Series retains quality for third, final season
“Today” — actor Lin Manuel Miranda (“Hamilton”) (N)
“Good Morning America” — TV host Eric Stonestreet (“The Toy Box”) (N)
“Live With Kelly and Ryan” — actor Ansel Elgort (“Baby Driver”) (N)
“The View” — actors Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler (“The House”) (N)
“The Chew” — making Mexican street-corn salad (N)
“The Wendy Williams Show” — former NBA player Lamar Odom discussing his recovery and sobriety (N) “The Talk” — Jane Lynch (“Criminal Minds”) (N)
“Steve Harvey” — favorite
TV REVIEW
If the new season of “Broadchurch” is the weakest of the three, it’s still legions better than many other police procedurals.
The first season of the series — created by Chris Chibnall (“Torchwood”) for ITV in the United Kingdom and broadcast in the United States on BBC America — focused on the murder of young Danny Latimer, whose body was found on the beach beneath the towering cliffs of the Dorset town of Broadchurch.
In season two, detective Ellie Miller (Olivia Colman) and grouchy Scottish detective Alec Hardy (David Tennant) had new crimes to solve.
Now, the third and last season — premiering Wednesday — centers on the rape of a middle-aged woman, Trish Winterman (Julie Hesmondhalgh), who is attacked while attending a party for her best friend’s 50th birthday.
Trish, newly separated from husband Ian (Charles Higson), is determined to have a good time. She goes outside to smoke a
cigarette, however, and is knocked unconscious and assaulted.
With more than 75 men at the party, Miller and Hardy have their work cut out for them. Chibnall overstuffs the script with coincidence to suggest that any of the men, or others, could be the attacker.
Still, the series has plenty of positives to keep viewers hooked.
The performances, as they have been since season one, are extraordinary — especially those of Colman and Tennant, along with Jodie Whittaker and Andrew Buchan, who play Danny Latimer’s parents. Hesmondhalgh shines as the victim, who struggles but finds the strength to move on.
The final season of “Broadchurch” wraps up some things but leaves enough doors slightly open to dangle the hope that Chibnall and his superior cast might one day return.