Cracker – A New Terror: The Final Episode (2006) + Prime Suspect 7 – The Final Act (2006/DVD-Video/Acorn Media)

 

Picture: C/C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C+     Episodes: B -

 

 

They say all good things must come to an end, though with the grind of weekly television or any other TV series (even telefilms) can run even the best ideas (like Columbo) into the ground.  Two such series are the original version of Cracker with Robbie Coltrane and the Helen Mirren hit Prime Suspect.  Cracker even returned as a U.S. series with a new star (see elsewhere on this site) with Coltrane originating the fictional radio and real-life psychologist Dr. Edward “Fitz” Fitzgerald, who helps the police on murder cases. 

 

In both cases, different video companies issued the series on DVD a while ago and we were not around yet to cover them.  It is hard to say how good the original Coltrane show was overall, but this final show is a mixed bag as he deals with the events of 9/11 as he returns to the U.K. for his daughter’s wedding.  This likely would have had more impact if this (and other viewers) had seen the previous shows to invest themselves in the character.  Coltrane is good, but it made me want to start at the beginning and I have seen only so many shows.

 

Mirren’s Detective Superintendent Jane Tennison is about to retire and has one final case ion that of a missing young girl.  It becomes a dark mediation on a life lived in the darkness of one of the darkest occupations (handling murder) to ever have.  Mirren, who is like an experienced diva vocalist who gets better and more complex in her work with age, concludes the series with an intelligence rarely seen in the genre on either side of the sea.  Even if you have not seen previous shows, this is more effective, though some aspects of the teleplay beyond Mirren’s control was obvious to fans of the genre like this critic.

 

Both are sold separately from Acorn Media and Suspect is a double set.

 

Both are recent enough to be shot in HD and anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image with Cracker having some serious detail issues, barely consistent color and soft definition.  Suspect fares better, though is stylized to have muted colors.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo in both cases have no real surrounds, but sound good like recent recordings are expected to be.  Extras include nearly hour-long behind the scenes featurettes running about an hour in both cases, while Suspect also has text cast filmographies.  All are fitting ends to their respective shows.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo