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Category:    Home > Reviews > Mystery > Drama > Comedy > Canadian TV > British TV > Blue Murder – Set Four (2007/Canadian & British TV/Acorn Media DVD)

Blue Murder – Set Four (2007/Canadian & British TV/Acorn Media DVD)

 

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

 

 

Having never viewed Blue Murder Sets 1-3, Blue Murder: Set 4 plays very much like most modern British Crime Dramas.  Nothing sets the series apart from the rest and for the most part this reviewer found the set to be entertaining, but a tad dry from the start.  The series takes place in the Manchester Murder Investigation Unit and stars Caroline Quentin as Janine Lewis as the firm, yet affectionate single mom; trying to balance life at work and life at home without losing her mind.

 

Blue Murder: Set 4 is composed of six 1-hour episodes from 2008 that are housed on a 2-disc set.  Each episode is very procedural and if you are a fan of crime/police dramas the series will not be throwing to many “twists” your way as it is highly predictable.  The series plays more like a solid “channel flicker” show that is comfortable enough to watch when nothing else is on (like reruns of Law and Order: SVU), but certainly nothing that I would go out of my way to view.

 

The team of crime “swashbucklers” includes DI Richard Mayne (Ian Kelsey) who is basically second in command and Janine’s flirtatious love interest (though not much comes of it), Ian Butchers (Paul Loughran) a very humanist chap, and Detective Sergeant Tony Sharp (Nicholas Murchie) as the brash, quick to jump to conclusions, detective who plays very well off of Paul Loughran’s character who is more kind hearted as previously stated.

 

The series is only mildly entertaining and is rather hit or miss as about half the episodes were a pure drag.  As the series caters more to the female perspective this reviewer often found the series a bit slow-paced as it felt more like a Life Time series than a hardcore crime drama.  In the end the series is watchable, but there are much better (probably too many) crimes series out there.

 

The technical features on this 2-Disc set are adequate for DVD, but nothing special. The picture is presented in a 16:9 Widescreen that plays quite nicely with a pretty clean image and a solid color presentation.  Whereas the image does not compare to HD it has fine detail and gets the job done.  The sound is presented in a Dolby Stereo, which once again gets the job done but is far from perfect as it all comes from the front and starts to drag after a while.

 

There are no extras on this set with the exception of a few useless bios.

 

I would not run out and buy this set, but fans of the series will continue enjoying the at times griping story arches and likeable characters.

 

 

-   Michael P. Dougherty II


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