mgadfly-29347 Stephanie Martini is an excellent young Tennison. I graduated tom high school in 1971, and I affirm that the sexual politics are spot on. Right down to her mom. I'm really enjoying this, and I wonder what Dame Helen thought of it.

Eliz Willingham It seems to me that the series was engaging in character and situation, regardless of what you may have read in Variety, and it was—and is—well worth watching. Having seen every "Prime Suspect" episode in real time, I found this series continuously interesting on several levels, and compelling for a die-hard "Prime Suspect" fan. Performances of the principle players and supporting cast were splendid, and I am awed in particular by the supporting cast. Production values were dependably high and convincing. The error in Tennison's chronology, reported here, is an unnecessary bit of slippage. One can hardly say too much about the skill and all-in performances of the fairly large supporting cast, and IMDb records them all. The sketchy guys and the police performances were superb, and I single out Alun Armstrong's and Ruth Sheen's performances as examples to watch; the performances of their "Bentley family" was award-winning. But so was that of Anthony Skordi, whose role as Silas Manatos, owner of a Greek café, got much less screen time. Among the supporting roles, those written for Tennison's "parents" have been negatively received, but I found them to be just what they needed to be—conventional, hovering, a counterpoint to other parents (those of a victim) presented in the series. I viewed the Tennisons as multi-dimensional and developing as the series progressed, and the roles were well-performed, certainly. The 1970s London ambiance was convincing, but that is hardly where "convincing" stops with this all-too-brief series. We hear of a creative war behind the discontinuation of the series. Sad for BBC and PBS viewers who wanted to a future for the series.

lennybuttz I have to start out by saying I am a HUGE fan of the original Prime Suspect. I never could understand the British disdain for intelligent Police personal, the best and brightest always seem to get treated with contempt. My biggest problem with the original Prime Suspect is there wasn't enough of it, only a few hours a year.I am happy to say they at least gave us a full British season which is less than half of an American season. I'm happy they developed this show, there aren't really any surprises Jane talked about her past quite often but it's a pleasure to see it all unfold as it happened. I quite enjoy seeing the fashions of the 70s again and the music is great except too often they play the music way too loud like they think we're so stupid we won't get it unless the music is blaring. I hope they correct that for the second season. I hope there is a second season.It's a cop show set in the 70s when things were quite different. I'm not sure how it was in the UK but I know in the U.S. female officers were something new and they weren't always made to feel welcome. It is interesting to get a look at what the UK was like at that point in time although I'm sure it's not 100% realistic. The show has great writers, the cast is really good and I thoroughly enjoyed watching this series unfold. I would highly recommend watching it.

paul2001sw-1 The original 'Prime Suspect', and its small set of sequels, were unusually good television detective dramas, starring the incomparable Helen Mirren as a hard-bitten female investigator. 'Prime Suspect 1973', a prequel, is not however nearly as good. There are several problems: the script is clumsy, the production screams '1973' at you so loudly you might consider this a piece of historical anthropology (instead of a drama where the differences between how we lived then and how we live now permeate the background without intruding on the centre stage); and above all else that Stefanie Martini (in the lead role) resembles a young Helen Mirren not one wit: neither for looks, voice, or crucially, for the character of the person she plays. Another, more technical difficulty, is that whereas the original was praised for its procedural accuracy, an ordinary WPC (as the character is in the prequel) has much less oversight of an investigation than the inspector leading it, so the plot has to perpetually struggle to put its character centre-stage. I'm sure there is a good story that could be told about the young Jane Tennison, especially given how well Mirren realised the later version; this, however, is sadly not it.