The popular drama has recently seen John Simm reprise his role as DS Roy Grace for its fourth season.
Its storyline is based on Peter James's bestselling Detective Superintendent Roy Grace books, but as the second episode of the latest series aired, fans were left raging, accusing the writers of straying too far from the book's plot.
Sunday's third episode saw DS Grace and the team investigating the disappearance of young girl Logan Somerville.
Grace and Branson were thrown into their most intense case yet when workers digging up a path in Brighton unearthed a discovery of skeletal remains.
Meanwhile, across the city, Logan was taken in the middle of the day.
With no witnesses and no sign of who took her, DS Grace started to suspect whether the victim's fiancé could be lying to the police.
As Logan was trapped in a dark coffin-like box, Viewers flocked to social media to share their thoughts on the 'terrifying' scenes.
One viewer penned: ''I’m no prude, but this is a bit grim for the 8-9pm pre-watershed hour.'
'#Grace is petrifyyng (sic) tonight.'
'This is terrifying #Grace'
'Off, now. Too nasty.'
'I've never watched #Grace before. Is it always this violent?'
And this is not the first time the show has been heavily criticised.
Viewers branded the drama an 'absolute mess' just minutes into its first return episode.
Fans of the show slammed ITV for totally changing the plot as the eagerly awaited comeback failed to live up to viewer expectations.
The first episode of season four opened with a man found in a nun's habit and restrained to a metal railing on Brighton Beach.
When Roy arrived at the scene with DS Glen Branson - played by Richie Campbell - they predicted the victim had died by drowning following a visual examination.
A Death In Sheep's Milk
A pathology test later revealed that very strange circumstances caused the man's death - he had drowned in sheep's milk.
Flocking to X, formerly known as Twitter, fans of the show shared their disappointment in the latest episode.
'#Grace weird this conversation between the women having no crossover with the main plot at all.'
'This is an absolute mess. There is artistic licence to make a TV drama but this has no correlation to the book! #Grace.'
'I wonder why they totally change the plot.#Grace'
'#Grace It's nowt like the book. I want Bryce and Red'
'This one's totally different to the book isn't it. John Simm said it was but…'
An official synopsis from ITV reads: 'The first film in the new series is called Dead Man's Time. A vicious robbery at a secluded Brighton home, draws Grace and Branson into a puzzling enquiry when thousands of pounds worth of beautiful antiques are stolen from the house.
'As Grace digs deeper into this mysterious crime, he unearths a web of ancient grudges - a web which leads him down a dark, murderous trail through the world of Brighton antiques, in a race against the clock, to untangle who is at the heart of this robbery, and bring Gavin Daly the answers he has been desperately chasing for many years.
'In episode two, Want You Dead, Grace and Branson investigate a case where nothing is truly as it first appears. When an unidentified victim is found dead in curious circumstances, the post mortem reveals more questions than it does answers.
'As Grace works to identify the body, hoping this might provide some crucial clue as to the killer's motive, he soon has another death on his hands when a second victim shows up in central Brighton, discovered in similarly bizarre circumstances.'
The Latest Episode
Season four began on Sunday, September 1, 2024, at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
The remaining three episodes are scheduled to follow on subsequent Sundays.
