Prime Suspect: Series 3, Episode 2 (1993)

The second half of this story is filled with twists and shocks; every time I thought I knew who killed the boy and why, Jane would turn the corner and another bomb would drop.  In addition to a tense, intricate mystery, there's some fantastic character stuff, for Jane as well as a few of her fellow officers.  Just really excellent, gripping television.

 

Oh, and in addition to the actors I mentioned yesterday?  This episode features a young Jonny Lee Miller doing some absolutely top-notch work.  I love Britain.

 

And PC.  Oh, wow.  Vera struggles throughout the episode with the thought of opening up to the police, terrified of what she knows and of what will be done to her if she tells.  PC is superb from start to finish, but there's a heartbreaking scene near the end that is pure master class.  It makes me shiver a little just to think about it.

 

On a side note – whenever I watch something involving transpeople, I'm hyper-aware of pronoun usage.  A few interesting things to report here.  First, Jane is the only officer that almost always addresses Vera by her preferred name.  However, when speaking with her colleagues, she generally refers to Vera by her birth name and uses male pronouns.  I wonder why that is.  Does she only use the male designators because of how the other officers would otherwise react?  Does she personally think of Vera as male but uses her preferred name out of respect when questioning her?  Is calling her “Vera” just a means of earning her trust and getting her to open up?  The inconsistency is an intriguing choice.

 

Also, there's a scene in which Vera refers to a transgirl as a he, which raised up immediate red flags for me.  I can't imagine that she wouldn't have used female pronouns, even if the girl hadn't begun to transition yet – bit of uninformed writing there.

 

The last word on both Prime Suspect installments.

 

Accent Watch

 

I'm gonna go with RP.  There's a scene where Vera is talking with a friend, and her friend's extremely Northern accent clinched it for me; she just doesn't talk like that.

 

Recommend?

 

In General – Yes.  Very well-plotted mystery, and Helen Mirren does no wrong.

 

PC-wise – Definitely.  Just definitely.

 

Warnings

 

Some additions from yesterday.  This episode has a lot of discussion of sexual abuse against minors, including a couple of difficult scenes recounting specific abuses.  There's also some S & M gear, and a few characters attempting self-harm (not in an S & M way.)