Prime Suspect
Prime Suspect
| 07 April 1991 (USA)

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    Reviews
    Hellen

    I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

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    WillSushyMedia

    This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

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    Kirandeep Yoder

    The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

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    Hayleigh Joseph

    This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

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    isoldevansteijn

    Helen Mirren portraits the female DCI with dignity, courage and flair. She ís Jane Tennisson and every episode of this brilliant British crime series is worth more then any other series ever made before or ever made since. Mirren gets into the character from the very start and she slowly builds a genuine person of flesh and blood, that moves the viewer, because we understand her anger, her enthusiasm, her frustrations. There is an American Prime Suspect series now, but I don't want to watch it, because it can never be anywhere near as good as the original and that is solely due to Helen Mirren. This can never be topped. That goes for all the episodes.

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    paudie

    I bought the box set of all the Prime suspect shows and started with Series 1 (obviously).This really is top quality police drama. At 3 hours 20 minutes in length the makers were able to take their time developing the plot and showing the nuances of the characters. For example we see a lot of the domestic life of the prime suspect, leading us to have sympathy for him and wonder if the police have the wrong man. John Bowe is superb as the charming, but possibly murderous Marlow.We also get to study the slow but inevitable breakdown of the relationship of DCI Tennison(played by Helen Mirren) with her partner, as she becomes obsessed with her first murder case. It clear that she willingly chooses to prioritise her career over everything in her life.It's not for the faint hearted either. I was surprised with the graphic nature of the post-mortem scenes, especially since it was made in 1991.Sexism in the Metropolitan Police is also a major theme in the show. There is huge resistance from the detectives when Tennisson takes over the case though are gradually won over by her by her ability.Written by Lynda La Plante this is definitely a classic of British crime drama on TV.

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    keith-moyes

    There is little that needs to be added to the other highly appreciative reviews already posted on this site.The first Prime Suspect was a landmark in British TV drama. It had all the virtues of a good mystery thriller but was enriched by a densely-researched exposition of police procedure and closely observed characterisation. The cast and their performances are all outstanding. There had been nothing quite like it on British TV before.I am pleased to see that its merits are widely recognised wherever it has been shown, but I also note that there is a tendency to use it as a stick with which to beat American TV. I would only point out that this gritty approach to the cop genre was actually pioneered in America - particularly with Hill Street Blues. I suspect it was the success of that show that encouraged ATV to go ahead with this gruelling series. Without it, Lynda La Plant may never have been able to get Prime Suspect off the ground.It has one big advantage over similar American shows (before and since). It is a stand-alone serial. Free from the requirement to fill a 22 week season, it could be written by one person and tell a single coherent story over three and a half hours. Even the best US shows eventually suffer from multiple writers and directors trying to maintain a consistent vision that is ultimately not their own. Even a show as good as The Sopranos succumbed to the flattening effect of this conveyor belt approach to drama.This is equally true of Prime Suspect. Subsequent series had their merits and were consistently above average for TV drama, but ultimately they were all just sequels. As so often happens, they tried to replicate the success of the original series by simply ringing a few changes on all the elements that were once such a fresh and original mix.It is we who are to blame. When we see something we like, we greedily demand more and more, so the virtues of the original show soon get overwhelmed and diluted by the increasingly desperate attempts of the film-makers to make something that is seemingly different while being exactly the same.I doubt if there is more than handful of sequels in the whole history of cinema and TV that are truly better than the shows that gave them their inspiration.Prime Suspect Two, Three, Four etc. are not amongst them.

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    Samuel Cohen

    What is excellant about this TV-Movie is that there are so many loose ends. We Do Not know if the Prime Suspect is guilty or not. This Happens in true life situations. We have Police Harassment and many Realistic Human situations. Enjoyable and Interesting. I watched DVD Version. Even DCI Jane Tennison is not perfect and makes human errors! Sam C.

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