5/5 Helen Mirren inhabits this character brilliantly.
  by Anne Parker (ellensburg, was)
I finished Prime Suspect. It was great all through, and Helen Mirren is such a great actress. The last episode makes it equal to what is regarded as the best television ever done, such as the 3-d episodes of Third Rock, or the last episode of 6 feet under. Many great series fizzle at the end, which separates out the outstanding from the just-okay.

3/5 Not one of my favorite Prime Suspects
  by Almost 50 Lassie fan (IN)
I own the first five Prime Suspects. I taped this off television, and I rewatched it once. I still dislike it. In fairness, Mirren is her usual (for the past 15 years or so, anyway) supurb self. I love what she does with Jane in any of the Prime Suspects. The other actors also did a fine job. I also liked that Jane's career started with Bill Otley(sp?) and ends with him, basically, taking a bullet for her. That made sense; despite their conflicts, he was that kind of cop. (I believe the actor playing was dying even then, but I may be wrong on that.) What I did NOT like was Mirren (and as I understand it, she had a signifigant say in the storyline) and the writers deciding to make Jane an alcoholic; further, one so out of control she shows up at work and around interviewees drunk! Why is it when a successful, once ambitious, single woman decides to retire, she has to have SOME addiction????? It's a cliche I am heartily sick of! I also felt the general storyline--in terms of the crime involved, I mean--was not nearly as interesting as Marlowe in Prime Suspect 1 or the Prime Suspect about the child pedophile ring (the one with Cieran Hinds as Edward Parker Jones).

5/5 One of the strongest portrayals of a female detective on television
  by R. Kyle (USA)
Det. Superintendent Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren) starts her morning with vodka she can barely swallow. Then, she goes to work to discover a 14 year old girl, Sallie Sturdy, is missing.

Tennison's furious no one called her, but they did. She can't remember.

As the case progresses, so does Tennison's dealing with her alcoholism, impending retirement, and the death of her father. Her superiors want her to leave the force, go into rehab, but she is determined to find Sallie's killer before she does.

The story's riveting and as you can imagine, Mirren's acting is just spot on. Well worth watching and owning.

Rebecca Kyle, February 2009

5/5 If not the best, close to it.
  by From Elder
This one will not lift you up. It's not a feel-good movie, but it IS a feel-real one. Of the whole series, it is the only one with decent extras - well, a decent extra. The father's part is a bit over-written, and I could nit-pick a few other things, but I was glued to this, unwilling to endure my usual sporadic watching of movies until the end. It's treatment of alcoholism nicely balances the hopes, progress and setbacks that accompanies treatment programs, from what I've gleaned from others. Finally, the acting is superb. Mirren made this her part and her character.

5/5 Prime Suspect #7
  by Don A. Martin (Merced, CA)
Sorry to see Helen leave the series behind her! Her acting abilities would have carried he far beyond #7, but all good things must come to an end. The series is worth watching over and over again, something I would not normally do. Wonderful acting and directing.