Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

Prime Suspect 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

A Crack in the Glass Ceiling

Reviewed by Michael Reuben August 23, 2013

(For a general overview of Prime Suspect, please see the review of the Complete Collection.)

First Broadcast: April 7-8, 1991 (U.K.); January 23, 1992 (U.S.)

Audiences on both sides of the Atlantic were knocked out when they first met Helen Mirren's Detective Chief Inspector (or "DCI") Jane Tennison. She barreled across their TV screens and into their living rooms with the same determination with which she strides into her chief's office demanding to be assigned to her first murder investigation after idling for eighteen months in the backwaters of London's Metropolitan Police (a/k/a Scotland Yard). Tennison knows that the assignment will put her under a microscope and draw enormous hostility from "the lads" under her command, but she doesn't care. She wants the job anyway. One of the mysteries that makes Tennison such a fascinating character is why she wants it so badly, despite the persistent opposition and the grim circumstances with which police work daily confronts her. It's a question that intrigued series creator Lynda La Plante and that Mirren would continue to explore throughout the next six series of Prime Suspect.

La Plante wrote Series 1, Series 3 and the story for Series 2 of Prime Suspect, after which other writers took over. Both the character of Tennison and the story of Series 1 were heavily influenced by La Plante's interviews with DCI Jackie Malton, who appears in the retrospective documentary included with Series 7. When Series 1 was initially shown in America, La Plante gave an interview in which she recounted with satisfaction the experience of polling her friends after the first part of the series had aired. Not one of them, she said, correctly guessed the identity of the killer.

DCI Jane Tennison (Mirren) is sick of doing paperwork in the Metropolitan Police, after serving a lengthy stint in the sex crimes unit in Reading (a large town just outside London). She's aware that she keeps getting skipped in the rotation, because the inspectors, constables and sergeants have made it clear that they resent taking orders from a woman, and she's spoiling for an opportunity to prove that she can change their minds. Her chance arises, or so she thinks, with the grisly discovery of the badly beaten and stabbed body of a woman initially identified as a prostitute named Della Mornay. Tennison is the DCI on call, but the case is assigned to a popular Chief Inspector named John Shefford (John Forgeham). After blood work points to one George Marlow (John Bowe), who has a record for sex crimes, Shefford moves so quickly that he appears to be on the verge of setting a new record for speed in charging a suspect.

But sudden and unexpected health problems remove DCI Shefford from the case, and the unit's commander, Superintendent Mike Kernan (John Benfield), has to pick a replacement. When Tennison demands the case, Kernan twists uncomfortably for another option, then bows to the inevitable and puts Tennison in charge—to the sound of collective (and openly expressed) protest from the investigative team. Especially outraged is Sergeant Otley (Tom Bell), who despises Tennison, female officers and any DCI who isn't John Shefford (in no particular order).

Prime Suspect 1 tells a dual tale, as Tennison relentlessly investigates the murder but also fights a civil war within her own department, primarily against Otley, who hinders her investigation at every turn. Eventually, she wins the grudging respect of the men under her command through sheer commitment to the job, but it's a long, exhausting battle.

Within hours of taking over the case, Tennison realizes that the victim has been misidentified. She's a missing young girl named Karen Howard, whose body was so badly beaten that she was unrecognizable. This complicates the case, because Karen's body was found in the apartment of a prostitute, the missing Della Mornay, whom Karen had no reason to know. Then a witness comes forward who testifies to seeing Karen Howard get into the car of a man who called her by name, but there's nothing to connect Karen to the prime suspect, George Marlow. Marlow, of course, continues to protest his innocence, and as one cop on the squad says, if he's lying, he deserves an Oscar. Marlow's common law wife, Moyra Henson (Zoë Wanamaker), bitterly complains of police harassment, as Tennison's officers pull in Marlow for questioning with each new lead.

(Karen Howard's grieving boyfriend is played by Ralph Fiennes, who was unknown at the time. He has only one speaking scene, but today his presence in Series 1 is heavily promoted, even though the part is tiny.)

The investigation eventually branches out beyond London, as Tennison realizes that she may be dealing with a serial killer. The second body to be found is that of the prostitute Della Mornay, who has been dead for weeks. Soon other deaths are linked by details extrapolated from the two killings in London. At the same time, DCI Shefford's name appears in unexpected places, and Sergeant Otley is all too eager to conceal anything relating to his old boss. Even Superintendent Kernan begins to look at Otley differently, as Tennison discovers his coverups.

Tennison's dedication and that of her squad, once they accept her, eventually solve the case, but success comes at a cost. A crucial subplot winds through Prime Suspect 1, as writer and creator La Plante establishes an element that will define the series throughout its seven entries. Any dedicated professional struggles with the balance between career and personal life, and police detectives often work long hours dealing with horrific crimes. At the beginning of Series 1, we find Tennison ensconced in apparent domestic bliss with Peter Rawlins (Tom Wilkinson), a property developer with a small but struggling firm and the divorced father of a young boy. One senses that, while Tennison has been pushing pencils at work, she's been free to create the semblance of a happy home for Peter, a traditional man who expects supper on the table when he arrives in the evening.

But everything changes when Tennison gets her first real case. Now she's rarely home, exhausted when she is, subject to phone calls at all hours, short-tempered and absorbed in her work—in short, she's someone with a career. A dinner party for clients that she was supposed to organize in support of Peter's business has to be re-routed to a restaurant at the last minute, because Jane is out of town following a lead. Later that evening, Jane and Peter argue, and it is clear that neither of them will give ground. As Tennison's career ascends, Jane's private life declines.

Already in Series 1, Mirren so thoroughly embodies Tennison down to the minutest gesture that she makes you feel the ambitious DCI's prior life and experience in her long years of preparation for this first big case. Mirren's performance is so detailed that there is always something new to notice on subsequent viewings. This time around, I was especially struck by the scene in which Tennison has traveled north to interview two prostitutes who were acquainted with a victim; she is sitting with them in a pub when a man comes up to the table, puts his hand on Tennison's leg and, without any notion that he's talking to a cop, asks if she's available. Most actresses would have played that moment with anger or resentment, not to mention flashing a badge, but Mirren's Tennison simply looks up and calmly tells the guy that she's busy. Then she laughs and gets back to the interview. It's a small moment, but it says a lot about how Tennison has progressed so far in a hostile environment. She saves her anger for the big moments, like demanding Shefford's murder case from Kernan, or reporting Sergeant Otley's transgressions. She's had to learn to pick her battles and let the lesser slights slide by.

Prime Suspect 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

For a discussion of Series 1's reformatted 1.78:1 aspect ratio, please see the Video section of The Complete Collection review. The extra screencaps with this review include sample comparisons between the Blu-ray and Acorn Media's previous DVD release of Series 1, which retained the original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. (Note that the DVD image has been slightly squeezed; this was not uncommon on DVD to compensate for overscan.) The 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray opens with the disclaimer quoted in the Complete Collection review.

The image quality on the two parts of Series 1 is variable. When it's good, it's remarkably so, with sharp and detailed clarity and unusually vibrant colors for a production design that is deliberately drab and downbeat. When the image weakens, detail gets fuzzier, edges soften and grain becomes more pronounced. Fortunately, these passages are the exception, not the rule, and they don't last for too long.

As has already been noted in several online commentaries, the image on the Blu-ray of Season 1 is considerably brighter than what has previously been presented on DVD, but I don't share the assumption that the DVD is an accurate or definitive reference. While the DVD's darkness has been justified as a kind of "film noir" style, Prime Suspect was never intended as film noir. It was supposed to be a realistic depiction of police work and was praised as such by London's Metropolitan Police when it was first broadcast. It is just as likely that the darkness of the DVD image resulted from an inaccurate transfer that also oversaturated certain colors and, in some scenes, created an ugly, "granular" appearance.

That being said, there are indications of overbrightening in some scenes. In the exhibition boxing match, some of the tuxedos look a little more charcoal gray then black. I disagree, however, that the critical scene in a garage (screenshots 14 & 15) has been brightened beyond the bounds of realism, given the setting's realistic sources of light. (Blu-ray and DVD screenshots are included both here and at another website, which questioned the Blu-ray's handling of the scene.) Between the overhead skylight and the daylight from the door through which the detectives entered, the lighting is accurate. It has to be bright enough for Tennison's exclamation ("Oh my God!") to make sense, when she catches sight of something inside the garage, because the DVD was so dark that she wouldn't have been able to see anything at all.

Even though Series 1 contains a number of grainy shots, other portions are sufficiently smooth to suggest the application of some light noise reduction, which would not be surprising with elements of this age and quality. If any has been applied, the work has been done judiciously, leaving no motion artifacts and no apparent reduction in detail. A BD-50 has provided enough room for the compressionist to accommodate both parts of the 213-minute program without noticeable errors.

Prime Suspect 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Series 1's stereo track is presented in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0, but there's not much stereo separation to be heard. Prime Suspect made spare use of the mournful score for strings by Stephen Warbeck (an Oscar winner for Shakespeare in Love). Its soundtrack is dominated by dialogue and key sound effects: telephones, background chatter, traffic, etc. The mix is functional and effective but not especially full-bodied. Some of the police jabber in and around the squad room is only semi-intelligible, but that is probably by design. In the first part, there are a few moments at scene changes where the sound drops out for a split second, then immediately returns.

Prime Suspect 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No extras are included with Series 1. At startup the disc plays a trailer for Vera, which can be skipped with the top menu button. (On my player, the chapter forward button did not work for this one disc.)

Prime Suspect 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There is something special about Tennison's first case, which is no doubt why the show's producers chose to revisit it in Series 4 of Prime Suspect. The case set a pattern for the show, right down to the surprise ending, but the show would never again generate such excitement from the sheer focus on investigative minutia. Like Tennison herself, Series 1 rides a wave of exhilaration that always accompanies something truly innovative. In later years, both the character and the series would find themselves exploring dark crevices of the police bureaucracy that often work against Tennison's crusader's impulse. (David Simon staked out the same turf on the American side in The Wire.) Series 1 will always remain one of Tennison's finest moments, because everything was still new.