There’s something quite interesting about Blue Murder. In a way, it’s the anti-Prime Suspect, though in other ways it’s the clear successor to the female-driven police drama. Murder‘s Caroline Quentin, for instance, lends a lightness to her role as DCI Janine Lewis that was (intentionally) absent from the darker portrayal of DCI Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect. At the same time, though, the show seems to examine the difficulties that women have in positions of authority in law enforcement, a theme well shared by Suspect. In a way, the two shows seem like twins: Prime Suspect is the serious older one, while Blue Murder is the playful younger sibling. After all, you’d never see Tennison roll her eyes and proclaim a case to be “Murder! In all its glory.”
Quentin is absolutely great as Janine Lewis, a single mother who juggles parenting with solving murders. Work, of course, eats away at her home life, and we see how profound of an affect her continual absence has on her children (her oldest actually begins to resort to a life of crime).
Janine is the show’s focal point, but there’s a supporting cast full of other great characters as well. Even relatively small roles fill up the screen when the camera focuses on them. Perhaps best, though, is the secondary lead Richard Mayne (Ian Kelsey), who serves as both best friend and backup to Janine. It’s a great character, and Mayne’s performance in the show’s final episode (in which Mayne infiltrates a prison) is absolutely great.
The cases are standard compared to those of most British murder dramas (and I’ve seen quite a few by this point), but that really doesn’t matter. They only serve as canvasses on which the main characters are painted, and they serve that purpose quite well.
The DVD set of the complete series itself, released by the always-wonderful Acorn Media, will hit shelves on February 1. The set is, as always, the four previously released sets contained together in a slipcase. It’s nine discs total, including some pretty interesting special features like a behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of the show. If you’re a fan of British television at all, you’ll love this show.
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