Beth Latimer - Blog Posts

It’s been a long time since I’ve watched season 1 of Broadchurch straight though, but man, the Latimer family kills me. Ashamed to say that when I first watched the series Beth got a lot of my attention (not really ashamed, just guilty), and then Mark ripped my heart out in S3, and meanwhile poor Chloe just got shafted to the wayside. Watching the series though again as a whole recently, though, I found myself paying a lot of attention to her.

This is the moment that served to punch me in the gut the first time, but it’s so much worse now in hindsight. She’s a fifteen year old girl who’s just lost her baby brother to a horrific murder, and now on top of that grief she’s overhearing her parents’ marriage falling apart.

And she’s probably thinking that it’s her fault. She got Becca Fisher to confess to the police she was having an affair with Mark to get him off a murder charge, sending her the assurance that ‘no one else needs to know’. But Beth finds out anyway, and Chloe doesn’t know how she does. She likely assumes the police told her, which in her mind paints her as the guilty one in all this, because if she hadn’t told Becca to talk to the police, Beth wouldn’t have found out.

It’s just a sad moment all the way around, and beautifully shot. She’s still a child struggling with her own grief over a dead sibling, but the camera angle shows her isolated. Her parents’ door is closed, obviously because of their argument, but it also shows Chloe’s extreme loneliness in this moment. Is it any wonder why she had a room at Dean’s to help her forget she’s the ‘dead boy’s sister’?

Broadchurch, with a mythological twist. Will probably be part 1 of a series, but one thing at a time. Also, I think I’ve written Mark Latimer as a truly depraved individual, and he’s starting to scare me.

‘I never wanted that day to end.’

Just finished watching season 2 of Broadchurch. Tbh I lost interest about halfway through, but I wanted to finish it. It was so frustrating to watch. It bothered me that Beth seemed to be so upset at the fact that Mark cheated on her, but not at the fact that HE HIT DANNY. I thought the lawyers might develop some interesting story lines but, unfortunately, they just didn't do it for me. I could've done without the Sandbrook story line or maybe if they changed what happened/who killed the girls it would have been more interesting. Anyway, I did enjoy the first season of Broadchurch! I just wasn't a huge fan of this one. I probably won't watch the last season.