Shetland 10 starts on 5 November 2025

[IwantToRetire]

Forget about the fireworks, stay in as new series of Shetland starts next week!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002lt9z

I think those of us who have stuck with Shetland through thick and thin, just about filled up the last thread which is here https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/telly_addicts/4931718-shetland-season-8?page=40

Given how bad many 9pm slots have been recently this series may even be a pleasant surprise.

I've often thought MN Telly Addicts should be hired to write plots.

This has endless twists and turns.

Have to say now I have seen about the drugs plot line it is a bit same old, same old.

But maybe Shetland is the hub of Scotland's illegal drugs trade!

Morag the murderer of Eadie? Loving this.

So every so often we’d see Billy packing a little suitcase and putting on a suit to go and visit her in Aberdeen Prison (or wherever)? That might be quite entertaining!

I struggled to concentrate on it and ended up scrolling on my phone I was so bored. It's just so flat.

I'm enjoying it. I like the idea someone mentioned that Stevie might not really be Stevie, but if she really is Stevie, my theory is that Eadie and Billy's wife were absolutely right to send her to Aberdeen and separate her from her sister because Stevie displayed early psychopathic tendencies and had perhaps tried to kill the sister, or at any rate was a very bad influence in some way. The sister was so little at the time that she remembers nothing about any of this.

I fell asleep in ep2 as well!

Fantastic, @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g!

Well they've already had the 'anecdotal' stuff about Stevie in Aberdeen (plus, Stevie being a bit weird, to say the least), so it looks like it's pointing the way @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g suggests. Is this a bit early in the story, though, which might mean a red herring?

Too early

It will be a red herring like the strange Danes and creepy professor/spymaster last year

I too fell asleep in episode 2 .. had to rewatch it today

I love Shetland usually but this series is so dreary and dour. I’m bored of Ashley and Tosh stomping around with scouring faces.

Also the drug family is ridiculous. No one would leave their child alone in this situation. I think I’m done which is a shame as I’d been looking forward to it.

Especially when they'd made a point of showing what a great Dad he was! That was just annoying.

I think some people have amnesia! Perez, while I loved him, was considerably dourer on a general basis than Tosh and Calder put together, and added to his dourness was his aggressive way of barking orders at the rest of the team when frustrated during an investigation, as though they’d personally pissed him off.

And if we’re talking dark, I don’t think we’ve seen anything yet to match the unrelieved grimness of the late Perez season about people trafficking where women are being trafficked as prostitutes and migrants are dumped off a boat to drown and a hungover Duncan wakes up on a beach surrounded by dead bodies coming in on the tide.

I didn’t mean dark, and I loved Perez being dour, his character was well developed and we knew that and liked him for it. I’m a massive fan of Ashley and she’s not hitting the spot for me.

I’m glad some of you are enjoying it though as maybe they’ll do another series which I will enjoy again

Not even sure if I’m allowed to observe that Perez and Duncan were both breathtakingly desirable. One may dress it up as an interest in their back stories, etc, etc, - but the fact is I liked watching them. So I do miss them.

I approve of this comment

I liked Duncan. I agree the current female leads are too miserable and angst ridden. The new Perez just doesn’t seem real.

I don’t think Sandy would work as the new Jimmy but I did wonder if Tosh would be the new Jimmy with Sandy as the new Tosh (post sergeant exams). Plus Sandy would never get his own thread in S&B.

I like Ashley Jensen but I wish they would flesh out more of her back story and character. Jimmy could be pretty morose, at least one morose character is mandatory in most police dramas. Its the “Duncan” factor which is missing.

I think the backstory is an issue as is the lack of light relief - Duncan used to provide a bit of light relief and also a chance to see a more human Perez talking over his problems... i guess that is what is missing currently as Jensen's character is all work (unless she gets something on with the poet).

Why wouldn’t you be ‘allowed’? I never fancied Duncan (and Mark Bonnar turning out to be spectacularly whiny on Celebrity Traitors didn’t retrospectively endear Duncan to me any more), but I fancied the pea coat off Perez! I’ve tried fancying Stuart Townsend in this series, but as he may have murdered his mother and writes bad poetry, I’m holding off.

The 2nd episode is quite boring.

I can't quite believe they'd interview a woman with dementia that is that bad once let alone twice. She had a meltdown and they interviewed her a second time like bulls in a china shop.

And I don't think Tosh can carry off being a DI, the faces the actress is pulling in this one are bad am dram stuff.

Its funny because if it was a tv series with two male characters just being "buddies" with the odd joke there probably wouldn't be the negative response.

What is bad (IMO) is that Ruth and Tosh sit round having cups of tea and biscuits, and poor old Sandy is now doing all the work because Billie seems to now be a home body.

And then when Sandy gives Ruth and Tosh the relevent info they go off and make a mess of it.

I think Tosh's back story has been weak for some time, and we just get her being tired but luckily her home husband is keeping everything going.

And Ruth, as commented earlier, it was so obvious a new love interest had been magicked up from somewhere, with all the credentials of knowing every one she knows, but somehow they dont (as yet) know each other.

I think the best bits of Duncan and Perez where the shared parenting bits.

On one level apart from criminals, Tosh and Ruth dont have much in common. Or a common bond.

Therefore the solution is that Tosh ditches Donny and she and Ruth have a baby together so they can have fun parenting scenes. (Only that would cause endless childcare issues, which is why the tv series aged Cassie in the first place, so maybe Donny should move in with them to help out…)

Or Tosh could have an affair with Ruth’s minister brother. Or the Fiscal? Is he Harry or was that the last one? I’ve lost track.

Ruth's brother! Totally forgot about him, and his wife - some strange story.

No wonder now Tosh and Ruth seem so ordinary.

Was last series we had Tosh realising she had grown apart from her friends.

I think now there are so many red herring plots that the main characters just dont have time to do anything other than their job.

And Sandy is always so grateful they want him.

This season’s fiscal is new right? I assume so as when he walked on scene I yelled “Fingers!” to my husband (Gavin & Stacey reference for those baffled by this).

I don't think it's because it's two females (there are many other female duos and leads), it's because it's two characters who are so predictable and one dimensional. The way they both treat Sandy is patronising, if they were two males treating a female like that it would be called sexist.