TV Shows Like Shetland
If you like Shetland, here are 10 similar TV shows — each with its current AI renewal verdict, so you can see which are still going and which have been cancelled.
BBC One · Crime · Shetland is likely renewed
Shetland works because of its sense of place. The islands are not just a backdrop, they are a character in themselves, shaping the way Jimmy Perez and his team operate. Everyone knows everyone. There is nowhere to hide, which makes both the crimes and their investigations feel more personal than they would in an anonymous city. The show draws much of its power from that tension between community loyalty and the need to uncover the truth, and from Perez himself, who is rooted in Shetland in a way that makes every case feel like a wound.
The best shows like Shetland
1. Midsomer Murders
Like Shetland, Midsomer Murders is rooted in the idea that a tight community is also a pressure cooker, full of old grudges and hidden relationships that eventually spill into violence. A veteran detective and his sergeant work through cases methodically, and the show trusts its setting as much as Shetland does. If you enjoy the rhythm of a good rural British crime drama, this one has it in abundance.
Stream on fuboTV, Acorn TV, AcornTV Amazon Channel, BritBox Amazon Channel
Likely Renewed97%
2. Agatha Christie's Marple
Miss Marple is an amateur detective rather than a police officer, but the dynamic she navigates, having to earn the trust of a suspicious community while the police resist her involvement, will feel familiar to Shetland viewers who enjoy the social texture around the crime. The village settings are specific and pleasingly unhurried, and the mysteries themselves are genuinely constructed rather than just implied. It is less bleak than Shetland, but the attention to character and place is just as careful.
Stream on Hulu, Britbox Apple TV Channel , PBS, Acorn TV
Ended0%
3. Vera
Vera is probably the most direct comparison to Shetland on this list. DCI Vera Stanhope is a fully realised character, prickly and driven, working a defined patch of northeast England where landscape and community are inseparable from the cases she investigates. The show does not glamorise her work or her life, which gives it the same grounded feeling that makes Shetland so watchable.
Stream on Amazon Prime Video, Britbox Apple TV Channel , BritBox, BritBox Amazon Channel
Ended0%
4. The Brokenwood Mysteries
The Brokenwood Mysteries takes the small-town-detective formula and sets it in rural New Zealand, where DI Mike Shepherd finds that nowhere is too quiet for murder. The tone is lighter than Shetland, but the show shares its interest in how well everyone in a small community knows each other, and how that cuts both ways during an investigation. A good pick if you want the community dynamics and the detective charm without the heavier emotional toll.
Stream on YouTube TV, Acorn TV, AcornTV Amazon Channel, Spectrum On Demand
Likely Renewed72%
5. Broadchurch
Broadchurch is the show on this list that comes closest to matching Shetland's emotional seriousness. The murder of a child in a small coastal town pulls apart a community in ways that feel genuinely painful, and the investigation is as much about the relationships between people as it is about finding the killer. Fans of Shetland's willingness to sit with grief and community fracture will find a lot to recognise here.
Stream on Netflix, Peacock Premium, PBS, PBS Masterpiece Amazon Channel
Ended0%
More on shows like Shetland
Fans of Shetland tend to want the same things: a detective they genuinely like spending time with, a setting that feels lived-in and specific, and plots that take their time. They are not usually looking for procedural efficiency or shock value. They want atmosphere, local texture, and crimes that grow out of who these people are and where they live. The five shows below each offer some version of that.
Midsomer Murders and Agatha Christie's Marple sit at the cosier end of the spectrum. Both are set in tight English communities where the detective's familiarity with small-town life is an asset, and both lean into the idea that even the most seemingly peaceful places have dark undercurrents. Vera is probably the closest match in tone to Shetland. DCI Vera Stanhope is as distinctively drawn as Perez, operating in a specific region of northeast England with the same kind of dogged, personally invested approach. Broadchurch shares Shetland's emotional weight and its focus on how a crime fractures a small coastal community, though it is more intense and serialised. The Brokenwood Mysteries is the lightest of the bunch, a New Zealand-set show that shares the small-town-detective premise without the darkness, and is a good pick if what you want is the community texture without the heavier drama.
None of these shows are interchangeable, and that is the point. Shetland fans who want something to hit in almost exactly the same place should start with Vera or Broadchurch. Those who want the formula in a gentler key will find Midsomer Murders reliably satisfying. And anyone curious about what the genre looks like transplanted to the Southern Hemisphere should give The Brokenwood Mysteries a try.
More shows like Shetland
Frequently asked
- What is the most popular show like Shetland?
- Midsomer Murders is the most popular show similar to Shetland in the IsItRenewed catalogue.
- Are shows like Shetland still on the air?
- Of the 10 shows similar to Shetland listed here, 0 currently carry a renewed verdict — the rest are cancelled, ended, or awaiting a decision.
- How does IsItRenewed pick shows like Shetland?
- The recommendations come from TMDB's similar-titles data, and each is shown with its current AI renewal verdict so you know which are still going.