I never did write a review of FOX's “Gracepoint,” though Fienberg and I talked about it for a while on the podcast earlier this week. Ultimately, my feeling was that the show Dan Futterman and Anya Epstein have made is much too close to the original run of “Broadchurch” – really, it's not until the seventh episode (the last of the ones sent out to critics) where the plot deviates in any meaningful way – for me to properly judge.
“Gracepoint” isn't a show made for me and the 600,000-odd people who watched “Broadchurch” on BBC America, but for the potentially much larger audience that has no idea what the hell “Broadchurch” was. But I can't unsee “Broadchurch,” which means I found most of its beat-for-beat replication in “Gracepoint” tedious, despite a bunch of really strong performances from Michael Pena, Virginia Kull and, in later episodes, Nick Nolte, among others. I'm not offended by the existence of “Gracepoint,” but I also have little to say about it.
So it's your turn. Based on the reaction anytime Dan or I have previously written about “Gracepoint,” I am expecting many comments objecting to the very existence of this remake, given the recency of “Broadchurch,” the fact that it's in English, etc. But I'm curious for the reactions of people who actually watched the “Gracepoint” premiere tonight, whether you watched “Broadchurch” or not.
Have at it.