r/Broadchurch

I'm a first time watcher, and just finished season 1.

The acting, drama and build up is fantastic.

The ending and reveal, not so much.

The whole show can be summarized by a brilliant look into a community torn apart by the horrific murder of a boy. Detectives have no leads. Murderer confesses.

It really cheapened the whole show that no mystery was solved. It really depended on the confession.

A far better ending would've been had it gone unsolved, but they still show everything that happened so the viewer knows.

Maybe I missed something - maybe there were clues throughout, and these clues needed a final piece to tie them all together - a true murder mystery. Instead, it's some lazy writing of person feels bad and confesses.

In fact, the way it ended they could've picked anyone in town to be the murderer and none of the 7/8 episodes in the series would need to be different, or shot differently. They just pick a random person and shoot a different episode 8.