an erection.
Throughout
the series, Chibnall made it very clear to us that rape isn’t about sex; it’s
about power. As such, if it had been Leo who was drunk and frightened, I could
imagine that it would be easy for him to still sustain an erection because the
situation itself would be arousing for him. But for a young lad, who has only
ever had sex once in very uncomfortable circumstances, who doesn’t find rape appealing – then it wouldn’t be about power,
would it? He had nothing to gain from raping Trish, unlike Leo who crowed about
his crimes afterwards. Michael did not want to rape her. It was not about power
for him.
So for
him, it would have had to be about sex. Well, sex and a misguided sense of loyalty
perhaps. And that’s what I didn’t buy into. Either Michael Lucas was a
despicable human being or he was so blasé about his willy that he didn’t care
where he put it. Nope. Uh-huh. No. Don’t buy into it for a second. Or was he so
desperate to impress Leo that he would commit the ultimate crime, despite his
body not obeying his requests? Nope. Don’t believe it.
Don’t get
me wrong, I appreciate what Chibnall was attempting to portray: that Leo was so
frightening and so intimidating that Michael felt impelled to do as he asked
for fear of repercussion. But again, let’s take it back to very crude basics. If
he was that frightened and that intimidated (and that drunk), could
he have physically carried out the act? Would his body not have betrayed him? I
mean, I can think of situations where men’s bodies have let them down and the
circumstances in hand were certainly very enjoyable!
And now, I’m
going to tackle something that I think needs addressing and no one so far to my
knowledge has addressed it. Michael Lucas
was clearly gay. There. I’ve said it. It’s clear that the actor himself is
gay. I Googled it to see if he had come out and couldn’t find anything but also
saw that he’s only eighteen, so perhaps he hasn’t disclosed it. Perhaps Chibnall
didn’t write it intentionally, but it was clear to me that the character was
gay too. There was a scene between Michael and Leo, where Michael was just
gazing at his idol, so taken with him that his responses remained monosyllabic.
Again, if
Michael didn’t attack Trish for the powerful feeling it gave him, then what on
earth was it about? If my understanding is correct and that Michael was gay, it
wasn’t about sex either. And, again rather crudely, could he have sustained an
erection? He was frightened, he was drunk, he was disgusted and he was being
coerced into an act with a gender he wasn’t attracted to?
So, if we
think about the fact that he gained an erection, sustained it enough to carry
out the heinous crime and (presumably) climaxed from it, it’s pretty safe to
say that although he was forced into it, he must have had some enjoyment from
it, which I can’t and won’t accept.
I
understand Michael was lonely and at an impressionable age and Leo had groomed
him into behaving uncharacteristically, but I would’ve liked to have been
convinced by this instead of having to cram the moments leading up to the
attack into a fifteen-minute segment. With hindsight, it would have been better
for the attacker to have been revealed at the end of the penultimate episode
and for the whole of the final episode to have been dedicated to the reveal.
Dare I say, it felt a little rushed.
All in
all, it was a little hard to swallow.
It
actually reminded me of a play I wrote a few years back. The story centred
around a group of teenage girls, one of whom is constantly belittled by the
leader of the pack, to the point where when she’s pushed and pushed and pushed,
she snaps and eventually, under immense pressure to do so, she sets fire to
another student. I entered the play for an award when I was twenty-two and it
came third, which sounds terrific but there were only four plays to choose
from, although it had been shortlisted to get to that stage, so it didn’t do
too badly I suppose.
Because I
was a finalist, I was given very specific feedback on the play and, like with
any feedback I got back then, I digested it and took it to heart. This is
something I have been working on ever since. About three years later, I had
someone say to my face in the bar after my play had been performed that I was
disgusting and talentless and I laughed and carried on drinking my wine. I’ve
learned to love criticism but I really struggled with it at first.
Anyway,
the point I’m making is that the feedback I got was that the story wasn’t “entirely
believable” as “no one would go to those lengths to impress a friend”. I was
bitter about it for weeks, months even, as I huffed and puffed about what to
do. Eventually, about three months later, I saw the person who gave the feedback
in the bar after a play (I’m sensing a pattern here) and over a glass of wine,
we talked about my play and what he thought had gone wrong.
I
explained that the fire wasn’t because one character was attempting to impress
another and that it was more about a power struggle incorporated with that feeling
when you see someone do something awful to another person in a public place but
you’re too scared to say anything for fear they’ll turn on you. Combining that
with the crippling teenage anxiety of being friendless, I believed the
character was genuinely capable of her crime.
By the end
of the conversation, he understood the reasoning behind the play a lot more and
was genuinely intrigued by how it came about. A few months later, there was a
story in the papers about two teenage schoolgirls who’d killed their teacher
and I sent him the article in a Facebook message, where each girl blamed the
other for bullying. In a weird way, it was relieving to know that this type of
thing actually happened but I’ve never forgotten that feedback and now if I’m watching
something that I can’t buy into, I think about what they could have done to
have strengthened it a bit more.
In terms
of Broadchurch, perhaps we could’ve seen more of Leo and Michael’s friendship
or maybe it could’ve ended with Michael saying he couldn’t rape Trish, so Leo
pushed him out of the way and did it himself? Regardless, I’m not entirely
convinced about the reveal of the true attacker and I felt more could have been
done. An unpopular opinion, I know, but that’s just how I feel.
While I’m
on the topic of unpopular opinions, I actually voiced what I’m about to say on
Twitter and received public scrutiny in abundance, so here goes: I felt that
Chibnall implied that porn was bad. Let’s be honest. We’re all grown ups here.
Who hasn’t watched porn? Despite what you might say to your friends or to a
prospective partner perhaps, we all watch it or have done at some point in our
lives. It’s perfectly legal, assuming that the pornography you view is of consenting
adults, and perfectly normal, given the fact that we currently live in a
society where almost all of us possess a smart phone – and if you don’t, you’re considered to be the weird
one.
I am
twenty-seven years old. My teenage years took place in the early noughties. I am part
of the internet generation. There is nothing that we don’t know about the internet.
Last week, someone I used to work with uploaded a photo of a pair of tanned,
slim legs propped up by a stunning turquoise pool with the caption “No Monday
blues for me”. Picturesque, some might say. I, however, instantly recognised
the photo as one shared by a very successful travel blogger not two days
earlier. I screenshotted it and sent it over to my mate instantly on What’s App
and we both had a giggle. She reverse Google image searched it and found a
handful of other websites, mostly swimwear and travel sites, who had already
stolen the image.
That’s the
world we currently live in. Fast paced and dependent on technology. We’ve gone
from chatting over MSN Messenger after school to dramatically rearranging our
MySpace top eight to using a telephone to take a photo, using software to edit it and posting it
somewhere with a variety of hashtags to gain an income. We are the internet
generation. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
So, when
Ellie Miller discovered her sixteen-year-old son was watching porn on his
mobile phone and, horrified, she subsequently banned him from using it, then
smashed it to smithereens when he continued, you’ll forgive me when I say I
burst out laughing. Come on, Chibnall, you find me any sixteen-year-old lad who
isn’t watching porn whenever he’s alone. In fact, you find me any
sixteen-year-old lad who isn’t having sex whenever the opportunity arises. It’s
a fact of life. People watch porn. It’s normal. I’m tempted to break the taboo
here and say: it’s healthy. Again, I will reiterate here that I am talking
about ordinary porn featuring consenting adults.
Before
anyone starts preaching at me, I’ll say here and now that I understand the
difference between ordinary porn and the type of porn that Leo Humphries was
watching and distributing. Of course, the footage that he had captured of his
own attacks was outrageous, illegal and disturbing. But I think Chibnall had a
responsibility to his audience in demonstrating that not all pornography is
outrageous and disturbing. He had a duty to highlight that not everyone who
watches porn is watching violent, extreme porn and that watching porn doesn’t
have to be a solo activity: it is a totally normal part of some couples’
relationships.
Miller was
understandably upset when she discovered the porn on her son’s phone,
particularly as the school had been so blasé about why they thought he was
interested in it, but as far as we knew, the footage she stumbled across on
this phone was ordinary porn. Not illegal. He was sixteen for crying out loud.
Legally old enough to get married and have a family of his own.
I was
expecting a scene between Miller and her son where she sat down and spoke to
him about the different types of porn. We almost had this scene, where Miller,
her son and her father were eating dinner and Ellie shut her father down when
he spouted some misogynistic crap. That’s what I adored about her. She was a
magnificent ambassador for saying what was needed when other people would be
more concerned about remaining PC. I was a little disappointed that she was so
closed minded about her son watching porn. What would she have done if she’d
found a box of condoms in his room or, God forbid, walked in and found him kissing
a girl?
What I
will say is bravo to the cast and crew of Broadchurch for portraying a true
depiction of rape. When I heard that the third series was focusing on a rape
storyline, I thought it would be a young girl walking home from a night out
where she takes a shortcut through a field and is raped and murdered. For the
victim to still be very much alive and able to reveal her attacker at any time
was a brave move, particularly for a drama series which has centred around a
whodunit murder mystery for the past four years.
I thought
it was impressive that the drama tackled any preconception about rape victims
and rapists. Leo Humphries was a good-looking lad, in good shape and reasonably
well spoken. He was popular, seemingly well liked and well educated. He was an
excellent football player and a familiar face in the local community. The
bottom line is: he was totally normal and, more importantly, he was cool.
Of course,
we know that sex offenders come in all shapes and sizes, all ages and creeds,
but again, I thought it was brave and impressive that Chibnall chose the best-looking
bloke to be the monster. Leo didn’t fit with society’s views of a rapist. Society
would typically depict Aaron Mayford to be the monster or any nearby bloke in a
dirty raincoat.
Interestingly,
Leo wasn’t the least bit remorseful for his crimes. He was smug, as he bragged
to Miller and Hardy about his past crimes and smirked, chillingly, as he said “it
was just sex”. But that was just it – it wasn’t
sex. Not even remotely. But it was frightening how much he genuinely
believed he had just had sex with these women; an alarming paradox to Brock
Turner’s defence and attitude towards women.
As for the
character of Trish, she was the same as you or I: a normal woman, who enjoyed a
drink and a cigarette. She was no angel, having slept with her best mate’s
husband. She was middle aged, normal looking, average build and leading a
totally ordinary life. And that’s what was so important for the storyline.
Horrifying though it is to face, anyone can be raped: whether they’re tall,
small, fat, thin, stunning, normal, have a fabulous job, are on the dole, are
blind drunk, are teetotal or are just walking in the garden at their best
friend’s birthday party.
When the
truth of the attack had been revealed to Trish, there was a moment which really
stuck with me. Upon learning that she didn’t know the person who had raped her
and that he didn’t know her, Trish said, “So,
I was just unlucky?” It absolutely killed me. That was the bottom line. She
really had been unlucky, as ridiculous as it sounds to liken being raped to
losing your car keys. And that was what I loved the most about the entire
series: it was a horrible and uncomfortable situation, but it could happen to
anyone and according to the Rape Crisis UK website, eleven adults are raped in
the UK every hour.
Now I
understand why it was so important that a TV programme such as Broadchurch,
which pulled in 8.7 million viewers on its final episode, portrayed a
terrifyingly accurate portrayal of a rape. While the final episode may not have
tickled my fancy a hundred percent, I have to admit that it satisfied our
curiosities and it concluded in a way that didn’t make me want to rip my own
hair out. It was oddly beautiful, just in a different way than I’d imagined.
So, what
happens next?
Well, I’ve
been hooked on Line of Duty and I’ve just started watching a brand new drama
series, “Born to Kill” which started last week on Channel 4. I have a feeling I
may blog about that one. If you see anything else you think I may like, let me
know 😊 Thanks for reading! x