Dalziel
& Pascoe: Season Eight (2001/BBC DVD Set)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: D Episodes: B-
After
7 seasons, the crime fighting duo of Dalziel and Pascoe was
still going strong...
I
just started watching for the first time and realize this series is
better than a lot of the formulaic franchise police drama's we watch
on American network TV, year after year. This long-running drama
still has enough suspense to keep people entertained for an eighth
season. Despite the fact that the show seems like an ensemble with
Warren Clarke (A Clockwork Orange) as the Star.
The
8th
season
comes in 4 DVD single-case, each with very different crime tales to
tell. A
Game of Soldiers,
The
Price of Fame,
Great
Escapes
and Soft
Touch.
I almost feel like the show should be titled Dalziel
since Colin Buchanan's Pascoe almost seems like a supporting player
compared to Warren Clarke's Dalziel along with the rest of their
precinct co-horts... Dalziel always seems to be the one who discovers
the crime with his vivid and prolonged flashbacks. I almost feel
like the lead characters chemistry as total opposite's has diminished
after the initial seasons and feel like it's Warren Clarke's show.
The
first episode, A Game Of Soldiers, is pretty good involving
the murder of an American tourist that the title duo investigate who
was staying at a country hotel that also involves soldiers from a
nearby army base who are being bullied by there Sargent. Plus, the
arrival and interference of the women's estranged husband who is a
cop in boston. Also, Dalziel is reunited with an old flame from 1967
when he was first probation officer on the beat.
The
Price of Fame is all over the place and hard to follow at points
including Dalziel getting suspended from a case for abusing a
suspect, a college girl addicted to the Internet is missing and
Pascoe gets assigned another partner (but of course not for long).
Another girl working as a cabaret entertainer and also popular soap
star with a sleazy manager is found washed up so to speak. Plus a
diamond heist that could link both cases.
Great
Escapes involves Dalziel getting stranded at a pub in the moors
and staying the night after his car breaks down. Dalziel discovers a
body the next morning while taking a walk which of course opens
a bigger case. A landlord's son is convicted of murdering his wife
and escapes to see his son at the same pub.
And
finally, Soft Touch has Dalziel and Pascoe trying to solve a
case before Dalziel is relegated to a desk job, involving the
connection of a murdered businessman who just returned from Russia
and got married to a Russian bride and a mysterious corpse found
drowned.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on all the telefilms are on
the soft side, despite being HD shoots, while the lossy Dolby Digital
2.0 Stereo is passable, but nothing stunning and could be a little
more dynamic. There are no extras.
For
more on the show, try these links:
Season
1
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9710/Dalziel+&+Pascoe+%E2%80%93+Seas
Seasons
4 and 5
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11622/Dalziel+&+Pascoe:+Seasons+4+&+5+%281999+
-
Howard Saul
