Pilot Review: Gracepoint

Gracepoint (FOX)
Premiered October 2 at 9pm

It’s hard to find an original idea these days, with so many shows borrowing concepts from earlier series and others serving as express remakes of international fare. It’s rare to find a show where one actor starred in both the original and the remake, and the last time that happened was Mark Strong, who reprised his role in the short-lived “Low Winter Sun” on AMC. Now, “Broadchurch,” a British series returning soon for its second season, has been brought over to the United States as this show, starring David Tennant, best known as one of the more popular portrayers of “Doctor Who.” It’s also the first role that two-time Emmy winner Anna Gunn has taken on since “Breaking Bad” ended, which ups the anticipation factor considerably. Everything else about it, however, is a severe disappointment. This doesn’t seem at all like a fresh idea, and we’ve seen plenty of melancholy dramas about small towns and children being killed (“The Killing” comes immediately to mind). The dynamic between Tennant’s Detective Emmett Carver and Gunn’s Detective Ellie Miller is far from ideal since we’ve seen it so many times before. Ellie is too emotional, while Emmett is too brash and determined to do things in the gruffest way possible to maintain distance. Throw in the fact that Ellie’s son was best friends with the murder victim and that she happens to have a childlike nephew who is a rabblerousing reporter and you have an awfully familiar and entirely unappealing crime show that feels a whole lot like any other. This show is labeled an “event series,” with only ten episodes, but all that means is that when it gets cancelled because no one watched, it’s still possible to call it a meager success.

How will it work as a series? The town is going to start coming apart, and having newcomers like Emmett and Jessica Lucas’ intrepid reporter Renee Clemons won’t help matters at all. There is sure to pain, intrigue, melodrama, and plenty of tears and startling revelations all around. This kind of mystery drama was innovative when it hadn’t been done so many times before this.
How long will it last? I think ten episodes will be it, if it even gets that far. FOX is looking for big ratings and this show is not going to bring them in. Given that it’s only a ten-episode order, I think that it should be fine to stick around for the duration of what’s already been made.

Pilot grade: C