With stunning work from Rakie Ayola, Series 5 maintains Shetland’s strong, if brutally grim streak
“I think there’s something bigger behind all this
Something organised”
Turns out Shetland really is a hotbed of the grimmest crime. Series 5 opens with the discovery of a severed hand on a beach and from there, spools out to a distressing tale of people trafficking, Glasgow crime gangs, firebombing, witness intimidation and bloody bloody murder. Not just that, but several of the core characters get a rough ride of it too, Sandy and poor Duncan in particular, though Jimmy’s lovelife gets a rare moment in the spotlight too.
It is deduced that the hand (and later the head and other body parts…) belong to Daniel Ugara, over from Nigeria in the hope of finding his sister Zezi. She’s been kidnapped but when members of the family Jimmy suspects of being involved are also murdered, it becomes clear that the boundaries of this case stretch way beyond the usual. This means we get trips to Glasgow (lovely to see the Kelvingrove Art Gallery) to bring in some extra help (the ace Kate Dickie) to try and crack it.
Shetland has been working its noir-ish tones hard but almost every revelation here piles grimness on top of grimness, such is the gravity and severity of the dark forces at play here. Jimmy’s blind pursuit of one aspect of the case treading on emotions; a suicide in police holding having what looks to be big ramifications; historical family neglect coming into play; Duncan being peripherally involved once again and being treated so roughly for it; even Jimmy’s potential new love interest has the minor disadvantage of being married.
Rakie Ayola is sensational as the estranged mother of the murdered Daniel and kidnapped Zezi, spikily unlikeable rather than the traditional grieving relative, her continued presence casts an unnerving sense of suspicion but also reminds us of the complexity of the human costs of such terrible criminality. Derek Riddell and Catherine Walker are also good as Chris and Alice, old friends of Jimmy and his dead wife, who wind their way into his life again, and Mark Bonnar is superb as the brow-beaten Duncan. The only potential ray of sunshine comes with the arrival of Angus Miller’s sweet Donnie who, if all is good in the world, could be a serious love interest for Tosh.
