Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Married Baby Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Delight Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

peterclik First off, the casting in Prime Suspect is excellent. Maria Bello is outstanding as the lead character, showing all the grit necessary to pull off the role with class and realism. What's truly outstanding is how Bello borrows nothing from Mirren's British adaptation, instead relying on her own interpretation of the flawed - yet gifted investigator Jane Timoney entirely. In short, this woman has some serious acting chops.Her supporting actors are also brilliantly cast. Kirk Acevedo, a favorite of mine since OZ, gave weight to my initial interest in the show, and I'm glad he did. Should also add that the camaraderie between Acevedo and Tim Griffin is refreshing and portrayed very naturally, not at all contrived like so many other 'buddy' teams on NBC and other networks. (See the Hawaii 5-0 buddy team for a great example of contrived, forced, and utterly horrid 'buddy' performances) All in all I really can't say enough about the casting director. Obviously he/she is at the top of his/her game and we're all the better for having a proper ensemble to unveil some pretty compelling storytelling.Speaking of the storytelling, every episode (I'm up to the latest - 6) are all based firmly in reality, the procedural aspects are depicted spot on and quite in line with how an investigation is actually run by most big city police departments. In fact the realism is most of why this show is so refreshing, as it seems to purposefully avoid the typical clichés present in other police drama/procedural (see: CSI) But alas, since this show was cursed enough to be picked up by NBC, I fully expect the corporate 'Talent Assassins' will be released from their dungeons soon enough to summarily kill this fine show from their line up of otherwise useless crud, thereby making room for some unoriginal trash. Perhaps we're finally in for the premiere of 'Real Housewives of Afghanistan' as it's replacement.Yes, unfortunately I fully expect Prime Suspect to go the way of Trauma, Detroit 187, The Chicago Code, The Unusuals, and of course, Dinosaurs. So bloody unfortunate for the networks to continually tease audiences with quality and talent, only to have it fall away before having been given a proper chance, consistently replaced by retarded nonsense. Even more unfortunate that Prime Suspect is on NBC, as they seem to have the worst record out of all the networks for leveling the death blow ax to truly quality TV.

Dan Bullock First up, I'm a UK Viewer. Secondly, this is an adaption so don't worry about what they'll do with the old material. It's whole new take and Maria Bello excels in the lead role of Jane Timoney, a slight alteration on the name but no-less a strong female lead.It's a very special cast as well, Kirk Acevedo (Fringe), Brian F. O'Byrne (Mildred Pierce), Aiden Quinn (Legends of the Fall) and many more work wonderfully as an ensemble cast. This challenges a lot of other cop shows out there at the moment, offering something fresh and intriguing.You may not like everyone to start with but stick with it, surely that's more interesting than liking everyone straight away and agreeing with the quick viewpoints, slick camera work and so forth. In the days of CSI and all those similar, this is refreshing, gritty, real and I really hope the US - or other countries - start to take to more and give it a bigger chance because at least it's taking risks.It's also quite brutal in places and makes you question all parts of every character. Well worth your time if you want something intelligent and original. Even if it's another part of La Plante's legacy.

Pansopher Briefly: She's tough and cold (and smart at her job). The men are irrational whim-worshipping wimps (and chase along behind her like barking dogs while she solves the crimes). Prime Suspect was a disappointment to me. I like Bello and was prepared to love seeing her in her own show. But several things precluded that:The writing suffers from too much naturalism: the 2 writers wanted (as they said in their interviews) to keep things really really *real*. But their idea of reality is to show most NYC cops as sophomoric, drunken, foul-mouthed, narrow-minded, anti-woman buffoons. I can't stand a one of them, and the idea of those morons working to protect citizens' rights... is a bad joke.Maria Bello's character is a cut above the sub-human males, but at a terrible price: her femininity is somehow missing. She's tougher than the men--and more important, far more intelligent and reasonable in her work. I could get to liking a woman like Jane T., if she were written *as* a woman. In her present form, I don't quite know *what* she is. Seeing her act like that makes me cringe.In another TV board, they were talking about the "empowered women" trend in new shows, and a fellow reviewer complained about all the emphasis on gender, asking "why can't we just be human beings instead of male and female?" My answer to that is apropos to Prime Suspect: We can't "just be human beings" because our gender is built in, and deeply affects our world view and sense-of-life. That, in a nutshell, is my problem with Prime Suspect, which portrays a woman who's more gruffly manly than any of the men in the show. (In fact, the men are painted as either wimps or frothing idiots -- or both.) Every second we have to spend watching the needless nagging and straining based on anti-women silliness -- is a precious second taken from the advancement of the real plot: solving crimes with tenacity, ingenuity, and guts. That gender-battle stuff bores me to death.Somewhere buried down amongst the fol-de-rol of this show is a grand potential: to portray a woman who's bold, courageous, independent in her thinking, and a very clever, intuitive cop.I wish we could have more of that. Prime Suspect could be - and should have been - great TV art. Unfortunately, as it stands now, it ain't.

ben_arner I've been a big fan of the British series since it started way back when so was interested to see an American version, I'm still waiting.If your a fan of the original avoid this, all it has in common is 1/ the title, 2/ its a woman trying to make it in a mans world, 3/ her first name (they even changed her surname) Based on it being a "prime suspect" id rate it 1 outta 10, it lacks everything that is good about the British one, every episode is wrapped up neatly after an hr, it lacks the grit an depth of the original and, well, everything but the three things named above.If you watch it not knowing the original series then you'll get your usual formula cop show that seems to be thrown at us from all sides these days and would rate it maybe a 7 based on the first few episodes