Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10
Cast: Alison O’ Donnell, Ashley Jensen, Steve Robertson, Lewis Howden, Anne Kidd, Angus Miller, Steve Miller, Ian Hart, Tibu Fortes, Stuart Campbell, Sarah MacGillivray, Jacob Ferguson, Robert Jack, Vincent Regan, Ross Anderson, Macleod Stephen, Tara Lee, Johannes Lassen, Nathalie Merchant, Ines Høysæter Asserson, Leroy Boone.
Murder is a puzzle that requires the kind of response that would not be out of the realm of solving for those with an analytical mind, it is not for the faint-hearted to place their oars in the murky waters of deceit, jealousy, and fear that can be the causes of the taking of a life, indeed some homicides are such that the investigator could be forgiven that their insights in the human mind that has committed the most heinous of crimes are on the scale of those who work for the security forces, the kind of people to whom death is an absolution of keeping the country safe and not a killing of an otherwise innocent person.
Many is the puzzle that requires solving, and quite often we focus on the wrong question in an effort to explain and unscramble the reasons why; and yet we become embroiled in a case that is decided by our own prejudices, and often our first instincts, especially when it is someone we know well, is wrong.
This is the situation facing the dogged ability of Shetland’s police force, and one to whom DI Alison McIntosh finds that impinges greatly on her social life away from the case as friends become suspects, as long-standing links face consequences that might never be repaired.
The ninth series of Shetland unpicks the idea of guilt by association and the notion of control with a kick of reality, and whilst the narrative marries the two scenarios together, at times it feels cumbersome, almost forced, and one that regrettably could have tightened down to four episodes and losing some of the aspects of casting suspicion altogether.
The other issue with the latest series’ that has come the way of the fan is that the gelling of personalities of the two D.I.s has of yet refused to materialise, and the pertinent question that crowds the armchair detective more than solving a particularly shocking murder is that of why there are two ranking officers on call in a small community aside from television aesthetics. It is a bear that bugs and detracts in part from the unfolding investigation to which the fan has invested almost a decade of devotion towards.
In a world of covering up secrets, the team have their work cut out for them, but it is one that truly could have been shortened and given greater emphasis on the reveal of the reasons why.
Ian D. Hall