Murder In Suburbia – Series 1
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C- Episodes: B
In the continued hit or miss of Detective dramas on
British TV, Murder In Suburbia is one of the hits, featuring two lady
detectives with lively and very for-real interactions that help the show and
its very well-written teleplays move that much better. Some might say this is more of an American
style, but since the U.S. networks dropped the ball on the Mystery show outside
of the tired police procedurals (though Numbers is in a class by itself)
another show had to surface somewhere to do this kind of series right.
It should be said that it too is not as much a police
procedural as it is just a smart detective show where the leads just happen to
be police. They do not fetishize on the
evidence, which is fine for something like CSI, but becomes an excuse to
not have as much suspense and cuts into the Mystery side of things. Not only are their intelligent mysteries,
but they are so seamlessly part of the narrative that it never feels
conventional, which is not always easy to pull off. Cheers to Nick Collins for putting it all together.
This first set has six episodes, none of which have
titles, but all of which are solid.
Caroline Katz as Detective Inspector Kate “Ash” Ashurst and Lisa
Faulkner as Detective Sergeant Emma “Scribbs” Scribbins may just land up
becoming one of the great all-time TV detective teams if this show stays as
good as this season or even picks up.
We can only hope.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image originated in
digital high definition, which has some good color in shots, but is a bit muted
otherwise and the HD has the usual detail limits versus film. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo can be played back
in Pro Logic, but does not sound as good.
Text cast filmographies are the only extras, but the show is a hit and
another season (aka series) is on the way.
- Nicholas Sheffo
