Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

Prime Suspect 5: Errors of Judgement Blu-ray Movie Review

Getting to Know The Street

Reviewed by Michael Reuben August 23, 2013

(Spoiler alert: The following assumes that the reader is familiar with all previous series of Prime Suspect. If you haven't seen all previous series, proceed at your own risk. A spoiler-free overview of the Complete Collection can be found here.)

First Broadcast: October 20, 1996 (U.K.); February 9, 1997 (U.S.)

Series 5 of Prime Suspect returned to the familiar format of following a single investigation over the course of an entire series, but it refreshed the show by relocating Helen Mirren's DS Jane Tennison from her familiar London environs at the Met to the northern city of Manchester. (Ironically, the production itself didn't change locales, because it had filmed in Manchester since the beginning.) A stranger in a strange land, unfamiliar with the locale and the people, distrusted as a stuffy outsider by her new colleagues, Tennison has to prove herself all over again. She faces the challenge in the only way Tennison knows how: with a full frontal assault. But suddenly she discovers she's charged into a minefield.

The subtitle "Errors of Judgement" (spelled in the British style with an extra "e") is used by Tennison's new boss to characterize his possible mistake in promoting a young subordinate too quickly. Obviously, though, it's a loaded phrase that embraces much more, including mistakes in evaluating a situation, choosing a strategy and, above all, knowing the game in which you've chosen to play. Until now, Tennison has always been good at the last part, but now that she's left London, that may no longer be true.

Series 5 was written by Guy Andrews, who had penned numerous episodes of Chancer (the series that first gained Clive Owen attention) and would go on to a prolific career scripting episodes of Poirot and Inspector Lewis, among others. The director was the interesting choice of Phil Davis, a prolific character actor whose credits extend back to the early Seventies. Having played more than his share of evildoers, Davis turned out to be the ideal choice for a Prime Suspect featuring the most flamboyant adversary that Tennison has ever faced.

As she grabs a quick breakfast among the still-unpacked boxes in her Manchester apartment, Tennison is dissatisfied. Since being transferred to Manchester from London, presumably not by choice, she's been deployed by her new boss, DCS Ballinger (John McArdle), on a series of PR junkets addressing classrooms of bored school children. Why hasn't she been put on a case? she asks Ballinger, who promptly gives her the next call that comes in.

It's the shooting of a drug dealer in a gang-infested housing project, and someone, possibly the shooter, is barricaded inside one of the apartments. When Tennison arrives at the scene, it's swarming with heavily armed police, and she barely has time to meet the detectives over whom she is assuming command: Sergeant Rankine (David O'Hara), Inspector Clare Devanney (Julia Lane) and Constable Henry Adeliyeka (John Brobbey). Suddenly a loud voice rings out, and a swaggering figure in a long coat struts past the police lines and the body of the dead dealer, Nazir (Chris Bisson). After all but daring the cops to shoot him, he announces himself at the apartment door and enters. A minute later, he reemerges with a wounded man, Michael Johns (Ray Emmet Brown), who, as it turns out, isn't the shooter, but another victim. The gunman fled before the police arrived.

The man who intervened is known as The Street (Steven Mackintosh). The dead dealer, Nazir, worked for him—not that The Street admits to anything illegal. In fact, his police file is virtually empty, though he's well known to the police and indeed to everyone in town. Tennison immediately clocks the preening thug as someone who considers himself above the law, and having spent her recent weeks assuring classrooms of students that the police are there to enforce law and order, Tennison's very being is offended at The Street's air of entitlement. Despite the lack of evidence, The Street becomes her prime suspect. Her juniors, who have been trying to build a case against The Street for years, without success, think she's wasting her time (and theirs).

Tennison's staff may have a point. The Street doesn't have any reason for killing Nazir, who, by all accounts, was an effective dealer. The shooting appears to have more to do with the survivor, Michael Johns, and the family of his girlfriend, Janice Lafferty (Marsha Thomason), who lives in the same project where the shooting occurred. Janice's mother, Noreen (Gabrielle Reidy), is a hopeless junkie, and her younger brother, Campbell (Joseph Jacobs), is a student whom Tennison recently met on one of her speaking engagements. Campbell seemed troubled at the time, and Tennison invited him to contact her, if he wanted to learn more about "law and order". When he appears in her station several days after the shooting, Tennison initially assumes he's responding to her invitation. In fact, Campbell has come to provide startling new information about the shooting of Nazir and Johns, information that will send the investigation spinning in a whole new direction.

Meanwhile, Tennison has become convinced that The Street has an informant on the force, because he knows too much about police affairs. Her suspicions focus on Clare Devanney, who specifically requested assignment to Tennison's squad. More than anyone, it is Devanney who keeps trying to steer the investigation away from The Street. When Tennison quietly asks Sergeant Rankine to check out Devanney's background, troubling information is revealed.

No mention is made of Dr. Patrick Schofield, with whom Tennison seemed to be happily reconciled at the end of Series 4. For whatever reason, that relationship too did not work out. Tennison is on her own, and in a new city with no friends or connections, she is especially vulnerable to "errors of judgement" in personal matters. By the end of Series 5, she will have new regrets to add to the pile.

Prime Suspect 5: Errors of Judgement Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

For a discussion of Series 5'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 DVD release of Series 5, 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.

Series 5 was shot by Barry McCann, a cinematographer new to Prime Suspect. Because the series was set in Manchester where the production filmed, Series 5 has a different look, with a more expansive use of outdoor space and a more definite sense of location. Possibly because of the greater number of long shots with detailed landscapes, the "variable quality" (in the words of the disclaimer) on Acorn Media's Blu-ray is considerable, ranging from remarkably sharp and detailed to soft and slightly blurry. However, there is no apparent pattern differentiating the "good" shots from the bad. Night shots are more likely to lack detail, but plenty of examples of weaker shots exist in bright light as well. Closeups often fare better, but not always. When sharpness and detail are good, they put the DVD image to shame. When they are not, they are still a noticeable improvement.

The weakest shots in Series 5 appear to be blowups from a source of lower resolution that lacks the full width of the original negative. These shots have been cropped to fit the 1.78:1 frame, blown up and electronically massaged to fit into the hi-def master as best as possible. This was presumably done to replace damaged portions of the negative. The effect is similar to watching a film restoration where portions have been taken from prints, dupes or other lesser sources. It isn't always easy to differentiate these blowup shots from others that are simply soft or diffused; so one shouldn't necessarily assume that a weakness in the image results from a recourse to lesser material. The only way to tell for sure is to compare the DVD framing.

As with previous series of Prime Suspect, the Blu-ray image is considerably brighter and has better contrast than previous versions, and its colors are more vivid (or at least comparatively so, within the show's drab palette, which is even drearier now that Prime Suspect has officially relocated to the overcast north). Overall, despite its flaws, this is by far the best-looking version of Series 5 that I have seen, and the Blu-ray's image is the first to do justice to the abandoned facilities that The Street uses for criminal activities, including a former indoor swimming pool (long since drained) and a derelict factory complex through which he leads Tennison on a twisty chase.

Series 5 runs 210 minutes in total, which is shorter than any of the first three series. It fits onto a BD-50 just as well as they did.

Prime Suspect 5: Errors of Judgement Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The logo onscreen says "Dolby Surround", but there isn't much surround activity in Series 5's DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track. Composer Stephen Warbeck has supplied more underscoring than usual for an installment of Prime Suspect, but it remains largely in front. So do traffic and other city sounds, as well as the hubbub of life in the city projects. Dialogue remains firmly centered, and Tennison herself is thoroughly intelligible, but the thick Manchester accents of most others will pose a challenge to many American ears. Use the subtitles as needed.

Prime Suspect 5: Errors of Judgement Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No extras are included with Series 5. At startup the disc plays a trailer for Case Histories, which can be skipped with the chapter forward button.

Prime Suspect 5: Errors of Judgement Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

After Series 5, Mirren "stepped away" (in her words) from the character of Jane Tennison, because she felt she was becoming too identified with it. "I really didn't want to be knocked over by a car and have my obituary just talk about Prime Suspect", she later joked in an interview. At the time, there was no definite plan to continue the show, and Series 5 might well have been its conclusion. If so, the story of The Street and his special instinct for navigating the grey world between crime and legitimate authority would have been a fitting conclusion, because Tennison does not live in a world of grey. For all of her flaws, one of her most appealing qualities is her insistence on a clear line between right and wrong and her uncompromising faith that her job is to guard that line. Not quite at the level of the first three series, but a rewarding viewing experience.