This review contains spoilers. Unsurprisingly, McGovern and Father Michael share the same idea. In Broken, McGovern is telling sad stories as a form of protest. Each encounter Sean Bean’s character has with his parishioners is a parable on modern villainy. Employers who don’t pay fair wages, a social security system that makes people anything but secure, underfunded mental health care, vampiric gambling companies… the series is a compendium of warnings about what can happen when profits are privileged over people’s lives. This week, McGovern told the story of Vernon – a young man with serious mental health problems sent prematurely away from the professional care home that can no longer afford to keep him, to his mother, a loving woman ill-equipped to cope with her son’s illness. Tragedy ensued, and a scene from Broken’s opening credits – blood dripping down a window pane next to a photograph of a smiling young boy – was explained. It’s Vernon’s blood and that was his tale of woe. Telling it was McGovern’s protest against austerity cuts to mental health services. It goes without saying that none of the above makes for easy viewing. There’s scant cheer or brightness to be found in Broken, which is more a polemic against various targets than it is strictly entertainment. What could be entertaining about Vernon’s terrible story? It was bleak and inevitable and left us feeling, like Father Michael, hopeless and angry. It also left Father Michael feeling guilty. Had he picked up the phone, perhaps he could have saved Vernon’s life. A rare instance of him choosing selfishness over selflessness meant he didn’t answer the call, and now he has to add Vernon to the burden of guilt he’s already suffering about his past. That kind of symbolism combined with the delicateness of Sean Bean’s performance, is what elevates Broken beyond a collection of (justifiably) angry political complaints. The image of Michael being called to the priesthood after his experience with the returning hawk was transcendent storytelling. It offered poetry, not just protest. You need the one in order to sell the other.