"Prime Suspect" Review: Is Jane Timoney Too Tough?
As any husband or boyfriend can tell you, there is a fine line between a woman being tough and being witchy.
To borrow a phrase from “Friends,” “Prime Suspect” goes so far past the line, it can’t even see the line. The line is a dot to them…
Maria Bello is Jane Timoney, a tough NYC homicide detective trying to navigate the male-dominated police world. She’s a great investigator, but she doesn’t always win friends with the way she closes cases. Plus, the other detectives think she got her job because she slept with a supervisor.
In the premiere, Jane gets passed over as the primary for a high profile case. But when something unexpected happens, she may get another chance to prove to everyone what she can do.
I never saw the original British series starring Helen Mirren, so I have nothing to compare it to, but this one just doesn’t work for me. The case in the premiere is solid. It’s the characters that bother me.
Like I said, Jane seems much more witchy than she does tough. That becomes especially apparent when she takes a little too much advantage of a tragic situation. So she’s a little tough to like. And her fellow detectives are such cartoons, it’s a little embarrassing. Plus, their NYC accents are so thick, you almost need subtitles.
Bello is fantastic and the role is a great one for her. But she’s going to need a little more to work with if this one’s going to succeed…
“Prime Suspect” premieres tonight (September 22nd) at 10 p.m. on NBC…
Photo Credit: Patrick Harbron/NBC
