Critic Reviews

It's arresting and criminally entertaining.

The show sometimes lays on the misogyny a bit thick, but Timoney's alienation feels painfully realistic, thanks to Bello.

Bello doesn't need to adapt to anyone else's role model (literally), because she's created her own strong, stand-alone character.

There's texture galore in this city-shot cop hour, eyed by handheld lenses echoing "Homicide's" edge (and director Peter Berg's "Friday Night Lights" intimacy).

The best new crime drama of the fall season doesn't necessarily have to be an original idea. It just has to have the right people in place.

Bello's performance as the weather-beaten Timoney, swabbing her emotional scars with alcohol, nicotine and invective, is easily the highlight of the fall television season.

This is a million miles from PBS and Mirren, but it works because of Bello's visceral energy.

If Jane Timoney continues to be an interesting character--and if the characters around her become three-dimensional enough to stand plausibly with or against her--then this could hearken back not only to the original "Prime Suspect," but "NYPD Blue," "Homicide," etc.

Thanks to the rock solid performances of Bello, O'Byrne and co-stars that include Kirk Acevedo, Kenny Johnson and Chicago homeboys Tim Griffin and Aidan Quinn, Prime Suspect rises above the formula network procedurals that focus more on forensics than good, old-fashioned grunt detective work.

[Bello's] sour, tough intelligence is right on the money. [3 Oct 2011, p.45]