How is Gracepoint connected to David Tennant's Broadchurch? Details revealed 

Gracepoint is the American remake of Broadchurch. In October 2014, as viewers tuned in to Fox, they got a déjà vu as the series featured a small coastal town, a dead kid, and a brooding detective with baggage.

But then, there was David Tennant, the Tenth Doctor himself, but now he has an American accent. What was going on here? Fox took Broadchurch, gave it a fresh coat of American paint, and called it a bold new crime drama.

Most British-to-American remakes (such as The Office or Shameless) shake things up, but Gracepoint is almost shot-for-shot the same show, just transported to California. Tennant is in the lead role, only now he is Detective Emmett Carver instead of DI Hardy. They promoted it as a different ending to keep viewers guessing, but most folks could see the original print all over it.

Gracepoint and Broadchurch: How are they connected?

Gracepoint is the American spin-off of Broadchurch. Fox jumped on it after Broadchurch blew up in the UK. Chris Chibnall, the man behind the original, wrote it again just for the US crowd. The setup is almost a copy-paste: kid gets murdered in a sleepy beach town, and everyone’s lives get thrown into pure chaos. It’s a drama all around, just with a slightly different accent.

The first thing you will notice is that they switched up the setting. Broadchurch gave us gloomy cliffs in Dorset, with rain and moody skies. But Gracepoint takes everything over to some tiny town in Northern California. And it’s not just a change of scenery for the sake of it; they wanted to make it feel American.

Still, they tried to keep the ‘everyone-knows-everyone’s-business theme’ that made the British series addictive. Variety reported that Tennant said it’s more about bringing the story to a new crowd than just repeating everything all over again.

“I thought doing the British show was such an extraordinary experience, and when it broadcast, it created such a stir. So, I thought ‘Well, I’m not going to miss out on the chance to tell this story to a whole new audience that hadn’t heard it yet.'”

David Tennant: The bridge between two worlds

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of both series isn’t just that they are both whodunits; it’s David Tennant himself. In Broadchurch, he is a brooding, emotionally unavailable detective, Alec Hardy. Then, when Fox decided to Americanize it, Tennant came back in, only now he is Detective Emmett Carver, with a whole new accent.

As stated in Wikipedia, when Gracepoint was created by Fox, Tennant was on board on October 2, 2013, to play the part of Detective Emmett Carver. This comes after Fox reportedly wanted an All-American cast at first. Tennant apparently crushed the audition. IMDb even says he “blew away the competition,” considering he was the lone Brit in a sea of Americans. Carolyn Bernstein (one of the big execs) called him a “national treasure” in the UK, as reported by IndieWire.

For David Tennant, assuming practically the same part in two different plays was a source of extraordinary difficulties. He told Variety he wasn’t out there trying to play two different people. He just wanted to keep it real, scene by scene.

According to Den of Geek, those character names weren’t random at all. Alec Hardy is a nod to Thomas Hardy, the writer from Dorset. And Emmett Carver is a wink to Raymond Carver, the Oregon author. Tennant broke it down for the Daily News, saying that he didn’t want to put on a fake layer just to be different. Every scene, he just went at it without overthinking.

The dual commitment by Tennant was particularly taxing regarding the timing. As per the Daily News, he had about 18 months during which Broadchurch and Gracepoint filming took place, but then literally a 24- hour turnaround came in, which he managed to finish Gracepoint and start shooting the second season of Broadchurch straight away. That was the situation where Tennant was at the same time playing two different versions of the same character in two different countries.

The Daily News reported that it took approximately 18 months from the start of the filming of Broadchurch to that of Gracepoint. Yet, right after Gracepoint, he was doing Broadchurch Season 2. Just a day off separated the two shooting schedules. Thus, Tennant was almost simultaneously portraying the same character in two different shows, in two different countries.

Fox wanted Gracepoint to be a hit, with the original being such a big deal. But the show just didn’t click with viewers. It kicked off on October 2, 2014, and snagged about 4.8 million people for the premiere, but it had a 1.2 rating in the 18-49 crowd. By the time the last episode rolled around, they had dropped down to 4 million viewers, and the rating slipped to 0.9.

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Rotten Tomatoes landed it at 65%. Some folks liked Anna Gunn’s performance, and the serious crime drama theme worked for some people. But everyone kept comparing it to Broadchurch. Over on Metacritic, it scored a 62 out of 100, so again: not a disaster, but definitely nothing to brag about.

Fox tried to promote it as an “event series” and left the door open for more seasons. By December, Fox was already calling the last episode the “series finale” after disappointing ratings.

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