Shetland

We are watching Season 10 of Shetland, the murder mystery series set in those beautiful and isolated islands off the north coast of Scotland.  I don't watch many series but Mrs THC convinced me to take a look and I got hooked.

First, a reality check.  After the first few seasons, I calculated the show's murder rate and realized it was considerably worse than New York City at its peak in the early 1990s.  In the real world, Shetland has only two murders in the past 50 years. And most of the characters on the show seem depressed and/or angry.  I  hope it's not like that for real.

Having said that the mysteries are very well plotted, acting is top notch (with one exception), and the cinematography spectacular, making the islands look stunning.  The main character for the first 7 series was DI Jimmy Perez played superbly by Douglas Henshall.  When it was announced Henshall was leaving we wondered if Shetland would continue.  Season 8 kicked off with a new, and possibly temporary, lead character DI Ruth Calder, portrayed by Ashley Jensen, who I knew from the Ricky Gervais comedy Extras.  It got off to quite a rocky start, and the Mrs and I considered pulling the plug, but they got themselves straightened out by the last episode and Jensen has been very good since then, as have the plots.

But we are still not going to the Shetlands for vacation.