❮ Prime Suspect
Season 1
Season Premiere:
Sep 22, 2011
Metascore
Generally Favorable
65
User score
Generally Favorable
7.5
My Score
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Season Episodes
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
69% Positive
18 Reviews
18 Reviews
23% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
8% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Sep 22, 2011
88
Bello doesn't need to adapt to anyone else's role model (literally), because she's created her own strong, stand-alone character.
Sep 21, 2011
83
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).
User score
Generally Favorable
78% Positive
38 Ratings
38 Ratings
16% Mixed
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
6% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
Nov 23, 2011
10
With so many cop shows around, it's hard to not be boring, but Prime Suspect is engrossing, clever and unique. Maria Bello is believably both hard and soft as the situation calls for. Her progress in winning over the "boys" in the homicide squad is one of the few parallels to the British show of the same name. But, this show is on the bubble and has been put on "hiatus" which probably means it's going to be reconfigured into something more PC but certainly less unique. Now, I like NCIS and Castle and CSI too, but this is the real deal and, if you weren't turned on on your first watch, watch it again and give it a chance. It deserves to be watched.
Nov 17, 2011
10
This is the best show. Please do NoT cancel this series. Maria is the best actress. Captivating. With all the crap that's on TV with the reality TV junk, it's so great to have a quality option to look forward to each week.
Sep 22, 2011
75
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.
Sep 21, 2011
70
Fortunately, terrific performances all around quickly ground the tensions in character rather than theme.
Sep 19, 2011
67
Filled to the brim with good actors, from Aidan Quinn as Bello/Jane Timoney's boss to The Shield's Kenny Johnson as her boyfriend, Prime is overripe with hard-boiled detectives (and I love hard-boiled detective stories) and renders Jane not a feisty broad to admire, but rather a bullying pain in the ass you'd cross the street to avoid.
Sep 22, 2011
50
The show has to get beyond plot predictability and one-dimensional characterization if it's going to survive.
Sep 16, 2011
10
The only suspects of interest in this crime series are the producers and writers who threw this hapless business together and called it "Prime Suspect."
Nov 16, 2011
10
This is such a good show. It's always interesting and engrossing, not like the typical formula shows that are on TV now, ie: female lead (aging beauty), male sidekick with some sexual tension, stories that have no depth. You could interchange any of the actors in these shows and get the same result. Prime Suspect is different and so much better. Problem is, it was not given a chance, up against a tough lineup and preempted as well. Hope it gets picked up by a cable channel that lets it continue.
Nov 15, 2011
10
Not just the best cop show on network TV, the best show period. Maria Bello and the rest of the cast are fantastic, as is the writing. This is the most realistic police drama on network TV. Along with Southland, one of two police shows on TV that gets it.
Oct 27, 2011
10
By far the best show of the season, prime suspect is so great and it's not all Maria bellos doing. The acting is phenomenal as well as the writing and it's really great seeing all these fabulous, even funny characters interact. I think the show got some negative feedback due to its weak pilot, which really pushed the whole sexist issue and featured a dull mystery. But I gave it a second chance, and I'm glad I did cause its really just an interesting cop show with creative angles used to solve crimes with an interesting cats of characters led by the wonderful bello..... It's really worth watching
Oct 7, 2011
5
The tragic thing about Prime Suspect isn't that it is a remake of a far superior British show, its that it puts so much effort into convincing the viewer that Maria Bello's Jane Timoney is a good detective, when she finally 'breaks' a case you feel as though she should have done it earlier. Prime Suspect doesn't seem able to fill out a 60 minute time slot with plots being dragged out be overly misogynistic side characters being little more than time traps. At least Bello is convincing as a career driven women, if not a heartless career driven woman. The pilot throws a few twists into the mix, letting Timoney lead her first case but it all seems like A to B storytelling with no overarching narrative or themes to think about. Its all a little bit mindless which is depressing because it had such pedigree to work with.
Oct 10, 2011
0
I could only spend 15 minutes on this before deciding I was wasting my time. Male cops are portrayed as uniformly incompetent, indifferent to the case, drinking on the job, blatantly hostile to women. The female lead is portrayed as brilliantly insightful. As male bashing, the show gets a 10. As a realistic representation of life, or as entertainment, a zero.
