5/5 Helen Mirren Nails A+ Mystery Series
  by carol irvin (United States)
I have been watching Helen Mirren since the early 1970s in movies. I have never seen her in anything where she did not render a terrific performance. She has always been sexy without being movie star glamorous too which has served her really well as an actress as she has moved into older age herself. No one is sighing over her as a lost great beauty.

This is one of her very best roles, as the detective in charge of mostly male cops who do not want a female in charge. That bias ebbs away as each series progresses because she solves her cases and results count. She solves murder cases, often very similar to the ones that her male counterparts solve in the British mysteries.

One aspect of this series that I really like is often the guest star criminal is someone who plays especially well as a foil for a female supervising detective.

Like virtually every other detectives we watch in the UK mystery series, her personal life is a complete mess too. She drifts in and out of relationships but it is obvious that she will end up just like her male colleagues in the other series, alone. She is as vulnerable in her personal life as she is Morse-like in her detecting life. I do think if you are going to compare her to a male detective, Morse may be the closest although she is not as educated as he is.

I thought these were based on novels but they are not. They were written for television by a woman, LaPlante. I wanted to read the novels after finishing the series and discovered there were no novels.

This could make an especially splendid christmas gift for someone.

5/5 Prime Suspect: unique
  by Roberta G. Dias (RJ, Brazil)
Absolutelly fantastic. "Prime Suspect" is unique, in one word. And it works on my DVD player (Region 4).

5/5 She may not be the Queen but...
  by Anne Parker (ellensburg, was)
Helen Mirren's character does not like to be called 'Mum' --"I'm not the bloody Queen." This tongue in cheek irony with her oscar winning role does not bely the fact that she is the queen of the police station, as well as perhaps of acting.

She's beautiful and glowing, so we believe the serial romances. She's tough and unrelenting, and we see her go toe to toe with any man, armed or not. When she goes home to an empty apartment with lean cuisine and a bottle of wine, the audience can palpably feel the loneliness of this character. She's vulnerable and she's professional. This great portrayal is enough reason to watch the show.

However, great writing, incredible ensemble cast and characterizations, and an unswerving commitment to realism have simply ruined nearly all other television and movies for me.

Instead of manipulating the audience, this show truly lets us in to Jane's life, good, bad, lonely, or triumphant. It is some of the best 22 hours I have ever spent.

2/5 A Murder Mystery with a Hidden Agenda
  by Acute Observer (North Jersey Shore)
Prime Suspect 1

This 1991 film begins at night when cars drive down the street. The police arrive to see the body of a young woman. She has been dead for 1 to 2 hours [but her blood is not black and clotted].A small black book is given to the detective in charge, John Shefford. The blood type is analyzed from the fluid. There is a match on the computer to a man recently released from prison for a rape. George Marlow is arrested and interrogated. [The personal life of Jane Tennison pads out the story.] The lead detective has a heart attack; who will replace him? DCI Tennison wants what she should have. The victim was incorrectly identified as Della Mornay so the body must be identified from the missing persons report. [Does all that smoking have symbolism?] The details of the crime are explicit; the victims were tortured before death.

The policemen resent their first woman detective [a subplot]. The victim was identified (Karen Howard). Her boyfriend knows nothing since they broke up. Suspect Marlow is released for lack of evidence. Then another victim is found, this is Della Mornay who rented the small flat. Where are the missing pages from Della's diary? The same torture marks as on Karen. DCI Tennison goes on live TV to get witnesses or find the missing car. Someone calls in as a witness, but identifies another man. The investigation goes on. [There is more padding to fill up time.] Tennison discovers something while working late and goes to Oldham. Re-interviewing witnesses finds a new fact taht wasn't in the reports. Is there another suspect? But Tennison may be off the case. What is the connection between the victims? An assistant notices a connection. Moira is brought in for questioning. Will she talk? When George and Moira leave their flat they are followed by the police. There is a shocking discovery! [Now you know how it will end.] There is an arrest of a suspect for the six murders. Questioning continues until an emotional outburst and a final admission. The courtroom scene will have a final surprise.

This is an interesting story in spite of the padding and interpersonal conflicts. I suspect Moira knew more that what she told. The hidden agenda is to show the police biased against a female chief detective. We don't know how true this is in England or other European countries. The suspect seems to hold a low-paying job but can afford to rent a large garage and let someone else hold the key. The one redeeming value of this film is its display of urban scenery. Was the cast larger than necessary?



4/5 Made me want to hurl things at the screen
  by Smeddley
This is one of those series that I hated, but not because it wasn't good. In fact, I'm pretty sure that annoyance was one of the things the producers were aiming for. Unlike other mysteries with women leads (Blue Murder and Murder in Suburbia, to name two), DCI Jane Tennison is not accepted as head of the investigation when she takes over. The police force is still very sexist, and the show highlights this at every turn. It's infuriating to watch, though probably still very true of many places today. So perhaps it's a little preachy, teaching the lesson of equality and all, but it's good that it's out there to show what it was like for women trying to climb into a man's world, and not sugar-coating it.

The mystery itself was very well done. It'll have you second-guessing your second-guesses, and there are plenty of false leads and mis-information. My only complaint is not as much with the show as it is with the CDs. All four episodes are the same story, and I don't understand why they wouldn't have fit on one disk. It would have been better to have all four episodes on the first disk, so you could just play it all the way through, and all the extras on the other disk, to watch if you wanted. Instead they have two episodes and some special features on each disk. A minor annoyance, and I didn't deduct from the rating for it, but it was something I disliked.

If you like gritty police crime dramas, this is a show for you. It's outspoken and doesn't pull any punches.