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
