Product: Prime Suspect [VHS] (1992)
Rating: 4.0
Made me want to hurl things at the screen
This is one of those series that I hated, but not because it wasn't good. In fact, I'm pretty sure that annoyance was one of the things the producers were aiming for. Unlike other mysteries with women leads (Blue Murder and Murder in Suburbia, to name two), DCI Jane Tennison is not accepted as head of the investigation when she takes over. The police force is still very sexist, and the show highlights this at every turn. It's infuriating to watch, though probably still very true of many places today. So perhaps it's a little preachy, teaching the lesson of equality and all, but it's good that it's out there to show what it was like for women trying to climb into a man's world, and not sugar-coating it.The mystery itself was very well done. It'll have you second-guessing your second-guesses, and there are plenty of false leads and mis-information. My only complaint is not as much with the show as it is with the CDs. All four episodes are the same story, and I don't understand why they wouldn't have fit on one disk. It would have been better to have all four episodes on the first disk, so you could just play it all the way through, and all the extras on the other disk, to watch if you wanted. Instead they have two episodes and some special features on each disk. A minor annoyance, and I didn't deduct from the rating for it, but it was something I disliked.If you like gritty police crime dramas, this is a show for you. It's outspoken and doesn't pull any punches.