amyovertonuk Love this programme, the actors and the scenery are brilliant!

jhfuller1996 Wasn't sure I was going to like this, it was a little slow int the beginning but I was soon hooked. I watched all the episodes in about 5 days and am non-patiently waiting for season 4 to come out!! Right up there with The Killing for me, which is probably my fav crime show!

timickle I have enjoyed this series from the start, watching it on Netflix, and it gets better and better. The third season, one long story, is a classic of the crime genre. The acting is faultless, revealing the characters with subtlety, like a slowly deepening tide. The cinematography and direction never resort to artifice and effect, yet manage to surprise us, even in the slowest moments. Above all, the script, and the novel it came from, are superb. The narrative voice, generous but suspicious, never wavers. Tiny clues are not recognized at first, but fit into place like the last pieces of a jigsaw puzzle at the end. There are plenty of misdirections and false starts, but the story is inexorable, and the conclusion is cathartic. Show, don't tell, is always good advice. People like to step into stories, barefoot as it were, and Shetland lets you do just that.

ecanarensis This is a wonderful series ...I'm watching S1 & S2 again for the 2nd time in less than a month. The writing is great, so is the acting, the characters are3-D & interesting, not from stock. The stories do share some sameness...there's a murder (maybe 2) in a small, place that's fairly isolated, in one part or other of the Shetland Isles. There's several potential suspects. The stories & mysteries are the kind that seem like what could happen in any small town, village, or big city, for that matter; the types of things that happen to real people, as opposed to dramatic, wild, over-the-top happenin's. Not as cozy as a drawing room mystery, but easy to relate to.Which is not to say they're boring. I really grew to care about the characters, & when bad thing(s) happened to one (or more)* of the regulars, it really moved me.The islands play a big part in the series; as at least one other reviewer observed, the land & sea are pretty much main characters as well as the people. Beautifully filmed in a gorgeous (if minimalist) land, the scenery makes me want to go there to get in touch with my own Scottish roots.Lovely series; I hope the Beeb has more sense than most of US TV decision-makers & keeps it up (this show wouldn't have lasted a full season on a US channel...too intelligent & classy).It occurred to me mid-way thru the second run thru that part of what I like about the characters is that the actors look like real people, rather than the plastic Barbie/Ken people that we get on US TV shows; older characters may have belly bulges or wrinkles. Most look as if they've never been near a Botox needle. There's very attractive people, and some very unattractive people. Realistic people. What a concept!Though, one silly nit-pick: why does the GP who does the forensic work for the Shetland police always shake down her electronic thermometer?*trying not to intro any spoilers