Prime Suspect 5: Errors of Judgement

Supt. Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren) is sent up north. She witnesses an organized thieve ring. The kids she talks to are cynical. Drug mule Nazir is killed and Tennison has a case. The Street is the leader of the drug gang and he's immediately the prime suspect. He sees himself as the celebrity ruler and blessed constantly escaping prosecution. He's not the killer and tries to find the killer himself as a gang war looms. DC Henry Adeliyeka, DI Devanney, and DS Rankine are the main investigators for Tennison who starts sleeping with the married boss. Local kid Campbell Lafferty comes in and confesses to the shooting.

The franchise is going back to the extended episode which ends up with quite a bit of filler. This could easily be turned back to the previous two hour slot. Julia Lane and David O'Hara are great supporting actors in this. There is always Mirren. Steven Mackintosh plays The Street a little over the top. There are scarier ways to play the character. Overall, this is solid Prime Suspect but a little stretched.

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.

As good a show these days as it was back in 1996.

Always interesting to see what the actors are doing these days.

Not just the main cast but the minor players as well.

All cast are on top form with stand out performances from Steve Macintosh ,David O Hara, Julia Lane and the ever dependable Helen Mirren .

A great script but with a grubby feel of city life with a realistic look at the drug scene. Really enjoyed it again even after eighteen years as it has dated very little.

I bought the box set from Amazon and this is by far the best story line from the entire set. 8/10

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.

This was the only Prime Suspect movie I saw. The story was good and very intense. Its main attractions are the phenomenal, awesome David O'Hara, a great actor in a good-cop character, and Steven Mackintosh, who was electrifying as a psycho drug dealer. But to put as great an actress as Helen Mirren in that PITIFUL character was just very sad. I don't know who came up with that character, but Tennison's errors of judgment were so lame and plenty that the character herself made me awfully embarrassed of being female. If male chauvinists ever need a proof positive that women ARE the inferior gender, they should look no further. A person like that can't be trusted with boiling an egg, let alone superintending in the PD. If you want to see Mirren in a role worthy of her talent, AND another mesmerizing performance by David O'Hara, go see "Some Mother's Son". But don't get me wrong: this is absolutely worth seeing!