Truly Dreadful Film

Excellent, a Must See

Excellent but underrated film

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

This decade alone has seen so many great British crime/detective (mini)series that it has been difficult to keep track, but thanks to IMDB and Wiki, it is possible to look for references and like-minded works. I have to say I had never heard of The Shadow Line before - thus I began to watch it this Month only, with episodes in succession, of course.Well, I can´t say I was very pleased with the first episode as it did not let me think of so many different levels, intertwines and twists I could see later on... I was pleasantly suprised about Rafe Spall´s performance, but Stephen Rea was not visible yet - and when he appeared, then the thrilling pace enhanced and I could admire Mr Rea´s talent again (in my opinion, many "more supporting" actors excel the "more leading" ones a bit). I became very eager to wait what would happen next, how and if the things proceed and what would be the outcome of this complex mess without really good characters... So, the final episode included additional surprises and the ending scenes differ greatly from usual round-ups of crime series. All in all, well done, similar quality as Line of Duty or Luther... Again, I have some doubts regarding plausibility (what about such links in an EU/NATO country police force) but as all this was depicted in a thrilling and fluent manner, then I just let me carry off with the events and witty solutions.

This series get me really thrilled, the plot is very well done and the production high values is top notch, I will look forward works from this director again,I bumped into this series after watch another masterpiece series Sherlock, so in the first minutes I start watching I know that is going to be a top notch series, I always like crime series and this series is very depht and the performance is brilliant the characters were superb, I was very sticky to the series to the very end, and the ending is unconventional damn good, and I don't know but I didn't want to end the series, because is a great miniseries just 7 episodes but very well directed and as I said the plot is very wit.

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.

**** Spoilers **** I watched the whole series, all 7 episodes and I understood it all, nothing here too hard to understand. This show has been compared to The Wire. Very unfortunate since such a contrast shows this series flaws. The Wire was realistic the events believable. You felt these things *could* happen in this world and did. I don't think The Shadow Line aspires to this. All the events and corruption, betrayal for a police pension? I was as incredulous as Jonah Gabriel when he asked the former cop on the boat if he was actually disguising all that corruption for altruism.Most of the acting was good. Most of the story was good but I never just look at that. I look at the overall plot and the effect the series will have on the world. Is the overall plot believable? No. Is this a warning of what could really happen in the world? Of course not. This is the new millennium folks not the 70's. I have a little more faith in the police force in Britain than that. Besides if millions of dollars suddenly show up in the police pension fund someone is going to notice.The series is called the Shadow Line. a reference to the moral line the characters draw in themselves. Bad morals were well documented but the other side, the good side is almost completely absent. At the end of the series Gatehouse and Patterson ask is it so clear to draw that line? Jonah Gabriel says to Gatehouse "of course"... honestly I was waiting to hear more. Obviously the good side of "THE SHADOW LINE" is not well represented here.I don't need a happy ending, but the ending in this film was negative in the extreme.