jt-35844

Loved Seasons 1 - 7 of Shetland that had it all -- a great lead/character; excellent supporting cast/characters; interesting storylines; along with natural character development woven into the stories.

But cut to Season 8, and not only did the series lose its central character, but much of the supporting elements that made the previous 7 seasons so compelling.

Doug Henshall's character of Jimmy Perez gave the series an admirable hero -- honest; committed to doing the right thing; realistic, with wisdom gained through experience; committed to his work; smart; caring; and purposeful. You wanted to see Jimmy and his team overcome challenges and succeed in solving not only their cases, but also their personal struggles.

In contrast, the Ruth Calder character is dishonest; manipulative; selfish; reckless; incompetent; and irrational/emotional. As likeable as Jimmy Perez was, is how unlikeable the Ruth Calder character is. If DI Ruth is intended as a Jimmy Perez stand-in/replacement ... it simply doesn't work ... plus she lies to Tosh! Because the DI Ruth character is so problematic, she also doesn't bond with the existing Perez team and the team dynamic that used to be so strong is gone. Ashley Jensen is receiving a lot of criticism for her portrayal, but that may be misplaced, as the DI Ruth character is truly awful and as such, she doesn't have much to work with.

Another miss was in not developing the Tosh character, who would have been the worthy and natural successor to Perez. Tosh shares the same character traits that made Perez a hero. Up to this season, the audience has watched Tosh grow under Perez's direction and it would have been interesting to watch her continued journey in taking over the team and seeing how she would develop her skills in solving complex cases.

Another miss -- the absence of Julie Graham -- although her role was generally limited, her Rhona Kelly, procurator fiscal character was smart and professional -- a memorable foil for Perez. The Harry Lamont character now fulfilling this role was in contrast, silly and annoying.

If there is a Season 9, I hope the writers return to the core characters/cast and develop them -- nurturing the seeds planted by Jimmy Perez.

If you've seen the original Louis Malle Damage, don't waste your time and have your memories "damaged" by seeing this remake. If you haven't seen the original yet, skip this version and go straight to the original -- it is stunning, shocking, and moving in a way that's hard to capture.

Of the many things this remake doesn't get right, the ending in Obsession is perhaps the most flawed and egregious. The writing goes in different direction that manages to completely lose the emotional wallop of the original storyline and marginalizes the roles for the actors in playing out the tragedy as it unfolds with the grief, loss, sorrow, and brokenness.

In the original, from the shock moment of the son's discovery of the betrayals by his father and Anna, the emotional reactions of each of the main characters are so vivid and finely etched, that years later, they still haunt. Miranda Richardson as the mother; Rupert Graves as the son; Jeremy Irons as the father; Juliette Binoche as Anna; and Leslie Caron, as Anna's mother.

Bailed on this after about 30 minutes (including fast forwarding to get past some of the vapidity in the hopes of something, anything promising) into the 1st episode where the parade of Hollywood cliches included human slaughter; animal slaughter; a black female lead using a naked white male for anatomical demonstration purposes; hideous sex; breastfeeding; and a urination scene.

It's as if the writers recognized just how completely stupid the dialog was that they'd written and how insipid the characters were, and thought, well let's toss in what we think will shock, gross-out, or titillate the audience -- maybe that will somehow cover-up for the fact that all we have here is dreck. And pretty low grade dreck at that.