Karen Pirie

The series, set in the university town of St Andrews, on the Fife coast, opens in 1996. A Police woman stops a student who is covered in blood; he claims that he and two friends found a seriously injured woman in the grave yard of the cathedral. When she gets there the woman is dead. The three students are detained but despite their somewhat implausible explanations there is no evidence that they committed the murder so they are released. Twenty five years later the case is still unsolved and after a 'true crime' podcaster uses it as an example of the police not caring about women the case is reopened. Wanting a woman to lead the reinvestigation they turn to DS Karen Pirie. She is teamed with DC Jason Murray. The case will see them talking to the trio of students again as well as to the victim's brothers, one of whom has a propensity for violence. As the story progresses various secrets are exposed and alibis broken; we also learn more about the victim.

When I sat down to watch this I expected it to be a standard ITV Sunday night mystery that would be wrapped up in one two hour episode; as the end of the first episode approached it was clear that wouldn't be the case. Thoroughly gripped I was concerned that I'd now have to wait a week between episodes but thankfully all three are available on ITV Hub so I could enjoy the series over three nights. The story got off to a great start before effectively introducing key characters; most obviously the eponymous DS Pirie. She is a solid leading character; making a refreshing change from the typical older character with some sort of emotional baggage. The story progresses nicely with the events of the present being intertwined with key events from 1996. The location is good; making a refreshing change from stories set in a big city while avoiding becoming a Scottish 'Morse' which could have happening in a famous university town. The acting is impressive; I particularly liked Lauren Lyle's performance as Pirie. On the strength of this story I hope we see more of DS Pirie.

It's a good drama that has a plot that holds up for me the whole season, and this does. A good script highlighted by the small touches and lack of speeches so that it actually sounded like people talking to each other and not speaking to move the plot along. A current trope of time shifting is here too, but relevant. The acting was also down to earth without anyone trying to steal scenes. The setting of St Andrews's will add to any drama, and if anything was under used, but still played a role. The actors have experience in unflashy tv dramas and with no "stars" it was a real ensemble production and much better for it...

I was concerned, as other reviewers say, that the sound production was poor but had assumed it was my TV. But after the first episode I then settled down to watch the following two. The plot may appear a bit obvious (in hindsight). Unlike others I really liked Lauren Lyle in the lead role - in fact a welcome change from middle aged obese men. The characters were all believable and I liked the switching from current time to mid 1990s. One puzzle -- Loch Leven ? It was not the one in Fife and looked more like Loch Lomond, but could have been Loch Leven, close to Glencoe? I hope ITV will film and broadcast more of Karen Pirie stories.

I don't get it, seems like most of the reviews are written by people who's first language is English and they say it's unintelligible, I personally didn't have any problem and English is my third language, didn't find any problems with sound nor anything else that would make it hard to hear or understand what actors were saying.

Also someone wrote that the main character is too young! Too young for what exactly? To be a good policeman, to be a policeman and a woman to be in charge, sounds like some old fart has written the review, who has some issues with young women being smart, in charge and being able to do their job..

Can't also agree that it was predictable, enjoyed it quite a lot.

Sometimes I wonder what's wrong with people giving bad reviews...I guess you have excellent tv shows in your country and you don't have to watch all the garbage that netflix has to serve.

No this is not another Shetland. Nor inspector Morse, Vera or any other show that has been on tv for years. It will probably be a mini series. And I am still trying to figure out how someone claims to have seen three episodes, when only one has been aired.

Moreover, this is not a thriller. It is a crime show

I didn't notice any problems with the sound, since I 've been watching this with subtitles, but I guess there are, since enough people complained about it.

I liked the story, the characters, the actors And yes many people had home computers in 1996, but police interrogations were recorded with cameras using film. I do not remember digital cameras. Correct me if I'm wrong.