Chasing Shadows

Series with the "good guys" being unsocial and/or with special needs have recently become popular, with the Scandinavian The Bridge as evidently the most renown. Here, in Chasing Shadows, the roles are reversed: the male lead DS Sean Stone (remarkably performed by Reece Shearsmith, whom I have not knowingly seen/noticed before) is the one who has serious communication issues, and the others, including Ruth Hattersley (nicely depicted by Alex Kingston) have to deal with and tolerate him for the sake of solving serious crimes.

Despite the fact that being rude to women is not pleasant to follow and my hesitations whether the British police can afford such a non-team player, the plots have been smoothly designed, the leading characters are not always right, the endings have nice twists, and the concrete person at fault is not revealed too soon. I would like to see more with these characters; the Episode 4 somehow promised a sequel, but no more episodes until now (1-4 were aired in September 2014).

So many others have described in depth the pros, plot and very "real" characters in this enjoyable and unusual police drama. It doesn't fit into the usual mold of a "cosy" detective show like Midsommer Murders, Miss Marple or Shakespeare and Hathaway but nor does it have the more realistic bite of something like Inspector Frost, Morse or Lewis. It's certainly NOT Luther. It is refreshingly in its own genre and I grew to invest in all the characters who were superbly acted and very "real". I enjoyed the 2 plot lines as they neither too complicated nor too easy to guess. I really enjoyed the "maid's" character and feel terribly cheated by what will never be a resolved cliffhanger. Bad form, ITV, for cancelling the show.

Detective Sergeant Stone is a complex figure, after upsetting the powers that be, he is moved off to The Missing Person's unit, where civilian colleague Ruth awaits.

What a shirt sighted decision by ITV to axe this after just one series. It is compelling viewing, great writing, intelligent cases, and genuinely terrific performances. We were left with a terrific story to tell.

Stone is a fascinating character, from his walk to his blunt honesty. Ruth is equally interesting, sweet, sharp, with a mean punch.

I wonder if this perhaps inspired Unforgotten, it has a similar vibe to it.

It deserved better, 9/10.

Interesting premise, fine performances. I have no idea why ITV cancelled this series after only 4 episodes, and on a cliffhanger, at that. The user ratings for this are all between 7 and 8. The show never missed a beat, was entirely plausible and the audience became invested in the characters, which made the last, unresolved, missing person especially heartbreaking. This was a missed opportunity ITV. I give this series an 8 (great) out of 10. {Police Procedural with a twist}. Just a side note for Whovians, two of the principal players were Mickey Smith (2005-2010) and River Song (2008-2017).

'Chasing Shadows' is a new crime drama starring Reece Shearsmith (The league of gentlemen) and Alex Kingston (Doctor Who) based around the missing persons unit.

Reece plays Ds Sean Stone, a detective who has little trouble working with the people around him and who needs to hire someone to remind him to eat, clean his clothes etc.. but other then that he has a brilliant mind and is always focused on the case. After having embarrassed the station during a live TV interview, he his reassigned a new partner Ruth Hattersley played by Alex Kingston how is recently divorced and is now back living with her mother as well as having a son who takes too much interest in her work for her liking.

Reece is exceptional, playing Sean must have been one of his most difficult roles as he has to try to avoid natural acting instincts like looking people in the eye. At points you want to slap him and other times you want to give him a hug.

'Chasing Shadows' is gripping, intelligent, funny and worthy of a second season, trust me you'll want another after watching the final episode.