Chasing Shadows

Produced by Britain's ITV and shown stateside on Acorn TV, this four-part crime drama stars Reece Shearsmith as DS Sean Stone, a detective defined in the press notes as a “socially inept genius.” It is difficult to determine whether Stone has some form of autism or Asperger syndrome or whether he is just rude to the point of cluelessness, but his unsettling behavior manages to get him banished to Missing Persons Bureau, where he is teamed with analyst Ruth Hattersley (Alex Kingston), who has some initial problems dealing with her new oddball partner. Indeed, Ruth confides in her mother that Stone is “as close to an actual psycho as you can get”—and his lack of sympathy towards the parents of missing children creates more than a little embarrassment. But, not surprisingly, the pair play off each other well in solving crimes. Shearsmith is certainly a versatile performer, but here his character is so poorly defined that his behavior comes across as antisocial and rather nasty. And it also doesn't help that the crime plots have a connect-the-dots structure with a bit of a been-there/done-that vibe. Still, this British crime series is likely to be appreciated by Anglophiles, and should be considered a strong optional purchase. (P. Hall)