# Shadow (2019)

> A grief-haunted ex-cop who cannot feel pain hunts criminals that Johannesburg police have failed to catch.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/74234

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 8
- Episode runtime: 42 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: crime, action
- Created by: Fred Wolmarans, Gareth Crocker
- Network: Netflix
- Cast: Pallance Dladla, Khathu Ramabulana, Amanda Du-Pont, Tumie Ngumla
- TMDB rating: 6.7/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9817236/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: brooding, tense, gritty, propulsive

## Synopsis

Shadow (2019) is a South African crime thriller series created by Fred Wolmarans and Gareth Crocker for Netflix. Pallance Dladla plays Shadow, an ex-cop haunted by a tragic loss and unusually unable to feel pain, who strikes out on his own to track down offenders who have slipped past Johannesburg police. Khathu Ramabulana, Amanda Du-Pont and Tumie Ngumla round out the principal cast as figures tied to his investigations and the city's criminal underworld. The engine of the story is simple and driven: a wounded man with a body that ignores punishment pursues dangerous targets through the streets and shadows of Johannesburg, while personal grief pulls him toward risks that a conventional officer would avoid. Each episode builds tension through confrontations and chases rather than a sprawling mythology, and the eight-episode run forms a single, self-contained story. Set in contemporary Johannesburg, the series has a gritty, rain-soaked, bruised atmosphere, with a tone that is tense, brooding and propulsive. Its action and violence are raw and direct. Fans of Daredevil and Narcos will find resonance in its outsider vigilante energy and its grounded, morally compromised crime world.

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