Silent Witness (TV Series) Shadows: Part 1 (2010) User Reviews

Mind blowingly brilliant episode.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 10/10 · 1 November 2015]

Nikki and Harry are called to a University, where a Biochemistry student has apparently gone to the roof top and committed suicide.

One of the best episodes in the show's history, what you think is a run of the mill investigation takes a dramatic switch in gear after twenty minutes, the like of it to my knowledge had never occurred on the show before.

The tension and sense of threat they managed to generate in this episode is insane, you literally watch it with a lump in your throat.

The moment when Harry first had an inkling of hearing a shot, and wanders out to investigate is an immensely poignant moment.

For fans of gripping and tense drama, Shadows is the gift that keeps on giving. 10/10

Looking back, I've just watched series 25, and this is still the show's standout story.

Gripping. Terrifying. Thought Provoking.

[HarrietZ · 9/10 · 28 January 2010]

SPOILERS BELOW Having just watched this episode of Silent Witness, it's impact is still very much hanging over me. Unlike other episodes I've seen, this one has minimal forensic analysis, followed by seat-gripping tension suspended throughout the rest of the episode (after a disastrous and turn of events-wrap Harry and Nicki in to the drama much more than usual).

The scenario taps very effectively into a little realised fear for a British audience - a gunman/men in an academic institution. The fear is realised by the characters too, when the dean of the university finds herself struggling to cope with a situation she never expected, and there are a lack of protocols in place to deal with such a situation.

The episode was shot and acted extremely well, the tension and fear the characters were facing easily transferred to the audience, with the warren-like structure of the university buildings creating a sense of the characters being trapped in a maze, the viewer never knowing where or when the danger might occur only intensified the situation.

For me, being so immersed in the story (which I eagerly await the conclusion of tomorrow) made it thought provoking; especially having spent time in an American university where special alarms are set up to warn students. It posed unanswerable questions of how best to react in this horrific situation - whether inside the building trying to get out safely, or outside, desperately trying to take control and keep casualties to a minimum. I have seen a couple of films on a similar genre, but neither were as compelling as this.

Gripping

[Hitchcoc · 10/10 · 29 March 2019]

We are witness to the murder of a student. While Harry and the others are investigating on a college campus, someone begins shooting at students in hallways. The carnage continues as Harry and Nikki try to do what they can. But there are two issues. First of all, why was that young man murdered? Secondly, who are the perpetrators. One of the most intense of all the shows.

Best episode to date, so gripping I was holding my breath

[siegethewriter · 10/10 · 8 March 2022]

I've been watching SW from the beginning, my late-night fix. This storyline is by far the best. I had to hit pause and leave the room twice, I was so afraid for the main characters. Incredibly gripping and very believable. I've never seen anything like this from SW before, nor have I ever seen the terrifying unfolding of a mass shooting depicted quite like this.

Gripping but flawed

[retina_scan · 7/10 · 1 January 2022]

The series embarks on to a new genre here, a type of episode that they hadn't produced before and for the most part it succeeds. The story starts and you think it'll be a typical SW episode but it turns out to be something completely different. There are some very intense moments, filmed very well (acting, sound design, camera work). The cliffhanger is great.

But it has some really unrealistic moments. In 2010, once you realise there is a shooter in the building and you're trapped in a room, surely the first thing you do is call 999? How long did it take Nikki to make the bloody phone call? Later, when Leo tries to call them, the network is down. Really? In a university area in central London? ('LSSE'). You would have thought that this would be the case if everyone was trying to make a phone call but we see no single person doing that, apart from Nikki. You can only suspend disbelief so far....

Shadows

[phelix-josie · 5/10 · 17 March 2020]

This episode came out in 2010. Was it really impossible to turn down/off your phone's sounds in that remote antediluvian epoc?

Is British "active shooter" response training so far behind the US? Even common sense would dictate that, if there's a shooter and you're in a room with a lockable door, you lock the door, turn off the lights and hunker down as far away from gunshots as possible. You don't display your gloriously tossled head of hair for many many minutes ... RIGHT in front of the door's small square window.

If u hear the shooter outside, you don't sit next to the door and whisper HAS ANYONE GOT A PHONE?!!! Then proceed to call... really anyone. The two towers went down 9 years prior. Is there anyone who isn't aware that phone lines get clogged in emergencies, but text lines usually remain functional. TEXT if there's a shooter outside your door, don't blinking CALL!!! What are you Nikki? An 80yr old octopus? No thumbs?!!

Just the whole thing is ugh. This show, with its clueless, self-congratulatory, gliblipped Neo-liberals... make it a seriously questionable binge.

* I'm really not a Faux News watcher, but I'm starting to understand their contempt for smug, toothless good intentions.