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Chasing Shadows (2014)

2014 · Crime,Drama,Mystery · crime-procedural, crime-psychological-profiler, contemporary-realistic

Chasing Shadows poster

Chasing Shadows is a short-run British crime drama (4 episodes, ITV, 2014) built around a singular character: DS Sean Stone, a detective with strongly implied autism spectrum traits reassigned to a missing persons unit after a candid press conference embarrasses his superiors. The show's texture is warm-intelligent rather than gritty — closer to character study than thriller, with two self-contained missing persons cases carrying serialised emotional arcs. Reece Shearsmith's performance and his odd-couple dynamic with Alex Kingston's Ruth Hattersley are the gravitational centre. Reviewers describe it as funny, gripping, and emotionally investing, occupying an unusual tonal space between cosy procedural and prestige drama. Its premature cancellation on a cliffhanger is the defining note of its legacy.

From the reviewers

Reece Shearsmith's portrayal of DS Sean Stone was beautifully observed and sensitively acted.
The relationships between the characters developed and deepened throughout the episodes. I was fully absorbed and for the first time in quite a while, found myself waiting impatiently for the next episode.
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
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.
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.

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