Prime Suspect 3 (1993)

I'm running out of superlatives for the Prime Suspect series. Series 3 is another gripping crime drama, this time set against the background of the world of London rent boys. Despite it's lengthy we were tempted to watch in one sitting, though we didn't quite manage it! The highlights this time are long scenes showing DCI Tennison interviews witnesses and suspects. This shows Helen Mirren at her finest, portraying an intelligent police detective who knows exactly how to structure an interview to get the truth from people.The theme of police corruption also looms large right from the very start. Glimpses of Tennison's rather sad personal life are also shown.She's still off the ciggies though!

Everything everyone is saying about this one is true. One thing to add: it's a lot for a single sitting. It runs almost four hours. People couldn't have had an option when it was transmitted on telly - they had to wait for the subsequent episodes - but when you rent or purchase it now you can't be forced into that option - and you'll find it nigh on impossible to break things off at the hour or two hour mark - it's just too good as everyone says.Perhaps the best news is that Lynda La Plante is back. Episode two wasn't bad - but it wasn't La Plante's writing and it didn't have her magical hand on it. This one does. It's as if she took all the stuff she found out worked in the first episode, concentrated it, and flung it back. Everything is deeper, grittier, gorier.There are seven huge episodes in this opus, all told twenty two hours of viewing. So to single out any one episode and say it's 'best' is going to be difficult, but taking only the first three it's not hard to see which excel more than others, and this one has to rank right at the very top.

The 3rd of the series is very honest and full of emotional reaction to the life of all most everyone in the series. But was very confused and at least wanted the "bad guy" to get pinched for the murder! Thought I missed out on something. It was like reading a mystery and then finding that the last chapter was missing. But, beyond that, it truly was and is outstanding! Good job all around! Mirren is strong and yet we see a very touching side of her when it comes to a medical question. The seediness of the whole "rent boy" world was well shown without pointing fingers or moral questions answered, which in all honesty is for better minds then wrote, acted and viewed this series. Perhaps that is why, "the end" is, after all, correct for this look into what we outside see as an almost "unreal" world/way of life.

At first, we had a hard time understanding the accents, but by the second episode we caught up and enjoyed it a great deal. Then again, we were watching a home-taped VHS copy, so the sound was a little muted.The acting and the writing were excellent.