Prime Suspect - The Complete Collection [DVD]

One of the dvd is broken

In November 2016 after 10 years of asking we finally had Sky Q installed! Signed up to the Box Set package. Which is where we rediscovered just how brilliant Prime Suspect is.Annoyingly we had series 1 downloaded on the box months ago, somehow we never got around to watching it. When we finally did, just our luck the series was set for removal the next day! Thank heavens for Amazon, we are now watching at leisure.Helen Mirren is outstanding! There are so many well known actors in this series and the plots are absorbing and hard hitting too. There's a real mix of realism and reminiscences when you watch this.On one hand you are watching a show from the early 1990s onwards and you see the Cars, the fashion, the technology and the way policing was done (even though it is fictitious) it does at times feel like fly on the wall stuff.On the flip side we see drama that is top notch, timeless and still relevant. At times the story is brutal and unflinching. A woman who has her eyes firmly set on breaking the mould. Succeeding in a very male dominated job. Series 1 especially exposes us to blatant sexism. Series 2 blatant racism etc etc. I won't spoil the plot! All this while solving a savage, violent, murder case with all it's perversity, plot twists and dead ends.The DVD differs slightly from how Prime Suspect was originally broadcast. Each series in TV format had 2 episodes, shown over 2 nights. The DVD shows the 2 episodes as a whole single episode clocking in at over 3 hours. The exception is series 4 running across 3 discs.I don't think it says in the description:Disc 1 - Series 1 (2 parts as a whole episode)Disc 2 - Series 2 (2 parts as a whole episode)Disc 3 - Series 3 (2 parts as a whole episode)Disc 4 - Series 4: The Lost ChildDisc 5 - Series 4: Inner CirclesDisc 6 - Series 4: Scent Of DarknessDisc 7 - Series 5: Errors Of JudgementDisc 8 - Series 6: The Last WitnessDisc 9 - Series 7: The Final ActDisc 10 - The Final Act: Behind The ScenesAll in, that's just a whisker short of 24 hours solid viewing. A drama that grabs you from the first few minutes and keeps you hooked even if you're being thrown upside down, turned inside out, unceremoniously shoved in a washing machine and stuck on fast spin. It's very addictive.The best episodes are written by the creator Lynda La Plante. I love the fact the DVD production hasn't restored this to Super HHHD. It adds to the atmosphere.

I have just received the box set with the complete series of PRIME SUSPECT with the excellent Helen Mirren. I immediately put it just to enjoy it but for 75 minutes I suffered what an amazon customer – that is Margaret V Hornby (I suppose she is english) – who says that the sound is atrocious as ‘’ are most DVD's these days,that is the reason I always buy DVD's with subtitles but I would really like to hear them speaking the part rather than relying on the subtitles “. I was about to send you a message for the same reason when I found Miss Hornby’s message. In fact I really thought that EVEN an English ear may – as mine – find difficulty in understanding what they say – bad voices, a useless and confused very fast way in saying sentences, disgusting expressions … and so on … Non è tutto oro quell che luccica – am I right?

We’ve had many hours pleasure from this series and we’ve still got more to watch

"Prime Suspect" seems to me the only British one to come anywhere near the best of the Scandinavian, American, French and Italian crime series. This conclusion was reinforced by arriving at these ten discs via the amateurish "Happy Valley". Here we are in an altogether different class. Helen Mirren in the lead role is quite superb throughout and the support roles are of an impressively high standard. In addition the editing and cinematography are first rate. In any series of this length there is bound to be some unevenness - the twelve books of "Paradise Lost" are not of equal quality - but overall there is remarkable consistency. I'm sure that we all have our personal preferences. The first two episodes, the only ones written by Lynda La Plante I believe, seem to me exceptionally fine, not least owing to the incident room police, of whom only Richard continues as a major figure in later episodes. At times plausibility is stretched a little too far, in the final sequence of Episode 7 for instance, but such minor faults are forgivable in such a gripping and powerful venture.I can't agree with those reviewers who find the series "dated." Real quality does not date. Has Shakespeare dated? Indeed I'm uncertain as to what these reviewers allude to - clothes? - cars? - other superficial local detail? Overall, the whole seems to me a very fine achievement which afforded many hours of gripping viewing.

This series is the epitome of what a good cop series should be about. An in-depth investigation, showing the failures as well as the successes, showing times when the police can so easily be knocked off the scent by what appears to be a good lead but most of all:- a really top quality actor/actress in the lead role, supported by other great performances.Helen Mirren's character has all of our insecurities but also has something we all wish for - a true inner strength. From the first story, where she is almost fighting against her own team to find the guilty party, right through to the final episode at the end of her career, the character development is second to none. There have been a great number of long running cop shows including Frost (UK) and Columbo (US) but none have such a character development as this.When you compare the '18' certificate of this series to the '18' certificate of, say, "The Sopranos" (one of my other favourite series), the latter is full of very vicious killings and almost continuous (and on occasion very crude) swearing. Prime Suspect is different, it's an '18' because there is alcoholism, in-depth details of murder, abortion and the like but never "in-your-face" violence or foul language. Good acting, good storylines and good productions don't need it. This is an '18' solely because of the story content.If ever there was a series that deserved more than 5 stars, this is it.Very, very highly recommended.