saint_thomass

Prime Suspect: The Scent of Darkness (1995)

Let down by story and lead

Nicely filmed and well acted, it has a lot of tension and suspense and is gripping. But Tennison is such a dragon that it's hard to sympathise with her, as she insults everyone around her and never apologises for her mistakes. Despite her detestable nature, Tennison never seems to get her comeuppance nor does she get put in her place.

Another let down is the story which, though gripping, is rather predictable in some respects and very difficult to believe in others. One never feels that one is getting anywhere by watching the story and feels that instead one is at the whim of the author, who himself probably hadn't thought up the ending till writing it. The attempt at introducing suspense by introducing some time pressure fails rather.

There is some comical garbled shouting exchanged by some officers, which is quite amusing. It's also worth noting that there's a large amount of smoking, especially by today's standards.

Overall not bad, but not good either. The main character is too hard to like and the story (especially the conclusion) too ridiculous.