Listonixio
Fresh and Exciting
AnhartLinkin
This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.
Syl
The more I watch Dame Helen Mirren, the more I want to see her reprise the role of DCI Jane Tennison, the no nonsense British detective, who rose the ranks in a man's world by working hard, sacrificing a personal life, etc. In this episode, Jane is determined to solve the crime of two Bosnian Muslim female immigrants and sisters in London. At first, it all seems locked up by the actual murderer. Tennison's hunches are often key in understanding that there is more than meets the eye. The murderer was a soldier and was taking orders but from whom and why? It's a suspenseful episode with great supporting performances by Clare HOlman, Frank Finlay, and Phoebe Nicholls. Finlay's performance as Jane's father is poignant as he recalls liberating a death camp during World War II.
Tahhh
The only remark I wish to add to the other reviews is that the music accompanying this particular mini-series of the "Prime Suspect" series was particularly appealing, I think.So often, the music is an irritant or a distraction, whereas in this thriller, I felt it enhanced the filmed drama greatly. The soundtrack employs much East European singing, as well as Eastern-looking music from the Moslem cultures of the Adriatic provinces, and used this to help make the victims of the crimes presented more sympathetic to us.I found the spirited dance music, with a heavily middle-eastern, percussion-and-plectra sound, employed during the exciting chase scenes, especially effective.It's a sad story, and a police-thriller, and while I wouldn't say it transcends its genre completely, it does manage to provoke a little thought about principles, about honor, about cruelty, and about integrity and behaving justly.Very enjoyable when you're in the mood for a thriller!
jrbleau
Spoilers all the way through.If you're like me, you read the reviews only after seeing the movie or program. If I really enjoyed it, I then check the reaction of others - a sharing of the exhilaration. The other reviews here are excellent and reflect my own views.This is a role in which Helen Mirren has done consummate justice (yeah, yeah, the wordplay is intentional…): as 'nancinger' aptly says in her review, 'she's as hard as nails on the surface and as crumpled up as ever on the inside.' And tougher than Dirty Harry.The suspense is palpable. The race against time in the hospital against a murderer, and we really don't know how it will turn out, keeps us on the edge of our seats. But there's suspense in the interrogations, too. Do you, as I do, try to anticipate the questions, try to out-cool the 'interrogatee'? When I'm stumped, Tennison comes through, though not without a sideways glance, a bit of a pause to think. There's suspense in the politics, in how Tennison has to negotiate the labyrinthine obstacles her own department puts in her way, how she has to guess at her own people's agendas, how she has to manage them, offend them yet keep their loyalties, there's suspense as to who will stab her in the back and who will pull through for her.Some of the devices are obvious, some less so, but they're effective. We see cleaning women often enough to think 'enough, already, I get the point!!!', Tennison reaching out for her father, then pulling her hand back, but most effective is the light shining through a bullet hole onto her eye at the scene of the massacre, recalling her earlier eye exam from its perpetrator – very effective indeed. (And I must give kudos to Oleg Menshikov for his outstanding performance as a charismatic psychopath.)When Tennison first visited her father, I was worried it would be filler, but it turned out to be essential. A later visit was a wonderful paean to this great TV detective, a rousing peroration that explains, by one who should know, what makes Tennison tick and what she should do. Mix in the hesitation with the hand and we see the twin manifestations of her hardness and her 'crumpledness' in the same scene.It is inevitable that when I pop in the DVD to watch a new Prime Suspect series, I will watch it through in one sitting, three hours, four hours be damned... A superlative show.
George Parker
"Prime Suspect 4" continues the exploits of the inscrutable and dogged seeker of truth and justice, Detective Superintendent Jane Tennison; the first of three miniseries (PS4, PS5, & PS6) with the notable absence of founding writer Lynda La Plante from the credits. Imbued with the same gritty reality of the first three series, the second three series pit Tennison against the forces of evil while coping with middle age, loneliness, indiscretions, a host of personal and professional problems, and resolutions which are sometimes less than ideal. PS4 conjures two stories while PS5 & PS6 are single stories which find Tennison seeking justice on behalf of the brutally wronged while waging war against institutions which are willing to sacrifice the interests of her victims for those of a greater good. In other words, to prevail, Tennison must overcome both evil and good forces, something which makes the always gray scenarios of the PS series yet grayer and the Tennison wars as much a matter of principle as of finding murderers. Very good stuff which only gets better from series to series. For reasons of continuity, watch in chronological order. (B+)
