David F

Hard to know where to start. There isn't a normal conversation in the series. Everything is an angst written, profanity laced smart Alec set of conversations which have no bearing to real life, let alone any semblance of policing or criminal justice in the real world. Every cliche of the genre is dumped on the viewer. It is so bad it could be termed comedy, were it not for the gore. It blatantly robs from other plotlines in Scandi drama and the ending manages to tie everything up with a red bow and hankies, setting it up, sadly, for a second series. The people of Scotland must be writhing with embarrassment at this caricature of its police service as much as the good folk in Northern Ireland were left cringing over Blue Lights. Garbage for the masses and a waste of acting talent, which is, in itself, a who's who of Scottish actors either taking a break from,or written out of, 'Shetland' or it would appear, just glad of the work. You would need to be, to debase yourself in this production. Matthew Goode - the lead- attempts to meld his character performance in 'Leap Year' with a very bad episode of ' New Tricks'. Avoid. I watched it so you don't have to.

Hard going. Really hard going. Two people survive a plane crash in harsh winter conditions at sltitude. One is injured. They have limited food which is running out... And they have a dog. Which has no name. When all is seemingly lost after a feast of verbal angst and wandering about in freezing temperatures, they find an abandoned cabin with two tins of soup, which apparently gives them the stamina to keep going...and they have a dog - what does the dog eat, because it's always bouncing about full of energy in a metre of snow? Then they drift off into a 'Scott of the Antarctic' final sleep, only to be awoken by the wonder dog with it's boundless energy after days eating nothing, it seems to show some way out. It's not even worth mentioning the rest of this turgid clichéd mess, which of course has them falling for each other and having sex with all the energy that two tins of soup can manage - he a widower and she engaged. You know the ending. A child of ten could predict it, or write it. Awful that two really good actors should have been put through this misery for the sake of a payday. Even worse for the dog with no name, who delivered the best performance of this mess.