Series 6 of Shetland offers up more of the same top-quality Nordic noir and gives us quite the sting in the tail
“I know Galbraith was only doing his job”
For the first time, Series 6 of Shetland brings back characters from a previous series which, when you think about it, is quite a good idea given how the limited population of the isles means that everyone should probably appear in every series, such is the intimacy there. But it is TV rules, and the return of murderous Donna Killick, released from prison on compassionate grounds so she can die from cancer at home offers a nagging subplot to accompany the main crime at play here, until breaking late to steal the air from everything in the final minutes.
That main crime starts with the shooting of local lawyer Alex Galbraith on his front door step and an investigation of his recent caseload reveals all sorts of leads. He was responsible for Killick being released, a recent custody battle has turned nasty, there’s drug investigations and any number of historical cases with disgruntled people involved. Plus, his wife Eve is running for election in an upcoming by-election. It turns out that a local pipeline worker might have caught the shooting on his drone but after he gets killed by decompression on his dive boat, once again it appears that the case stretches further than anyone thought.
Running alongside all this is a more overtly interlinked personal storyline for several of the characters. That initial shooting takes places on the same day as Jimmy’s mother’s funeral and his belated discovery of his father’s struggle with dementia. Jimmy moves him into his house but is unprepared for how much care he needs, folding Duncan into the increasing mess of trying to look after his father, whilst Duncan is getting enmeshed once again with Donna against everyone’s better advice, punishment having softened none of her edges. Sandy puts his lovelorn foot in it once again, as he tries to help Kate as she bristles at the return of her sister’s killer.
Overall, it is another powerful series. The multi-layered, far-reaching plotting is par for the course now but is still effectively done with wayward nuns, PTSD-suffering ex-soldiers, long-missing daughters and more creating a heady mix. The real jaw-dropper comes with the manipulative Donna though, and where she manages to lure Duncan, and by extension, Jimmy in a shocking climax that looks to have severe consequences for the next series, particularly if Anneika Rose’s new fiscal – much less prepared to accept Jimmy’s lax approach to being managed – also hangs around.
