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.

Up to episode 5 and we are trying really hard to like it, it's all over the place and individually love the cat but together it's not working

We miss Perez but wanted to give Jensen a go as she is great in other things but she is like a deer in the headlights and all over the place

I am really disappointed

Almost all the outdoor scenes are filmed in Shetland as far as I know. It would make little sense to have two outdoor cast / crew locations. For a lot of the filming for season 8, the weather was exceptionally warm.

The indoor scenes are filmed somewhere else - mainly in Glasgow I think.

I think Line of Duty was nearly all hype and not that wonderful. But some viewers really liked the characters so they were able to run series with even more bizarre plots that would have sunk any other show.

I was just thinking, which must be an awful position to be in, what if the BBC does make another series, and Ashley Jensen just sees something online or somewhere saying famous actor (insert name) to star in new series of Shetland.

I’ve watched all the series so far but I won’t be watching the next one I don’t think. It came together at the end a little but then the conclusion was ridiculous. I don’t think it’s the actors quite so much as terrible writing.

Yeah, I didn't really buy the incest thing. It's both really grim and weirdly unrealistic-feeling.

AFAIK - they only made 4 of the books into series 1 and 2.

• Red Bones - Sandy's Granny is shot dead outside her croft while a suspicious group of Uni archaeologists are doing a dig on her grounds
• Raven Black - goth girl found dead on the beach. She had been doing a school project on life in modern Shetland and had made secret recordings ....
• Dead Water - journalist pal of Perez who was chasing a big story found dead in an apparent car accident.
• Blue Lightening - death of a scientist at a bird research centre on Fair Isle. Perez dad (played by Bill Patterson in these episodes) is the island Minister. A storm rolls in and they are all trapped on the island ... with the murderer.

After that they went with the made up stories

I've never read any of the Ann Cleeves novels are there others that would have worked as TV adaptations, but weren't made?

Of the ones that were made, I know there are some differences (Jimmy is Spanish-looking, Cassie is younger, Fran is (possibly?) alive), but do the TV adaptation plots in terms of crime, perpetrators etc closely resemble the novels?

They change plenty! When I can't sleep at might, I run through the Shetland episodes, comparing them to the novels. I',#m usually asleep before working out who actually died, let alone who the murder really was.

I think I am going to have go back and watch the early seasons again. I can never remember endings anyway.

The others all ring vague bells, but I don't remember the Red Bones one at all. Sandy's granny gets shot?

I really enjoyed season 8. I did think the incest storyline was ridiculous 🙄 but on the whole I enjoyed it all. But one of my special skills is the ability to suspend belief

Inspired by this thread, I watched E1 from season 1 last night. I had forgotten loads. Gemma Chan is in it, must have been one of her early roles. Also another young actor who was later on in Jamestown. DH (as in D Henshall rather than my DH) has lush hair cut and looks pretty hot in his ribbed polo neck jumper.

If my memory serves me right, season 4 was my favourite, the one with Archie Panjabi. I want to be her when she’s in the hotel room with Perez… (fans self)

Yes, Mima Wilson, who is murdered during an archeology dig on her land, was Sandy's grandmother -- his father (given to looking threatening, drinking and wandering around with a shotgun looking murderous) is a suspect at one point, from what I remember.

I have to say I find Gemma Chan's astonishingly symmetrical features distracting in this one -- she looks as if a mythological goddess had just landed in a grubby dig site in a beanie, and it feels quite odd that people aren't continually being gobsmacked by her beauty. (Especially when, from what I remember, the nasty dig leader ditched her for her entirely ordinary-looking fellow-student...?)

That all sounds a bit more familiar now, thank you.
Gemma C IS astonishing-looking, isn’t she?

This could add a whole new dimension to plot lines.

Think of all the outsiders who would be crowding in.

No doubt social unrest at this desicration of rural beauty - and the noise.

Lots for screen writers to get their teeth into.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/dec/17/shetland-islands-remote-location-is-giving-uk-space-industry-a-boost

(Just to add am worried at the lack of cake fridges. Have they been banned?)

I only remember a cake fridge featuring once in Shetland — when Jimmy’s father has dementia, wanders off from Lerwick, and is found by Terribly Helpful Meg the Nurse munching his way through the contents of a cake fridge in the middle of nowhere…?

I mean, are they

… everywhere?

The existence of the cake fridges was confirmed on the thread that was running at the time. I think there was more than one of them but I can't remember how many or how widespread.

https://www.shetland.org/blog/honesty-boxes-in-shetland

Oh, one more thing I’ve always wondered.

Are we ever told why Jimmy’s relatiinship with Asha Israni doesn’t last? That season ends with him apparently wanting to pursue it (despite the fact he’s briefly suspected her of being the leak responsible for two deaths, she’s just been stabbed by a vengeful teenager and is in intensive care, and he only phones her after being given relationship advice by Duncan!). Is Asha ever mentioned again?

Do we assume she left Shetland vowing never to return, for the fairly compelling reason that both witnesses protection schemes she’s handled in Shetland have involved deaths, and she wants nothing more to do with it?

DS was watching Bend It Like Beckham, which put it into my head. I’d forgotten how beautiful Archie Punjabi is.

Well to be fair I would think that the whole legal team she worked there would have imploded and everyone was probably under investigation after the revelations that her boss was involved in corruption, destroyed evidence, conspired with gangsters and that her actions had covered up rapes and resulted in murders. If Asha had any sense she would have urgently found a new job as far away as possible.

.

Finally got around to watching season 8. I loved it. I thought Tosh did a brilliant job.

Yes, maybe she went into witness protection to get away from witness protection!

I think I used to like wondering how her clothing and shoes would have had to change if she spent more time on Shetland — she was always very ‘urban workwear’ in heels and with a blazer over something light and sleeveless.

Presumably Rhona would also have had a few questions to ask herself about her corrupt girlfriend.

Some of the exterior shots and scenes are definitely on the mainland, usually in the Ayrshire / Inverclyde area. Eg, the scene where Tosh meets Donnie and the baby, and Mrs Psychiatrist is sitting on a bench, is Greenock.

For those who just cant get over some of the missing former cast you can watch Mark Bonnar and Douglas Henshall appearing together in Murder is Easy.

Both very different characters. Always knew Bonnar could act but was surprised to find Henshall can as well.

(Yes it is another BBC makeover of an Agathat Christie)