# Bloodlands (2021)

> A Northern Irish detective's suicide-note investigation pulls him into a cold case tied to his own buried past.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/99089

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 10
- Episode runtime: 56 min
- Status: Canceled
- Genres: crime, drama
- Created by: Chris Brandon
- Network: BBC One
- Cast: James Nesbitt, Lisa Dwan, Lorcan Cranitch, Charlene McKenna, Lola Petticrew, Chris Walley, Victoria Smurfit, Flora Montgomery
- TMDB rating: 6.7/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11285548/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: bleak, tense, gritty, brooding

## What critics say

Viewers found the cold case police thriller familiar and its sprawling subplots diluting the central tension, though James Nesbitt's lead performance was appreciated.

## Synopsis

Bloodlands (2021-2022) is a British crime drama series created by Chris Brandon for BBC One, running two seasons and ten episodes before its cancellation. James Nesbitt plays DCI Tom Brannick, a Northern Irish police officer whose investigation of a suicide note leads him into an infamous cold case carrying enormous personal weight. Charlene McKenna plays DS Niamh McGovern, a colleague drawn into the tangled inquiry, while Lorcan Cranitch appears as DCS Jackie Twomey and Lola Petticrew as Izzy Brannick, whose lives are bound up with the case. The engine of the show is a dangerous secret that refuses to stay buried: each episode threads the present-day investigation with the past that threatens to expose its lead. Its shape is a serialized crime story rather than a case of the week, built around sub plots and a central question about whether the hidden figure will be caught. The series is set in present-day Northern Ireland, where the shadow of the Troubles still shapes policing and loyalties. Its tone is bleak, tense and moody, with a grounded, gritty texture. Fans of Line of Duty, Broadchurch and The Fall will find resonance in its procedural tension and its troubled, morally compromised detective at the center of a dark investigation.

## Shows like Bloodlands

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- [Blue Murder (2003)](https://ember.film/tv/12997)
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- [We Hunt Together (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/87053)
- [Blue Lights (2023)](https://ember.film/tv/138299)
- [Dublin Murders (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/79072)
- [Murphy's Law (2001)](https://ember.film/tv/5828)
- [Dept. Q (2025)](https://ember.film/tv/161456)
- [Ellis (2024)](https://ember.film/tv/161494)

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