Prime Suspect: Tennison

Viewers will notice how skillfully Prime Suspect: Tennison reflects modern issues--such as workplace gender equity and police brutality--within a story that’s set 44 years ago. It has a subtle but effective sense of relevance that so many post-“Mad Men” dramas set in the ’70s and ’80s attempt but so often fumble.

Martini was a solid pick. ... As for the stories inside Prime Suspect: Tennison, they hold up because they are gruesomely complicated (the murder of a 17-year-old girl that hardens Tennison) and ambitious (mob shenanigans in the B-storyline that also serve to slowly hone Tennison's deductive skills, which are innately there when we meet her). As a standalone series, this might be a letdown, but as the beginning of a separate journey and an ongoing exploration, it's full of promise.

Martini does an admirable job channeling Mirren's spirit. The cases, however, are uninspired, and the writing dull. [23 Jun 2017, p.59]

Stefanie Martini lacks the steel and fire to make us truly believe this rookie constable could be so precociously intuitive. .... The prequel is most intriguing when Jane, still living with her parents and defending her career choice, struggles with an ethical work dilemma and the affections of a superior. [26 Jun - 9 Jul 2017, p.13]

Martini is all right ... [But] it’s hard to imagine such a shallow character growing into Mirren’s complicated soul. If Martini were playing a different character, if the “Prime Suspect” branding were not attached, that urge to compare would not distract, and Martini might have a chance to develop the role according to her own bent. But since she is Jane Tennison, her creative wiggle room is limited. Like the series, she is stuck in the shadow of a legend.

Your 270 minutes are better spent with those reliable classic episodes [of Prime Suspect] than with Martini’s muddled contribution.

Installments runs past the 80-minute mark in order to tell a meandering, unexceptional story that could have used far more ruthless pruning and honing. A bigger problem is the casting of Stefanie Martini in the lead role. The writing does her no favors--it’s obvious and superficial throughout--but Martini brings nothing but a wide-eyed innocence and a bland, earnest tentativeness to the role.