Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Caryl It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Tahhh The only remark I wish to add to the other reviews is that the music accompanying this particular mini-series of the "Prime Suspect" series was particularly appealing, I think.So often, the music is an irritant or a distraction, whereas in this thriller, I felt it enhanced the filmed drama greatly. The soundtrack employs much East European singing, as well as Eastern-looking music from the Moslem cultures of the Adriatic provinces, and used this to help make the victims of the crimes presented more sympathetic to us.I found the spirited dance music, with a heavily middle-eastern, percussion-and-plectra sound, employed during the exciting chase scenes, especially effective.It's a sad story, and a police-thriller, and while I wouldn't say it transcends its genre completely, it does manage to provoke a little thought about principles, about honor, about cruelty, and about integrity and behaving justly.Very enjoyable when you're in the mood for a thriller!

El Cine With this sixth season, PBS promoted the "Prime Suspect" movie series from its "Mystery!" block to the "Masterpiece Theatre" one. This would suggest it's some sort of highbrow program, but no. How the mighty have fallen. PBS has come a long way from David Suchet as Hercule Poirot and the earlier seasons of Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes. A long way down. It was bad enough back in 2002 with the sensationalized adaptation of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" with Richard Roxburgh as Holmes. That production gave us lovingly lingering shots of Holmes taking drugs during his case, a police officer slowly sinking to his death in quicksand, and quick cuts of a corpse on a morgue table post-autopsy, with a terrified expression frozen on its face and big stitches running across its body (none of these things were in the book, a telling sign of how PBS decided to sensationalize the story). Then there was the Inspector Lynley mystery whose first scene showed the bloodied corpses of a dog and a decapitated man, both killed with an axe. I quit those "films" after a little while, not wanting to waste any more time. I did the same with "Prime Suspect 6." The critics who are too kind to this series on account of Queen Helen Mirren needn't bother with their paeans. Maybe Mirren really is a great actress. Maybe Denzel Washington is too, but that doesn't mean we have to praise "John Q." As for "Prime Suspect 6," it would seem that PBS has now gone all the way and started putting exploitation flicks on their channel.I didn't catch this show when it premiered on TV, but recently borrowed it on DVD. Things started off poorly enough with the usual cop drama clichés. Someone discovers a corpse brutalized in the fashion of the series, which leads to police procedural scenes that manage to be both busy and boring – lots of trucks, barricades, and investigators in blue scrubs. We also get the burnt-out cops, office politics, "naturalistic" acting, comic relief supporting characters, camaraderie among the lower ranks, and a world-weary coroner who provides further wry humor.Even worse, the show doesn't just want to be an entertaining mystery story; it wants to Make a Point. Not that this is a new thing with "Prime Suspect," which in the past has looked at racism, corruption, etc. This year's themes are war crimes, refugees, and the suffering of the underclass (mostly immigrant racial/ethnic minorities) who provide cheap labor in thankless jobs. We watch a stuffy English politician lecture about illegal immigrant criminals "swamping" England and its undermanned police force. There's a tour of the upstairs-downstairs world of a hotel where the white, suited manager works on the posh first floor, but the basement is full of ethnic types stuck with the real dirty work. A black man who works in said basement reports how the Bosnian murder victim worked 12-hour shifts 6 days a week. We are also told this woman was tortured with ritual cigarette burns many years ago, just as she was right before she died.The film pays lip service to the dignity of the victim when a detective lectures his subordinate not to degrade the corpse with jokes. The filmmakers are such hypocrites, for they have no qualms about filming a later scene of this woman's autopsy featuring right-up-in-front shots of the corpse's torso and throat skin peeled wide open to reveal the insides in great detail. Showing a stitched-up corpse like in "Baskervilles" wasn't enough. The woman is made into a grotesquerie show, and the viewers are invited to gape at the lurid spectacle of her cut-up body.This is what really finished it for me. First we're looking at a mundane scene somewhere else, and suddenly the camera jump cuts to the autopsy. The filmmakers were obviously going for shock effect. They should know better; this sort of grotesque imagery is not something that should casually show up on TV, and can deeply disturb people, myself included. The above-mentioned "John Q" used the exact same sort of crotch-grabbing when it made a jump cut to a heart transplant surgery, followed by close-ups of the chest cavity.How to stick with the movie after this insult? How absurd it would be for the viewers to remain at their schooldesks like good children and keep listening to the "serious" social commentary (let alone the mystery, which to the filmmakers is secondary) when it comes alongside gore effects in cheapie horror flick tradition.Shame on director Tom Hooper, producers David Boulter and Rebecca Eaton, writer Peter Berry, and the other filmmakers, and shame on PBS and WGBH.

Morpheus2k3 I have been following the investigations of Jane Tennison since my partner sent me a bad VHS recording of Prime Suspect 1 while I was serving with the USMC in the Persian Gulf. Amid my own warfare, my own self doubts and fears, I found inspiration in DCI Tennison's struggles. I have been in love ever since. Some tales are better than others, but all are good. My personal favorites: PS1, PS3, PS5 and now, topping the list, is Prime Suspect:6. Not since listening to the young actor respond to Tennison's questions in PS5 - "What do you want out of life?" ...Response: "Law and Order", have I teared up watching a TV show. PS6 hits home on many levels. From cinematography to storytelling to acting the whole thing is brilliant on all levels. Helen Mirren, one of the most underrated talents in the acting profession - seeing her silently curse in her car after her encounter with her immediate superior evoked a moment all of us in the working world can relate to. At the risk of sounding like I'm gushing, I can't recommend enough this latest installment. It is was television drama can and should be.

Flint-13 The four-hour miniseries is, when well executed, one of the most entertaining forms of modern drama. "Prime Suspect 6" is a vivid demonstration of how a well-crafted script put in the hands of a competent director and a dedicated cast and crew can provide cliff-hanging suspense and emotional excursions for viewers of a wide range of ages and backgrounds.Helen Mirren is possibly at her best in "6" as the ageing senior detective, constantly battling the establishment as she tries to manage a big caseload when a particularly brutal murder opens a Pandora's box of leads, lies and loose ends.My prize, however, goes to Peter Berry for his writing. The story lets us slowly explore the minds, motivations and especially the passions of all the main characters and makes good use of historical events and present-day tensions to construct a drama of the highest quality. His story has strong Hollywood elements, and for this style of drama, that's precisely what's needed.If you missed it this time, don't miss the repeat or definitely rent the DVD when it's out.