BBC Scotland’s Rebus, the 6-part detective thriller premiering September 25, 2025, has thundered into view with a 95% Rotten Tomatoes score, plunging viewers into Edinburgh and Glasgow’s grimy underbelly where DI John Rebus (Richard Rankin, Outlander‘s Jamie Fraser reimagined as a rumpled rum-runner) grapples with a tortured past and no-nonsense methods in a “grittier, darker” dive that’s outshining Shetland’s chill with its “100x more addictive” pulse. Adapted from Ian Rankin’s iconic novels by Gregory Burke (The Ferryman), and directed by Shetland‘s Lee Haven Jones, the series—filmed in Scotland’s shadowy streets from January to July 2025—stars Rankin as the chain-smoking cynic whose probe into a drug lord’s disappearance unravels a web of corruption where high-powered lawyers launder sins and police tread on eggshells. “It’s Shetland’s soul with a sharper shank – moral mazes meet mayhem,” Burke tells Radio Times, his script a scalpel slicing through the “outstanding” opacity of urban shadows.
The saga’s sinister surge? Spellbinding: Episode 1’s “The Long Shadow” thrusts Rebus into the fray, a missing dealer’s body fished from the Forth with a lawyer’s card clutched in rigor, pulling him into a conspiracy where colleagues conceal crimes and family feuds fester. Rankin’s Rebus? A “masterclass in menace,” his wry wit warping to weary watchfulness, unraveling a ripple of regrets where a sister’s “suicide” surfaces as sabotage. Co-stars carve the chaos: Siobhan Finneran as the “suspicious superior” with a sting, Tom Burke as the “haunted handler” with a grudge, and Indira Varma as the “calculating” colleague with secrets. Burke’s script quivers with quips – “The Forth keeps what the Forth kills” – but the “brutal” brutality bites: A botched back-alley burial buries a body, a VVIP viper’s venom turns ally to assassin.
The “grittier than Shetland”? Seismic: Burke’s adaptation amps the “pacy” probe with “spooky” soundscapes and “authentic” accents, Jones’s direction a “gripping” gasp of “grim themes” in Glasgow’s “eerie charm.” The Guardian‘s Lucy Mangan raves “very well-made, pacy drama” with Rankin’s “reliably likeable” levity; The Independent‘s Ed Power hails Finneran’s “Icily Glamorous” iciness and the “understated and spooky” score. Evening Standard‘s Vicky Jessop praises the “overall confidence, style and authenticity.” Skeptics? “Mired in modernity,” but the 1-in-2 clue-to-cliff ratio hooks, BARB metrics outgunning The Jetty.
This isn’t whodunit wallpaper; it’s a web-weaving whirlwind, Rebus‘s rebus a requiem for the righteous where streets sin and sleuths suffer. Rebus’s resolve? Relentless. The underworld’s underbelly? Unforgiving. September 25? Not a drop – a deluge. Binge it; the disappearances disturb, the deceptions devastate. Rankin’s rumination? Riveting. The obsession? Overnight, inescapable.
