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.

So, for all the members of the armed response unit last week, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Billy was the only officer on the Islands this week....

I do like Billy, he’s quite funny

I enjoyed it, but arrived at the conclusion before Ruth.

Bergen’s connections proved interesting - particularly the girl / young woman (how old?).

But that poor little boy …

Wonder if Ian is dead? Probably not. But if he's not, he'd surely be able to finger the driver.

I expect like most, when Astrid eventually showed herself, I was expecting a much younger girl.

Didn't seem a good idea for a police woman he didn't know breaking the news to a child that his mother was dead. Surely a family member should have been the one.

It didn't grab me that much tonight, nodded off in the middle.

I wasn't that engrossed in last nights episode.

Although its nice to have two women leads its like the writers have taken the easy route of making each of them a type, rather than them maybe having similarities.

So Tosh is more by the book and cautious.

Ruth is more forget the rules I'm just going to do what I want.

Sigh.

But honestly, having one of the victims turn out to have maybe been what, a secret agent, or ... and all from leaving Shetland because she was good at maths.

Maybe it will become more plausible ...

But do think the young boy is a really good actor.

He really did force me to imagine what must have been going through his head, yes!

We were horrified at the lack of safeguarding shown towards the young boy. Possibly a witness to a double murder, including his own mother, but no visible police protection in hospital and no apparent regard to his emotional welfare either. Appalled that Ruth should just take it upon herself to tell him his mum had died with no consultation with medical staff or his aunt/uncle and no supportive adult present.
But then I work in child protection and definitely overthink these things

Yes, they don't seem to have considered that the wee boy could be under threat. Also, annoyed at Donnie questioning Tosh about decision to arrest the husband - he should respect her professional decisions. Still enjoying it though.

Billy is great. Though I miss his dog appearing at work! A collie, IIRC.

(Billy has always been a favourite of mine after seeing how lovely and gently supportive to Tosh he was, after her rape in series 3).

Yes, though I suppose that becomes more problematic when the chief suspect is also said child's father, who is also barely comprehensible after an apparent bender, and discovered wearing clothes covered in blood... (Are the couple Ian and Noah are staying with his family or his ex-wife's?)

Re Donnie questioning Tosh about arresting Ian -- I suppose this is the writers throwing in some belated realism about the realities of policing in a small community. OK, Perez was always having to question or arrest Duncan about something, and he sometimes had some connection to the victims, but a lot of the time policing somewhere small is going to be more about your friends asking you questions you can't answer and getting furious when you arrest someone they think couldn't be guilty...

Also, Donnie needs a faint wisp of storyline from time to time, other than 'nice domestic backdrop'...

I want Billy and Donnie to solve a crime together, maybe with Sandy actually having the brainwave that cracks it. With Billy's collie helping. *Surely he got allowed back into the station? It was only Willow (was that her name? Nina Sosanya's forensics expert who got flown in and did some cool girl flirting with Perez) who said she was allergic and complained about his presence, I think?)

I'd love them to allow Billy out of the station for a bit.

I really don't like Ruth, she's so bloody rude, how dare she be rude to Cora. She made her mind up about Ian before even interviewing him too.

Has anyone else noticed they haven't filmed anywhere near Perez's house this series!

i thought exactly the same. V implausible that Tosh would just start grilling the wee boy before passsing on to Ruth to grill him further then tell him his mother was dead, all without child support present.

I suppose they'd have to deal with whether it's shut up because Perez and Meg are off honeymooning in Capri, or have moved off the island altogether, or otherwise, plausibly, Tosh and co would keep running into Perez on the street or in the pub!

Ruth's house, while lovely, looks like it's miles from Lerwick, which I would have said would be a snag with sudden call outs...?

I think Ruth's rudeness works dramatically -- she and Tosh get on well, with Tosh being the gentler, more community-minded one and Ruth bringing in the hard edge from her Met experience, so while yes, she was definitely rude to Cora, who looked deeply unimpressed, it probably makes sense in dramatic terms to have contrasting leads.

Like the only reason Farida ended up confessing to Tosh about the death of her son last season was because her younger child was around the same age as Tosh and Donnie's daughter, and she certainly knew Donnie from the local parents' circuit. She's very embedded. Whereas Ruth's connections are more problematic (sleeping with a suspect who was a teenage boyfriend of hers and a ne'er do well, discovering stuff about her father's past philandering etc).

I'm really struggling with this series. It's lost the personal, softer side that we had with Perez. And there's too many characters in this storyline!

There's always too many characters in the story line! I always find it hard to follow who is who especially because they seem to go for the same physical type for characters so they blend into one homogenous group of late teen to mid 30s male in a physical job with some kind of shadiness in his current life or past that tends not to have much relevance to the storyline. I enjoy it though, I just accept my concentration is shot to shit and enjoy the scenery.

The worst show for that was Hinterland, which seemed to be populated entirely by near-identical grumpy dark-haired men with beards!

Agree @daffodilandtulip it misses the little bits of Duncan and Jimmy, and Cassie (I remember one comment in a previous series about her being the only girl with a Dad's WhatsApp group) and Jimmy's guilt about Fran and his father.

Sandy should be used more, he is Shetland born and bred. His family still live on Shetland. Give him a story and not just one where he's shown as an incompetent male (because he isn't) but I doubt that will happen as its the BBC.

Scenery is amazing though which is partly why I'm still watching.

Still enjoying it, but Perez gave the show focus, and he is very much missed IMO.

It’s true there was an element to Perez-gazing 😍 that’s missing now …

You can still gaze at him on Saturday nights. Shetland is on ITV3 with Perez

Irrationally irritated by Tosh and Ashley Jensens character going to interview a traumatised child without any specialist support while he was in a hospital bed and proving themselves totally clueless in the whole process. Very unrealistic- this compounded with the impossible scenario of an armed response team pitching up in a few minutes notice to Shetland 😫
But enjoying it for the scenery, atmosphere and nice jumpers and coats!