As series two of Sherwood begins, a news report discusses the closure of the mines. As the jobs move out, the crime moves in. There are discussions of opening a new deep mine. Julie Jackson (Lesley Manville) gets in touch with Cathy Rowley (Claire Rushbrook). Julie confirms she’s started the process of selling the house. Cathy asks if she’s going to the consultation thing on the new pit tomorrow. Julie doesn’t think her view is any more important than anyone else’s. Ryan Bottomley (Oliver Huntingdon) walks around smoking a cigarette. It appears he sells drugs to someone before he’s approached by masked men on bikes. Stephie Bottomley (Bethany Asher) and Sandy Waters (Aisling Loftus) return to Pam Bottomley (Sharlene Whyte).

Sandy admits they’re stretched so it’s been difficult to get some daytime support. When Ryan comes by to speak to Steph, Pam makes sure he leaves. Dennis Bottomley (David Harewood) tells Steph to come inside. Ryan says he can look after her every now and again. Pam doesn’t think so. Pam asks Ryan if he needs anything and says they still go to a meeting, but he keeps walking without saying anything. Daphne Sparrow (Lorraine Ashbourne), Rory (Perry Fitzpatrick), and Mickey (Philip Jackson) talk about their upcoming trick. Ronan (Bill Jones) is told this isn’t the time to go wild and throw parties. Ronan doesn’t want to help them because he has his own life now. He remembers hearing Ian talking to Daphne about being forced to do that job. Lisa Waters (Ria Zmitrowicz) speaks to the Bottomley couple and others about crime and its impact.

Pam says she and her brother are just grateful to be part of these meetings. When her husband passed, she was left with his children from his first marriage. She admits she blames herself for Ryan going off the rails. Ian St Clair (David Morrissey) goes to a meeting about the planned mine. Lisa argues they should invest in tech and science instead. Samuel Warner (Robert Emms) listens from nearby. Sandy thinks they should take a moment to congratulate Lisa on her appointment, as the county’s new Sheriff of Nottingham. As they leave, they wonder if they do too much as new moms. Lisa and Sandy kiss. Lisa speaks to Ian about the pit. Ian admits he’s not interested in it. He’s in the newspaper named as the new “anti-violence tsar”. Ian insists he didn’t slam his old force.

He says the force needs to change and he might be able to make that happen from the outside. Ian wants to talk about rebuilding the youth rehabilitation scheme. Samuel Warner shows people around the proposed site of the mine. He says the coal is there ready. Ryan looks at people through his window using a rifle scope. Ronan goes to a rink where he speaks to Rachel Crossley (Christine Bottomley). Rachel admits she didn’t know if she’d come or not but she was curious. Ryan enters and a guy nearby notices him. Ryan sits down and asks for a favor. Ronan tells Rachel that his mom doesn’t know. He shows Rachel her birth certificate and explains that’s how he found out he has a sister. Pam and Dennis take the kids metal detecting. The boy asks about Scott Rowley’s treasure. Dennis says there’s supposed to be 15 grand out there somewhere.

The boy says he’s going to find it. Samuel speaks to Lisa who is there with her new wife and new daughter. Samuel saw her speak to the council today and it seems she’s everywhere. Franklin Warner (Robert Lindsay) walks past and interrupts the conversation. Rachel wonders who her father is. Ronan mentions his dad, Mickey. He explains that they run a taxi firm. A boy nearby hears them talking about the Sparrow family. Franklin speaks to the group. He insists life is all about enterprise. In private, Franklin tells Lisa her council couldn’t afford the public money to keep this place. She argues that the rich and corporations don’t pay their taxes. Franklin talks about the jobs it will make. Lisa insists she knows, but she doesn’t think any miner was their grandson to have that job. Two people protest by throwing paint on a painting.

Rachel thinks Ronan needs something that can’t give. She gives Ronan her number. Ryan comes over and speaks to them. Another man, Nicky Branson, interrupts to tell Ryan he shouldn’t be in there with his cheap powder. Nicky ends up pushing Ryan and taking drugs from him. Ryan tells him he’s dead before he leaves. Nicky tells Rachel she shouldn’t leave. He walks her out the back instead. When Nicky opens the backdoor, Ryan is there with a gun. Nicky runs only to be shot down. Ryan approaches him and shoots him again before retrieving the drugs. Ryan leaves instead of hurting Ronan or Rachel. Ian speaks to Marco and a woman at a boxing gym. Marco talks about the gangs that still remain. The detective, DCS Harry Summers, arrives and finds identifying information for Nicky (Sam Buchanan). He speaks to Ronan who says he didn’t know Nicky.

Ronan is asked if he saw the shooter. Daphne is shocked to see police arriving at her house. Harry brings Ronan home. Daphne tells Ronan they don’t keep secrets in this family. Ronan isn’t sure about that. Harry says they’d like Ronan to identify the suspect. Mickey tells him that they’ll never help pigs. He wants Ronan to be left out of it. Rory speaks to Ronan in private. Rory knows he won’t speak to the pigs. He says they should start trusting each other more since it’ll be just them one day. Ian speaks to the Chief Constable (Jennifer Hennessy) about linking the work of the Violence Intervention Team with the police. She calls it an experiment and doesn’t see them being linked. The Chief Constable was looking for some off-the-record advice about the Branson killing. Ian reminds Jen he’s left the force. Jen thinks DCS Summers would appreciate any thoughts he has. A group of masked men shoot at Pam and Dennis’s house.

Lisa walks by and finds out what has happened. At the police station, Pam and Dennis speak to Harry. Pam insists she doesn’t know where Ryan was and they’re respectable people. Ian speaks to Harry when he leaves the interview room. Harry mentions that some of them there lost people. Ian says Harry did as well. Ian tells him what he’s trying to do. Ryan walks into the police station with a gun and says he thinks they have his sister. He drops the drunk before being detained. Ian tells Harry to get the gun bagged. Ronan is brought into the station. Harry tells Pam and Dennis what happened. They want to move them off-grid somewhere. Ronan is asked if he can identify the shooter. He immediately picks out Ryan. Dennis and the others are moved elsewhere. Ryan is taken before a magistrate and told he’ll be remanded in custody.

A boy nearby glares at him. When Ann Branson (Monica Dolan) enters, Ryan asks if she thinks the world is hers. He curses Ann and her husband. The magistrate tells the victim’s family to trust the processes of the law. Ann and Roy Branson (Stephen Dillane) visit the Sparrow family. Roy insists there are no hard feelings. He says tragedies like this put everything into perspective. Mickey claims Ronan didn’t see anything although Ann doesn’t believe it. Ann goes on forever about having to steam Roy’s food. Roy says they weren’t responsible for Pam’s house being shot up. They understand why though. Ann thinks Ryan will have it too good behind bars. They talk about the possibility of getting him in there. Ann and Roy want to speak to Ronan. Ann decides to go upstairs and speak to him despite objections from Daphne. Ian checks the Ashfield community group and looks at Julie’s page.

Ann speaks to Ronan about watching her son die. She asks Ronan if he’d be able to point out the Bottomley family if he saw them. Because of the traditions and the fact he was with Nicky, Ronan is expected to be in it with them now. She asks what he was thinking about and what his last words were. Ronan believes he said “buckle up”. Julie takes out the trash.

 

Sherwood Review

The first series of Sherwood started decently and quickly went downhill at the midway point. The second series may not even get a strong start. There are too many things wrong with the series at this point and some of those issues were carried over from the prior season. For starters, it’s untelling why this needed to be billed as a “true story” or “based on a true story”.

It may be very, very loosely based on true events, but almost every crime series can say the same. Since the first series, James Graham has taken important events and tragedies while completely altering them to fit a modern agenda. In the first series, the composition of the characters was changed. The killers were inauthentic and the masturbation motive was insanely dumb.

The real victim’s story was only used to garner attention instead of doing so respectfully. The sad death of Chanel Taylor was manipulated and twisted into an Asian man killing because he was heard listening to pornography. In the second series, any bits of the true story have been thrown in the garbage. Instead, we’re seeing just another British series with the same British tropes that have become customary. There’s nothing new here and none of it is subtle.

The same old people are being portrayed as evil monsters, corporations are evil, and only specific people are helpful. There are some seriously interesting and very important stories here, but those stories are not being told. It’s possible that the people telling the stories were only reading the newspapers and the headlines instead of being in the trenches.

As a form of entertainment, Sherwood has little to offer with pacing that’s more effective than Ambien, unlikable characters, and in-your-face agendas at every turn. The bloated cast doesn’t help matters considering more than a quarter of the scenes add nothing to the story. It’s really just the same old story using the “based on a true story” tag to lure in viewers.

Some performances could be stronger and the casting is laughably bad. This was an opportunity to tell the stories of those impacted by the mine closures, but instead most of those individuals are turned into villains. The episode scores a 4 out of 10. Recaps of Sherwood can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent work at this link.

Learn more about advertising with us here. See what others are saying here.