Shetland season 8

[laplage]

Anyone else looking forward to the new season starting on Wednesday? It will seem a bit strange without Perez but looks to be a good cast and storyline so far as we know.

Phew, I nearly l missed this as stupid VM failed that day and up until now. Thank goodness for Freeview (shortly to be deactivated, tough on those who cant afford a to subscribe to some over priced package).

anyhow, because it was a while ago I cant remember all the details but thought it a really good episode. I like the way Ruth and Tosh are getting to know each other in a slow careful way. And liked the way they explained why Tosh was still just "acting" DCI (not bad feminism), and finally we found that baby Tosh hadn't just been disappeared.

Admit I cant keep up with all the characters. Maybe at the start of each episode they could post a family tree!

But am enjoying it unfolding.

Wonder what the back story is to the Pagan Pyre (and yes agree about the comment re wood!). But thought it great both women rushed forward to stop it being ignited, instead of looking round feebly waiting for one of the male police men to do it.

But not sure I am that taken with the Ruth back story. They could have had so much fun at the expense of an outsider, trying to make sense of the community and custom. And is in previous series, not only do we have another domineering matriarch, but some (possibly) inter family relationship.

Couldn't it for once just be a crime that wasn't about family secrets. Like that Norwegian oil one, or was that Anika?

I hope so too, as her first marriage ended in tragedy, and I think she was out of acting for some time. Maybe that's why she took on that ridiculous Agatha Raison, as a way of easing back in. Always thought she was great in Ugly Betty.

I’m enjoying this series so far. I did think it was all going a bit wicker man with the corn dolls and the pyre. 😂

@Tiepolo great point. Knew there was something wrong with that scene.

Reckon the SIL will turn out to be a bit dodgy.

Nrtft but @Tiepolo in the books Perez did indeed go off into the sunset with Willow

it's really lazy writing - if they'd made an earlier reference to Sandy being unavailable because he was 'looking into that break in at Big Jock's timber yard' and also the theft of Wee Jimmy's flat-bed trailer then at least there'd be some logic.

The standard of acting is pretty dire too. Some of it is borderline 'don't judge me I'm reading this off a card behind the camera and I'm not an actor I'm just a sound engineer reading the lines in until the actor turns up' quality.

Did he? Excellent! (Have never read any of the novels, as I think after eight tv adaptation seasons it’s too late for me to get my head around olive-skinned, dark-haired Jimmy, no Tosh, younger Cassie, Fran (I gather?) alive etc.)

Alas, while I’m still enjoying it (mostly because of Shetland outdoor shots), I did watch the first couple of episodes of season 4 a few days ago (where Thomas Malone is released from prison, and the bent cop’s daughter is murdered in the same way as Malone’s supposed victim years earlier), and the plotting and characterisation was richer and tighter.

Even fairly minor backstories work to remind you characters have lives outside the plot —Tosh is still processing her rape, Sandy, newly single, has a flirtatious relationship with Lizzie Kilmuir’s sister, Cassie is miserable after being dumped by Edison, Perez and Duncan are clashing as to how to help her etc, plus there’s the introduction of Donna Killick.

And Malone is a terrific character, socially maladjusted, angry, obsessive, unfairly victimised, frightening, an unloved child grown With a horrific beard that deserves its own credit…

I read all of the Shetland books before watching any episodes. They were great, and made me want to visit Shetland. I got a bit bored towards the end though as Perez being a dour, miserable git became a bit tedious. I decided I preferred the humour in the Vera books.
But the books are way better than the TV series.

If there's humour in the Vera books, all I can say is, it doesn't appear in the TV series. I agree with @Tiepolo that earlier series were better written, more interesting, three-dimensional characters, etc. Still enjoying it mind. It's about the only bit of 'appointment TV' on now.

But not sure I am that taken with the Ruth back story. They could have had so much fun at the expense of an outsider, trying to make sense of the community and custom
But she isn't an outsider. She grew up there and has history with a lot of the island. I personally like how awkward she is feeling. People treat her like she is still a teen and she is a big shot DI in London.

Thomas Malone was a very emotional story that made me cry.

I don't think it is totally true to say Shetland has no trees at all - it even has a community woodland trust. I thinks it's a bit like Iceland - mostly moorland and no big forests but quite a few straggly birch and pine trees
https://www.shetlandamenity.org/community-woodlands

But she isn't an outsider.

That's what I said. It makes it so predictable to have her as part of yet another interlocking family psychodrama. And I said I thought they could have got away from some of these repetitive themes, domineering matriarchs etc., and explored the differences between somewhere like Shetland and London. More interesting and could have made more contemporary references, than having to spend times trying to remember all the familes trees. (And I am sure it does Shetland no favours to imply all families have these unhappy interlinked lives.)

re the pyre - I wasn't so much bothered about the wood (assumed it came from boat building because of the shape) but that he would have need at least a mate of two to get the wood there, let alone build such an interlocking structure.

PS I found Perez really boring! But do miss his co-dad.

I’m not convinced an outsider would be thematically interesting or beneficial to the plotting. It seems (to me) a slightly lazy, tired trope to parachute in an outsider and fixate on differences from a more Anglo-centric perspective - Shetland has done well to avoid that sort of thing thus far.

Which isn’t to say the PP is wrong - more that they can’t please everybody all the time, and there’s no single answer to what a good new series of Shetland should look like.

Goodness - what a funny reaction: fixate on differences from a more Anglo-centric perspective - it could just as equally "fixate" on a Scottish centric perspective!

The point would be there would be more contrast and more depth. At the moment all the plots, going back some years, are about broken families, how everybody knows each other, and scenic views.

There was an Irish crime drama where an "outsider" detective turned up and the writers were certainly able to provide a balance.

As it is at the moment the series makes Shetland look a bit like something out of the 50s in terms of family live and interests.

It's also a trope to have the person who left as soon as they could (troubled teen?) then go back as an adult.

Perhaps her SIL will be involved or something will happen to SIL so she stays for her brother?

I’m aware it does have trees, but surely not enough to easily provide the sheer amount of wood needed for the pyre (which didn’t look like boatbuilding material to me?) I don’t think I’d have noticed so much had Tosh not explicitly said ‘no trees on Shetland’ to Ruth when she first arrived.

I mean, it’s not a big deal, only it could easily have been explained with two lines of background dialogue about someone reporting boat building material stolen.

I quite like the bits of dialogue where people are ‘placing’ Ruth as minister’s daughter, former shag etc. and she’s registering the Bainses as big shots, and avoiding exes on the street.

I also think the series becomes far less appealing (to me, anyway) when it’s off the island, or at least the islands. There were some excellent characters and good acting in the series (is it three?) where lots of it takes place in Glasgow (Anna Chancellor as the bent fiscal and Rhonda’s girlfriend, Ace Bhatti as Calvin Sarwar), but it feels like just another crime drama without the island setting.

@IwantToRetire If you think that dragging an outsider in from London to highlight differences between Shetland life and London life isn’t, by definition, introducing an Anglo-centric theme, I’m not sure there is any point in discussing it.

By using an ex-Shetland DI, they’re keeping it a primarily Shetland-focussed series. In my opinion, that is it’s strength and value. To do what you suggest would, in my opinion, actively harm the depth and quality of the series.

Is that the Toast shirt from this Summer? (On Ruth’s SIL.)

I'm glad our man turned down the drug deal

Spoke too soon

I’m confused. The internet says there are only four episodes in season 8 but just seen episode 4 and the story isn’t finished. Do we have to wait till the next season 😫

See screenshot

There's 6 episodes