In the squad room, the cops on the Manchester murder
investigation unit call Janine Lewis Boss. At home, the kids
simply call her Mum. In both places, she manages to keep
everybody in line but just barely with a firm yet affectionate
hand. Award-winning actress Caroline Quentin (Men Behaving Badly,
Life Begins) brings astonishing dramatic depth to her role as a
chief detective and single mom trying to balance the demands of
career and family. Ian Kelsey (Casualty) costars as Janine s
fiercely loyal second in command and erstwhile romantic interest.
This six-episode set sees Janine tackle some of her most baffling
cases yet: the murders of an illegal Belarusian émigré, a
suburban cheerleading coach, a rock star about to break into the
big time, and more. In Blue Murder s signature style,
heart-tugging domestic drama and good-natured workplace ribbing
leaven each suspenseful, grimly realistic mystery.
.com
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Blue Murder Set 4, comprised of six episodes from this
epic crime-drama serial, is perhaps the best yet. If one is left
craving the outlandish murder details of previous episodes, one
feels completely satisfied for getting more deeply acquainted
with Detective Constable Inspector Janine Lewis (Caroline
Quentin) and her daily life juggling career and family. Since
2003, Blue Murder has been a fabulous success in its balance of
crime with character development. In this fifth series, Detective
Lewis and her team, including D.I. Richard Mayne (Ian Kelsey) and
Detective Tony Schap (Nicholas Murchie), do solve several bizarre
murder mysteries, but the emphasis is on Lewis's means of
handling maximum stress, as a woman and mother. Opening the
season is a two-episode saga, "Private Sins," in which a Russian
immigrant is found dead with little to go on other than forged
passports and a sexy Russian partner, who Detective Schap gets a
little too involved with. While the detective work is gripping,
what is most finely rendered here are the hardships Lewis's
children face while their mother is too busy at work, and the
methods she uses to win them over. "Tooth and Claw," however,
involves a highly original crime plot involving a strangling that
occurs on a remote hillside. It is fascinating to observe how the
squad's forensics and questioning change to accommodate
rural populations and lack of resources. Also fascinatingly
bizarre is the murder that takes place in the opening scene for
"Having It All." In it, teenager Melanie kell kell (Natasha
Thompson-Wild) discovers her mother killed in her garage. While
all episodes do show the viewer reasoning and politics behind
each case, these feel so sincerely realistic because one begins
to truly understand the anxieties that accompany such a difficult
job. Quentin is so well-cast, and is as convincing as ever as a
woman who seeks balance between loyalty to her employees, her
children, and herself. Issues such as income raises, jobs in
peril, and other such crises add a dose of social realism to
these outlandish, morbid murder plots. And as before, the
Manchester dialect and slang is a joy to the ear for an American
who likes to consider cultural similarities and differences.
--Trinie Dalton
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