**** PRIME SUSPECT aired on NBC WCMH Channel 4 for Time Warner and Insight Communications customers ****
Prime Suspect on NBC was about Jane Timoney (Maria Bello), an iconoclastic female detective who has to make her bones in a tough New York precinct that is dominated by men. Some people had a lot of problems with the pilot. Personally, I loved Bello’s take on Timoney, and everyone only knows the show as the show where the female blonde cop lady wears a hat.
Yes, same show.
Sadly though, the ratings never really hit, the show never popped the way NBC brass wanted to, and thus, NBC has burnt off the final two remaining episodes of Prime Suspects and to this I say, boo. While I am always on the fence about procedurals, such as Prime Suspect, I genuinely enjoyed the writing and grittiness between the crimes and the interactions that Timoney had to deal with each episode.
The biggest crime is that Prime Suspect, in my earnest and humble opinion, felt like it had more stories to tell. Sometimes shows at the end of their freshman and only season, feel like they could end on a note. Instead, Prime Suspect felt like that one friend who was a boxer who literally could go one more round but the refs call the game. And it’s sad too.
Even more sad is that I’ve seen wonderful performances from everyone involved in the show. Bello can act circles around people in general, so to me, praising Bello is a bit of a ‘duh’ statement, but the biggest nod is actor Brían F. O'Byrne who hit it out the park as Detective Reg Duffy, who keeps surprising me. In the pilot, I sincerely hated the guy, and by the end of the series, I found myself intrigued by Duffy.
There are some actors who have been around for ages, doing great character work, and sometimes it’s little roles in big television shows or films that you then recognize them. O’Byrne caught my eye on FlashForward on ABC and there, he played the exact opposite of Prime Suspect’s Duffy, and so after being so set in my mind as one thing, to see him transform into a bit of a jerk, and start off with me disliking him and by series end having me thinking the guy is an okay guy, well, by and by, it’s a wonderful performance capped off with wonderful writing.
And that isn’t to discredit the other actors on the show: such as the wonderful Kirk Acevedo or Tim Griffin, or even Damon Gupton. (And Aidan Quinn? He’s like Bello. A class act in anything he’s in.)
Sadly, Prime Suspect has now been laid to rest, and for that I am sad, as it was a fine show, and will be missed next season.
But what do YOU think, examiners?
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