One if by Land, Two if by Sea

I always tell my students that there are no new stories, simply various perspectives on a handful of premises. Most of them gasp, think I am nuts, and wonder why, then, should they bother studying our craft. Their doubt is usually assuaged when I bring up Star Wars, The Matrix, Harry Potter, and now Dune. (I did used to mention the 1984 Dune, but no one remembers that one much). I will end the presentation asking which one of them will have the next great take on the messiah story? It really gets the discussion going. At some point the question comes up, "how much can you borrow from another story?" My answer is nothing, it needs to be your own, but there are varying legal precedents for how much one can have similarities with another entity considering my earlier comment about their being nothing new really.

Which brings me to two TV series I have recently watched. ITV's "Shetland" (available on Amazon Prime's Britbox) and BBC One's "Wallander," (also available on Amazon's Britbox). Both series are based on crime/mystery works, the first on a series of novels by British author Anne Cleeves chronicling cases in the Shetland Islands handled by DI Jimmy Perez of the Scottish Police Authority. The second series, written by Swedish author Henning Mankell, follows police inspector Kurt Wallander of the Swedish Police Authority in Ystad, Sweden as he solves a series of cases. In all honestly, I have not read either series, but the television shows have piqued my interest in the books.

I highly recommend both television series, ITV and BBC One have created excellent visual stories here. The Shetland series initially is based on first three books in Cleeve's series, and the remaining episodes/seasons are very well written and executed stories by the production writers. Wallander follows a similar pattern, but the first two seasons are adapted directly from Mankell's work, whereas Shetland it's only the first three episodes. Not only are the adaptations well crafted, but the original screenplays for each series are really well done. On top of that, and I have found this of many British television series, the cinematography and editing are superb. The last few seasons of Shetland I had to binge watch... not sure that's healthy. Be warned, they are fairly dark, my wife finds them unpleasant to watch just prior to bed, she needs time to wind down after an episode. 

In the grand scheme of things, the English version of "Wallander," (There is a Swedish version), aired from 2008 to 2016, although there was a four-year gap between the third and the fourth seasons. "Shetland" first aired in 2013. It's still running, although the titular character has changed as Henshall left the show after season 7. I watched Shetland first, saw an ad for it and recognized the actor in the title role, Douglas Henshall. I had seen him in something before and was intrigued. I wasn't disappointed. As I finished the series, Amazon suggested I watch "Wallander" as a good follow up.

Here's the big conundrum, I wasn't sure I wanted to. I was into "Shetland," a lot. It boasts extremely well written Scottish dialog. I have taught a few courses on acting with particular dialects over the years, and Scottish is one that is really tough to master. The "Shetland" series has such robust dialog, I think one could pick up the nuances of the Scottish accent quickly just from watching one season. And the dialog really sucked my wife and I into the show. The cinematography is beautiful. The establishing shots, aerial shots, tracking shots, all really give a mystical, foreboding, yet entreating feel for the Shetland Islands. To be honest, my wife and I looked at real estate on Shetland after watching. If I only had the money. 

It is cut really well. The editing is spot on. Cutting is really the last piece of the filmmaking puzzle, (well maybe sound design, which is also really good with "Shetland"). When making a move or tv series, editing is such crucial part of the language as a whole. You can have the greatest director of photography shoot your film, and a poor editor can destroy it, but I have seen mediocre cinematography cut well enough to watch. Whoever cut this series has you moving through the show as if you were in it. Henshall does such a good job with the titular character, I couldn't watch season 8 because I hated to see him go, but I felt like it was the right move. That may be a spoiler, but it won't take away from your experience. 

With all of that said, I watched "Wallander" because I felt withdrawal symptoms. Now that I have, I feel like "Shetland" was really just "Wallander" in Scotland. There are some slight differences in character. Kenneth Branagh pays the titular role, Kurt Wallander, in this series. He wears the character's emotion much more on his sleeve than Henshall did with Jimmy Perez. There are moments where Branagh's performance really connects you with what is going on inside Wallander's head. It made certain moments in this series really take my breath away. I am not knocking Henshall's performance either. I think he played Jimmy Perez in a way that made the audience relate to him the way his team, daughter, and family related; distant, closed off, with glimpses of feeling. It worked well. Barring that, oh, and the Scottish accent part, "Wallander" is almost identical. The plots are eerily similar. Not all of the "Wallander" episodes relate directly to "Shetland," but I feel like the latter's episodes, once they moved on from Anne Cleeves' stories, are very, very, close to plot lines in "Wallander."

Then we come to the visual elements of the story. The cinematography is almost identical. Establishing shots of the water, the farmlands around the Swedish town of Ystad. Aerials of the similar locales. Ships and ferries coming in and going out to sea. The solitary moments of long drives, both in Volvo station wagons, well until season 8 of Shetland. (Perez' car changes to an Audi in season 7). Wide shots of the main character alone in an isolated area. The cutting, very much the same. The color palette, similar. The music and sound design, very similar. Okay, so what am I saying? Both are crime/murder series, both are set in locales impacted directly by the sea. Shouldn't they be that similar? I am not sure, but I really felt like the creative team for "Shetland" must have watched "Wallander" before beginning production. They say mimicry is the best form of flattery. I need to chew on that for a while. I try to teach my students to learn from the masters, but to make things their own. But in the here and now, I say watch both of these TV series. Maybe give yourself a few months in between, but I do not think you will be disappointed.