Above Suspicion - Set 1

ABOVE SUSPICION set 1 is the 1st 2 stories, 2 disc, 2 series/years 2009-10 of an ongoing British crime gripper. It's raised the bar for realistic crime scene, morgue, and victim visuals. It is so realistic, it can put off the viewer, turned my head a couple of times. DC Anna Travis (Kelly Reilly-Sherlock Holmes; Poldark: Series 2) is the new female copper on the team and the reality of atrocities turns her stomach too. Lovely Reilly plays the role so well, sassy and wanting to be first-rate, but making rookie gaffs. So if you've a weak stomach, you may decide to give this a miss. If you can take the graphic scenes, then you'll also find some top acting by regulars and guest stars of gritty London crime, by author/screenplay writer/producer Lynda La Plante, well known also for Prime Suspect: The Complete Collection. At least reviewers can't complain the film writer took too many liberties with the book, since they are the same person.

ABOVE SUSPICION (book title & series in 2 parts) 114 min WITH SUBTITLES
Pt 1: An 8 year female victim murder series, each alike & brutal, then one exception. Travis goes undercover to end the carnage. DCI Langton (Ciaran Hinds-Amazing Grace) heads a team with Travis a young, rookie, shapely cop with taut blouse and loads to learn-like stemming gag reflex. John Savident is one guest star in this series.
Pt 2: It's a ballet night as Anna is undercover with suspect Daniels (Jason Durr). A trap's set, but some of the HOT action moves to HQ, twixt she and Langton.
Bonus on disc 1: 2 text filmographies, La Plante text bio; photos; Videos with subtitles of Making the Show-6 min, Meet the Creator-4 min, Behind the Scenes Pt1-7 min of realistic recreation of a decomposed body, Behind the Scenes Pt2-6min of Durr's character.

THE RED DAHLIA (book title & series in 3 parts) 140 min WITH SUBTITLES
Pt. 1 Based on true story, model Louise Pennell body found halved & mutilated. Reporter
Reynolds (Edward MacLiam) gets note indicating a murder link to decades-old unsolved Black Dahlia case. New murder dubbed Red Dahlia. Copycat?
Pt 2: Reporter gets victims handbag as well as a date with ethics-naive Anna with proves disastrously conflicting. Perpetrator contact warns of a new victim. Langton's press embargo ignored by Reynolds. Anonymous caller names Col Wickenham (Simon Williams-Upstairs Downstairs), retired surgeon, with alibi. Another star appears as a maid (Sylvia Syms-The Queen).
Pt 3: Phone tap on Wickenham helps, as do photos Anna secures of sex party. Expect the unexpected in this bizarre dysfunctional family and case finale.
Bonus on disc 2: photos; video's with SUBTITLES--How the Dummy was Made-3 min of silicone excellence, Adapting the Novel for TV-8 min where the novel author talks about cutting her own story for film use, Meet the Cast/Crew about 4 min each with subtitles: producer, director, creator, cast, guests.

It's unrated by UK but definitely adult's only (with strong stomach) due to graphic violence & images, nudity mostly prosthetic, and language. If you want more, perhaps read the books, even the Director complained about having to leave out bits, in this over-the-top suspense on the grimy side of murder.

So long as I've been watching them, the Brits have done televised mysteries exceedingly well. Granted, I haven't seen them all, but I've seen enough to known that theirs is award-winning formula that seeks to bring quality material to the small screen, and ABOVE SUSPICION is no different. The program - it recently aired its fourth series in January, 2012 - are based on Lynda La Plante's novels of Detective Anna Travis. While I've not read any of the books, I'm certainly inclined based on the quality of narrative presented in release of the first two series on DVD.

In short, Ms. La Plante's novels focus on the cases of (rookie) Detective Anna Travis (played by the adorable Kelly Reilly). Along for the ride are several significant supporting characters, including DCI James Langton (Ciaran Hinds), DI Mike Lewis (Shaun Dingwall), and a handful of recurring police players. Together, they explore cases involving serial killers and prostitutes, as well as a maniac who may be preying on beautiful young women .

Particularly winning is Ms. Reilly, who subdues the usual big-city-sexiness so common with female leads of the U.S.-based crime shows beneath a layer of small-town charm: her hair is unkempt most of the time, and, indeed, her coworkers of the first installment remark how she wears practically the same outfit to work every day. Her first day on the job, she traipses through a muddy crime scene in fashionable high heels, only to end up throwing up and fainting upon viewing her first corpse. Still, she's a comely lead, and she brings a kind of naïve, wholesome charm to stories otherwise weighted with dark and bloody matters: psychosis, murder, and incest.

Balancing out Reilly's naiveté is Mr. Hinds as her superior, DCI James Langton. Clearly, he's seen and done it all as a member of the police force, and, yes, that includes doing his boss, Commander Jane Leigh (Nadia Cameron-Blakely). He's engaged in an inappropriate workplace relationship - though occasionally it appears he's done so precisely to make things easier for him at work - and, as rumors persist, it looks like he's willing to again with Detective Travis. He's drawn to her - in part due to the fact that he worked for years with her father - and, together, they share a chemistry driven far more out of professional courtesy than it ever is romantic desire.

And what would a great procedural be without great villains? Of course, I can't go into any detail here without spoiling it, so I'll leave it with a simple, benign observation: they're equally vile, equally despicable, both backed with convincing performances by the talent involved.

If there's any shortcoming here, then it would logically fall back to the source material - the novels of Ms. La Plante - to understand them. Perhaps, a strong case could be made that the villains here are all, predictably, white well-to-do individuals. Clearly, crime is rampant across all levels of society, and maybe - maybe - it'd be nice to see that represented in the stories we tell culturally. In the end, maybe the author is simply trying to reflect that the affluent are more likely to have the means AND the money to engage in some pretty nefarious scenarios; hopefully, I'll get the chance to see the other two series and learn that Ms. La Plante's villains leaned toward a different cultural and economic persuasion. Still, the stories work, and that's why I'd wholeheartedly be interested in seeing more from La Plante Productions.

The program comes from ITV Studios and La Plante Productions, and the disc is produced by Acorn Media. The first installment - "Above Suspicion" - is a two-part series that aired in 2009 and was instantly dubbed "a younger, sassier successor to `Prime Suspect.'" (It's important to note that Ms. La Plante wrote the teleplays for the first and third series of "Prime Suspect.") "Above Suspicion: The Red Dahlia" is a three-part series that aired in 2010, and it deals with a killer who's copycatting the US's infamous Black Dahlia murders. Both series have exceptional video and audio qualities. Additionally, each installment is given a brief `behind-the-scenes' featurette as well as cast interviews. I will state that my player experienced some mild difficulty in correctly accessing the disc's menus - when trying to view the `Episodes Directory,' I was instead shown only a black screen with two boxes for selection but no text appeared in the boxes. It was easy to work around, but I thought it worth mentioning in the event that any other viewer have the same issue.

HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION. Smart and simmering, ABOVE SUSPICION couples elements of the effective police procedural along with well-groomed character dramas to produce a winning contrast between the people who'll stop at nothing to break the law versus those who'll stop at nothing to catch them.

In the interests of fairness, I'm pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Acorn Media provided me with a DVD screener copy of ABOVE SUSPICION: SET 1 for the expressed purposes of completing this review.

We liked this movie, except for the nude scenes and did a fast forward there, but the actors were good and the story believable. We would like to see Season 2, but it is only available in the UK; hope it is available in the US before long.

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