Upper Ground Production
  • Home
  • About
  • Links
    • Film East
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LetterBoxd
  • Home
  • About
  • Links
    • Film East
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LetterBoxd
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

20/5/2017 0 Comments

What I'm Watching... Shetland

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Shetland
BBC One
One of my favorite things about the BBC is their dedication to producing original and diverse content. Yes, I understand that they are a national broadcaster and are pretty obligated to be diverse in their programming. In America, the last thing any broadcaster would produce is a series set on a remote, isolated island where the pretty basic crime story is spanned over the course of the whole series, focusing less on the drama of the crime and more the characters and the community.

The BBC took a chance on Shetland, and it paid off. Shetland, set on the Scottish archipelago, follows Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez as he solves some unexpected crimes in the vastly underpopulated and quite islands. The three series of Shetland, based loosely on Ann Cleeve's crime novels, takes an uncharacteristic approach to the classic crime genre. The show rejects the traditional storytelling method of having a new crime every episode, and, instead, opts for spanning one crime over two episodes, or, in the case of series 3, 6 episodes. I found this style interesting, but kind of hard to grasp at first. Because the crimes are, in the large scheme of things, pretty basic, the show has a lot of room for extra material, which means the pacing of the show is quite slow. But it also means that there is a lot of room for more character development, and room for the screenwriters to allow the audience to care for the community on these small islands. I grew to love the slow pace and suspense of the Shetland series, although I did have a hard time adapting at first. I must say, series 3 was the defining series for me. The overarching story was complex, each episode was suspenseful, and the cast was on top form. After series 3, I am excited to see what comes next for D.I. Perez.

​But what I love most about Shetland is that it's unique. Yes, it is just another crime drama, but it has something special about it that really brings it life. For me, the most prominent thing about Shetland is it's setting. It was a risk for the BBC to green light a show set literally in the middle of nowhere-- would anyone watch it-- but, for me, that is what gives the show it's charm. With programs like Shetland, Hinterland, and The Fall, the BBC is showing that there is more to the United Kingdom than just London and England. And it's also giving work to British actors that aren't English and posh, which I will always support. But besides all that, it's just bloody good telly. ​
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Click the images below to read each article

    Features

    Feasting on Females: Consuming the Female Body in Mimi Cave’s Fresh
    Marmalade and Masculinity: Combating Toxic Masculinity with Paddington Bear
    The Delicious World of Miyazaki: Subverting Western Food Standards in Studio Ghibli
    Ugly, Delicious and Political: Politicising Cultural Dishes
    Representing Oslovian Women, starring ‘The Worst Person in the World’
    Culinary Temptations: Italian Cuisine in Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Desire Trilogy’
    David Bowie is... The Englishman Who Fell to Earth
    Kris Marshall | Love, Actually
    ‘Choose a name; something simple’: Names and Identities in ‘Money Heist’
    The Sad Eyes of Punk: Subverting the Rock Star in Anton Corbijn's Control
    The Ghost of David Bowie: Capturing Bowie's Cultural Legacy in Todd Haynes' Velvet Goldmine
    Re-assimilating the Other: Zombies, Mental Illness and Homosexuality in BBC Three’s In the Flesh
    Global Strangers: Existing Between Borders Film Collection
    Animation Artistry in Cartoon Saloon’s Wolfwalkers
    Riz Ahmed’s Goodbye to Britain: Confronting Identity and Self in ‘The Long Goodbye’
    Young Film Programmers and the Pandemic
    The Hugh Grant Archetype: Stereotyping British Identity
    “America’s Sweetheart”: White Female Privilege In ‘Gone Girl’
    Why a David Bowie biopic will always be doomed to fail
    Film Oddity: David Bowie and the Screen
    "Did you feel emotional the first time you drove in Sacramento?" Driving with Emotion in Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird
    A [Not-so-Distant] Dystopian Future... The Dystopian Landscape of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner
    Politics, Class and the British Home: British Class Represented in High-Rise and Brazil
    The New New Wave of British Cinema: Joanna Hogg and the Middle-Class Social Realist Film
    “I’m Irish.” – Paul Mescal Vs The British Empire
    "Karen, are you crazy?" The Women of Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas
    Crafting Insanity: Experiencing madness in Sherlock: The Lying Detective
    The Modern Greek Tragedy: Examining Yorgos Lanthimos's The Killing of a Sacred Deer through Aristotle's Poetics
    "But Wales is Britain. And Britain is Wales." Exploring British national identity in Netflix's The Crown
    David Bowie is the Englishman from Mars: An Examination of Englishness through Stardom
    Supporting the Black Lives Matters movement through cinematic education
    “Maybe That’s Normal”: The Normality of Mental Illness in Normal People
    Dance, Woman, Dance: Revisiting Jim Henson's Labyrinth
    How Social Realism Contributes to the Fetishisation of Britain’s Working Class
    Slut! The Sexual Liberation of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Women
    Time, Illness And Melancholia
    Patrick Melrose And The Trauma Of The Aristocracy
    Is A Most Popular Film Category Good For The Oscars?

    Reviews

    Toronto International Film Festival '22 | Reviews
    BFI London Film Festival 2021 | Reviews
    BFI Flare Festival 2021 | Reviews
    Norwich Film Festival 2020 | Reviews
    Raindance Film Festival 2020 | Reviews
    London Film Festival 2020 | Reviews
    Lie Low | Review
    Review: Macbeth At The Norwich Theatre Royal
    Review: La Traviata At The Norwich Theatre Royal
    A Feminist Day Out At The BFI | Woman With A Movie Camera Summit 2018

    Interviews

    Red Carpet Interviews 
    Toronto International Film Festival 2022
    Interview with Bassam Tarqi
    ​London Film Festival 2020
    Picture
    Interview with Jonathan Blagrove
    Norwich Film Festival 2020
    Interview with Jamie Weston
    Norwich Film Festival 2020
    Picture
    Interview with Stuart Laws
    Grave New World Premiere 2021

    Film East Chats Podcast on BBC Radio Norfolk

    This is a small section of episodes from the Film East podcast. Click here to listen to all episodes. 

      Contact Me! 

    Submit
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.