An interrogation of the female leads of Scottish noir

Dark and twisty investigative crime stories in brutally cold Scandinavian settings made Scandi noir a huge success in the 2010s. Scotland has embraced many elements of that genre and given birth to many TV series where the geographical sense of place is palpable. In common with its Scandinavian counterparts, in the world of Scottish noir, gender politics are arguably more progressive and accomplished women are everywhere.

This paper interrogates the way contemporary Scottish noir crime dramas represent their female or heroine characters by analysing two running shows: Shetland and Annika.

Each of these shows are being led by women as detectives in the pursuit of justice in a similar vein to the most popular Scandinavian series like The Killing and The Bridge etc. This paper explores how women are being depicted are more nuanced and complicated characters than previous TV crime show dramas.

My paper argues that Annika (Nicola Walker), Tosh McIntosh (Alison O’Donnell) and Calder (Ashley Jensen) are psychologically more complex and inherently more flawed and contradictory precisely because these textual females are being produced in a TV genre defining new rules for talking about gender politics, representation and equality.

In conclusion, Scottish noir TV series like Shetland and Annika with their feminist leanings, more contemporary gender politics and complex characters are redefining the procedural drama genre.