# Tin Star (2017)

> An expat British police chief tries to protect his family and the idyllic town of Little Big Bear as an oil boom brings crime and drugs to its doorstep.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/61556

## Facts

- Seasons: 3
- Episodes: 25
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, drama
- Created by: Rowan Joffé
- Network: Sky Atlantic
- Cast: Tim Roth, Genevieve O'Reilly, Abigail Lawrie, Christina Hendricks, Christopher Heyerdahl, Oliver Coopersmith, Ian Puleston-Davies, Ryan Kennedy
- TMDB rating: 7.2/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4607112/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: tense, gritty, bleak, paranoid, atmospheric

## What critics say

Audiences rate the series positively overall, with a gripping first season that loses momentum in later seasons.

## Synopsis

Tin Star (2017-2020) is a British-Canadian crime drama series created by Rowan Joffé for Sky Atlantic. Tim Roth plays Jim Worth, an expat British police officer who takes the job of police chief in Little Big Bear, an idyllic town near the Rocky Mountains, bringing his wife Angela Worth (Genevieve O'Reilly) and daughter Anna Worth (Abigail Lawrie) with him. His new life is upended when a massive oil refinery draws migrant workers into the town and a wave of drugs, prostitution and organised crime threatens to overwhelm everything he has tried to build. Across three seasons and twenty-five episodes, the series follows Jim as he struggles to hold back the rot while his family's safety hangs in the balance, with Christina Hendricks and Christopher Heyerdahl among the principal cast. The storytelling is serialized, with hour-long episodes that build sustained tension and a sense of a community losing its footing. Its tone is tense and gritty, with a bleak undercurrent and an atmosphere of paranoia about who can be trusted. Fans of Longmire, Breaking Bad and The Wire will find resonance in its frontier crime, its morally strained protagonist and its portrait of institutional pressure.

## Shows like Tin Star

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- [Longmire (2012)](https://ember.film/tv/39938)
- [Fortitude (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/54693)
- [Murder in a Small Town (2024)](https://ember.film/tv/157870)
- [The Responder (2022)](https://ember.film/tv/117829)
- [Top of the Lake (2013)](https://ember.film/tv/42254)
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