Scottish Crime drama, Shetland returned with a new season earlier this year without Douglas Henshall being a part of the cast anymore. Instead, the main character and mastermind behind solving each of the cases is Ruth Calder, a DI who knows how to investigate cases efficiently.
Shetland isn’t like any other police procedural series out there, as it’s based on a collection of suspenseful novels by Ann Cleeves. Set in the remote and barely inhabited lands of Shetland Isles, the story takes us through new perplexing cases that the protagonist tries to solve using every clue available.
Before season 7 of Shetland ever came out, Douglas Henshall had already revealed that this was going to be his last season on the criminal investigation series. Just as Henshall said, Shetland returned with new interesting cases along with a new protagonist.
For Shetland’s 8th season, the cast includes Ashley Jensen in the role of Ruth Calder, Alison O’Donnell as Alison McIntosh, Steven Robertson portrays Sandy Wilson, and Billy’s role is played by Lewis Holden.
Recap
Season 8 of Shetland started with a Cassidy case, where a young woman tried to rob a rich man only to get caught up in a conspiracy that was much darker and dangerous. Remis, one of the informants working for the police is found dead with a gunshot on his head.
The hints point towards a young woman named Ellen Knight, who was there with Remis to steal his money but ended up witnessing his murder by Cassidy’s hitmen. After an intense chase, Knight manages to escape to Shetland to lay low for a while.
Ruth Calder, whose hometown was Shetland, is sent back to the Island to investigate the Remis case. Tosh was already busy investigating a strange case of sheep deaths where their bodies were showing up with a pattern or symbol on them.
Ruth and Tosh find out where Ellen is, but her family prevents them from catching her. Meanwhile, Ellen gets on a bus with a bag full of money. She is secretly followed by Cassidy’s men, who steal her bag and follow her after she gets off the bus.
After running for a while, Ellen finds herself on the edge of a cliff and decides to jump off to escape one of the men. Knight doesn’t drown and returns to the surface at night time. Following this, we see that Ellen is approached by a car and is later mysteriously found dead by Calder.
Spoilers
In the upcoming episode, we’ll likely see DI Ruth Calder continue the investigation regarding the case with Cassidy and Ellen. Now that Ellen was sadly found dead in a remote location of Shetland, there’s no doubt that it was Cassidy’s men who were behind the brutal killing.
Calder is closer to catching Cassidy, although she must also deal with other problems at hand to make sure that she’s able to give the Cassidy case the priority and attentiveness it deserves.
Release Date & Where to Watch
Episode 2 of Shetland’s 8th season will be coming out on November 8th, 2023. All new intriguing episodes of Shetland are released on Wednesdays, with each episode having a run time of 59-62 minutes.
BBC One will be taking up the airing for Shetland’s 8th season, with new episodes coming out at 9:00 PM for viewers from the UK. Besides BBC One, the Shetland episodes will be available to stream through BBC iPlayer.
Viewers outside of the UK can stream episodes of Shetland through Prime Video and Apple TV, although some regions may need to use a VPN to access the newest season of Shetland.
Episode release times of Shetland in other countries:
- United States: 4:00 PM, Wednesday, November 8th, 2023.
- Japan: 6:00 AM, Wednesday, November 9th, 2023.
- Australia: 8:00 AM, Thursday, November 9th, 2023.
- Canada: 4:00 PM, Wednesday, November 8th, 2023.
- Philippines: 5:00 AM, Thursday, November 9th, 2023.
- India: 2:30 AM, Thursday, November 9th, 2023.
- Germany: 10:00 PM, Wednesday, November 8th, 2023.
Even if Douglas Henshall won’t be a part of the newest season of Shetland, the storyline and interesting cases seem to be the same as before. Douglas may not return anytime soon, but Ashley Jensen portrays the character of Ruth Calder well enough to keep the show just as entertaining and suspenseful.
