The first series of Sherwood was excellent, but unfortunately the second one is not up to the same standard.
It's set in the same part of the country, but much closer to the present day, dealing with more current issues.
One problem with it is that (unlike the first series) there's no mystery. It's not a whodunnit. The gruesome murders are shown in full so you know who killed who.
The second problem is that many aspects of the story just aren't plausible. The behaviour of the characters is not consistent, especially the young woman who goes along with something that she would never do in episode 2. Also there's a bizarre coincidence that the hunter and the hunted just happen to go to the same place and even the same cafe on the same day. And suppose the police wanted to hide away two black people somewhere that they would blend in and not be noticed, where would they place them? Rural Lincolnshire?? There's an unexpected twist at the end of episode 2, but again it's ridiculously unbelievable, so at that point I gave up.
Despite all this, the performances are brilliant, from all the cast. If you think of Monica Dolan as the comical cuddly Welsh lady from W1A, then I'm not being funny or anything, but her character in Sherwood will come as quite a shock.
