Prime Suspect 5: Errors of Judgement

"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. (B+)

I remembered the original Prime Suspect TV mini-series as being very good. I decided to re-watch them (with no interruptions this time) on DVD. I rarely re-watch anything, but seeing this series again was like basking in quality.

The acting is sometimes staggeringly good. The story lines are always great, of course I responded to some of the series more than others. Prime Suspect 3 was very dark, but great. Prime Suspect 5 is concerned with real life conflict. There is a mole in the department but who is it? When the answer is revealed, there is no cut and dry conclusion as to their fate, which turns out to be very satisfactory.

My wife and I go to the movies a lot and seeing the Prime Suspect series made ALL the other movies we were watching on the big screen pale in comparison. Even Collateral, which I consider a finely crafted movie just isn't in the same league.

It's still Prime Suspect so it's good but as far all the other episodes, this one probably is the weakest. The ending is terrible and sloppy. It feels like the director or writer had no clue how to end it so they just slapped this slappy melodrama at the end. But it was very unsatisfactory. And while the plot line had some potential. it too often fell into trite and hackneyed stereotypes. It's good but certainly not the best or even one of the better ones.

It just gets better. What's to fault in this one? Is there anything? No. Curious how they interweave string quartet music through it - that's a new one. And it's stark - it brings a quality of immediacy and tragedy to it.

Like all in this series, this has a long running time. Like everything in this series, nothing is set in stone. This is longer than many of the others. It's timed at 200 minutes which means a long time in front of the screen.

But it's worth it. This is a strong drama like all of them, and not in the least because of Steven Mackintosh who plays one of the all-time creeps of silver screen or television.

I checked his filmography and saw he's done quite a lot of work and I was surprised because I don't remember ever seeing him before. He really takes out the stops on this one.

As always the story is well written and deftly directed. It's another masterpiece - and it's for television which is the surprise.

And as always, you have to reckon Taylor Hackford's a lucky man.

Most of the Prime Suspect Series are gritty but this one is the most intense. The nothing to lose attitude of the "bad guys" added with the subtle defeatist attitude of the detective team brings this movie to almost a horror boiling point.

Of course Superintendent Jane Tennison doesn't know or have such problem. Even in this new assignment and new culture Tennison is her usual "get the bad guy at all cost" self. It's a must see but you might not want to watch it alone.