Prime Suspect

Mirren is terrific in the lead. The 3½ hours rarely drag and are definitely worth spending. It's often as gripping as the best big screen thrillers. Grisly serial murders, suspect interrogations, a persuit, police corruption... all these genre elements are grounded in reality, and we get just about the right amount of police station intrigue and scenes with Tennison and her husband (Wilkinson) inbetween.

Of the dozens of British detective shows I've watched, this is up there with the best. This first installment is a tight two-parter that is as much about sexism as it is about murder investigation. Also worth watching for the first screen performance of Ralph Fiennes.

Not bad, even nearly 30 years later.

Chauvinism was poured on a bit thick, but other than that a superb two-parter.

This may be more than 20 years old, but you can show this on TV any time now.

Prime Suspect tackles some interesting issues, particularly a woman's role in a male-dominated profession, the balance between work and relationships, and the corruption within institutions, but does so without subtlety. Mirren is mostly great, let down only by the script on occasions, and the rest of the acting is decent. The final confrontation is ridiculous and anticlimatic.