Review
With its novel focus on shorter, self-contained mysteries, Prime Suspect 4 should have been a standout installment of the long-running BBC series. Indeed, the new format brings with it new themes -- especially a greater emphasis on the personal life of London detective Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren). The first story line juxtaposes a child's abduction with Tennison's feelings over her recent decision to abort a pregnancy, while the final arc traces her troubled romance with a shrink who, unbeknownst to her, is writing a book about one of her cases. Although these additions give Mirren plenty of room to explore her character's complexities, they leave little room to flesh out the already abbreviated mysteries. The result is a season that feels far more like a conventional cop show than the sprawling epics of seasons past and future. That said, the middle episode, "Inner Circles," features some sharp twists and interesting social anthropology as it juxtaposes the lives of England's richest and poorest residents. Unfortunately, the opening and closing episodes devolve into the kind of over-the-top coincidences and unbelievable plots that give crime drama a bad name. The final story line, "The Scent of Darkness," proves especially belabored -- like some third-rate sequel to a serial-killer classic. Prime Suspect 5 and Prime Suspect 6 would return to the original series format, suggesting that the producers recognized the failure of their experiment. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Synopsis
For the fourth installment of the BBC crime series Prime Suspect, the producers experimented with the show's format. Instead of following police detective Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren) through a single murder investigation over the course of four hours, Prime Suspect 4 includes three 90-minute, stand-alone mysteries. In "The Lost Child," Tennison investigates the disappearance of a child whose mother is unwittingly dating a convicted sex offender. In "Inner Circles," she traces the connection between the residents of a brutal housing development and the well-heeled denizens of an exclusive country club whose manager is brutally murdered. And "The Scent of Darkness" returns to the serial-killer investigation that made Tennison's career (in Prime Suspect 1) as additional murders with the same modus operandi bring up the possibility that she apprehended the wrong man. In addition to its new format, Prime Suspect 4 also depicts, in "The Lost Child," the first non-murder investigation of Tennison's career. Prime Suspect 4 originally aired April 30, May 7, and May 15, 1995, in the United Kingdom. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

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Prime Suspect: Series Five DVD ~ Philip Davis  (1)

Prime Suspect: Series Three DVD ~ David Drury  (1)

Prime Suspect: Series Six DVD ~ Tom Hooper  (6)

Prime Suspect: Series Two DVD ~ John Strickland  (3)

Prime Suspect, Vol. 7 DVD ~ Philip Martin  (1)  CDN$ 31.99

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Most helpful customer reviews   1 of 1 people found the following review helpful: Wrong George Marlowe but always right Jane Tennison, Feb 11 2004 By  "missotisregrets" (New York, New York USA) - See all my reviews Another reviewer at Amazon was exactly right in pinpointing the weakness of this entry in the series as being the decision to revisit the Marlowe character from Prime Suspect 1 but with a different actor playing him. The first Marlowe had such an interesting ambiguity, a likeability and seeming sympathy, that this one, albeit a good actor, unfortunately can not match. That said, however, that the actual crime being investigated is the least convincing part of Prime Suspect 4 doesn't lessen the episode's impact. Prime Suspect's "not as good" is still loads better than most other crime dramas, the reason being that Jane Tennison is such a compelling character and she is surrounded with equally complex supporting figures. Several of the key cast members in Prime Suspect 4 are detectives and superior officers that we've gotten to know in the preceding episodes. The fact that the case necessitates a re-opening of the Marlowe case, the case upon which Tennison's career as a D.C.I. was established, makes this an even more intimate look at her personality, how she works with her colleagues and how that, combined with departmental politics, impact on her approach and effectiveness in her work. Her private life takes on more significance here for her current lover, a psychologist, has participated in a book written on the case. The intelligence of the series, however, is that we are seeing more of her personal life not to make this into a chick flick melodrama but to examine more closely the workings of her professional world and her particular place in it both as a woman and as the very individual woman she is. And yes, Jane is still having some issues with smoking. Was this review helpful to you?