daggersineyes Ok I had mixed feelings all through this series but it was doing enough right for me to persevere till the end - which is a shame because the ending was ridiculous. Unlike some reviewers I saw the ending coming from miles away & I struggle to understand why others didn't. In a show like this the "telegraphing" is actually very obvious & predictable & there's something really annoying about using "plot twists" so blatantly lacking in originality.I actually tried to watch this series 3 times each time not managing to get through the opening scene which was just about the most annoying boring crime scene footage I've ever experienced. The 3rd time I skipped the first half of episode one and jumped in after all the yawn fest was safely away & tho a little confused at first I started to enjoy ep 2 and 3. This was short lived because after a significant event happened at the home of the main "good" guy it all went downhill again & got worse as it progressed starting with a highly unlikely scenario involving a bad dude in hospital. A great film critic once said that you can tell what a movie is going to be like in the first few minutes. He was correct and the same is true of a mini-series. I should have listened to my first instincts.I know this sounds like I hated it and in some ways I did so I wont be recommending it generally but if you like gloomy, "beat you over the head with how immoral we all are", nice guys always lose "reality" then you will probably enjoy it. If you don't care that no-one in the entire show is a likeable character and that they have to constantly stretch the bounds of credulity to keep the plot moving (despite a pretentious charade of being "gritty realism") then maybe you'll enjoy it. If you like your "dark" relentless, devoid of all humour & the kind of show where people don't answer questions they're asked but rather gaze mysteriously into the camera with sullen looks on their faces you'll love this.. I know the cast are capable of better but the direction is clearly abysmal because they all either act like robots or suddenly lose the plot in a ham-fisted out of proportion way that is more embarrassing than dramatic.On the plus side, the lead actor is gorgeous, the main bad dude is portrayed well and the production values are excellent. I think it just loved itself a bit too much, got carried away with it's own nonsense and lost touch with who it was intended for - ie viewers.I have no idea why it won awards, probably because of the rubbish ending - people equate endings like that with "clever realism" - I just think they're cliche and a cop out. Also perhaps they love the "monotone acting" that's meant to convey how emotionless violence is, which is interesting the first couple of times it happens but then becomes tedious the next 5,657 times.Anyway - I'm not sure that review will help but I can say there are worse shows around so it's not a complete waste of time but don't believe the hype and don't expect any decent pay off for your efforts.

kbohna The shadow line probably one of the best written Grandma crime series that you can watch it is the most impressive thing I've ever seen on television and need to see this most serious way. There's just something about this show that will blow your mind it's only a shame that we don't have more television quite like this but I'll tell you one thing if you watch this you will definitely leave a comment stating how much you love this show the show is more than the show but it is a view into what governments will go to. I just hope everyone gets a chance to watch it and it doesn't get lost in all of the other television that is out there their greatest Network that ever existed in my opinion next to Nexflix. When I say Netflix their programming is incredible and it is all definitely based buy big Hollywood production companies so you're not watching some type of show that is just made by a small budget these are actually movie written shows that could be actual movies as if that makes any sense LOL I hope everyone gets a chance to watch it and the text that I'm writing get Steam hopefully lots of times I give this show 10 stars and I know that isn't a number that they give out for TV series or even movies but this show has it all and the actor Chris Rhea is phenomenal along with all the other actors that are in the series it is only a series but yet it feels like the greatest movie you've ever watched like a bomb film on steroids and Back Again please watch but do so at your own apparel because it is that great.

Prismark10 From writer/director Hugo Blick (who also played the young Jack Napier in Batman (1989)) comes The Shadow Line a stylised crime drama.I would emphasise the word stylised as sometimes Blick goes for a look or a scene than standard drama tropes. The lines regarding right and wrong, good or bad are blurred as we encounter twists and turns as people are different from what they claim to be or as we see them first.The drama is about a murder investigated by both sides of the line. The police and criminals, he opposing methods they use to solve it. But the real line is the morality within each character and how far they will go before they cross it and the secrets they all hide.Chiwetel Ejiofor is the cop with a potentially dark past. Christopher Eccleston is the bad guy who wants to go straight and do the right thing.Stephen Rea plays a character who looks like John Le Carre's George Smiley and seems to have walked out of a spy novel, the most sinister villain of them all, Le Carre probably wishes he invented such as character.Anthony Sher is another villain who has gone into hiding and re- invented himself but gets dragged back to his old life.The generally excellent acting adds intrigue, there is always a sense of dread especially when Rea is about and some of the deaths are strange such as a man run over and ends up plastered to the motorway road sign.The rather avant-garde filming style will not suit all tastes, it also may be slow for some as Hugo Blick gives his drama plenty of time to breath and even meander.

Marius Holman Penney Honestly, I was quite shocked by the large amounts of positive praise aimed at The Shadow Line on this website. Perhaps, I was missing something, but I found this show almost completely unbearable. Only in it's final episode did it begin to show any flashes of a genuinely good show. The show just seemed unable to decide what it intended to be. It seemed to be intended as a gritty crime drama (much like the far-superior Forbrydelsen), and yet seemed largely constructed from elements that would normally go towards a self-consciously stylish and silly romp. Any attempts at genuine gritty drama were totally undermined by the daft, dim and almost-sickeningly over-the-top and 'stylised' (the sort of stylised that involves a shot looking pretty, but displaying no competence in the slightest) approach the show took. Similarly, any attempts to be fun were shattered by it's 'oh so serious this is dramatic no seriously it's horrifically dramatic and realistic and clever' attitude. If I wanted campy fun, I would get out my box-set of Adam Adamant Lives. If I wanted gritty crime drama, I would sit for 18 hours weeping in front of my box-set of Forbrydelsen. This incompetent and utterly limp attempt to fuse the two is completely skipable.