George Gently - Series 3

New G.Gently episodes hot off the 2010 shelf. Gently has proven to be a winner with British Murder Mystery fans. This new set is no exception.

George Gently episodes are based on novels by Alan Hunter. This first series showed Commander Gently's wife killed right before his eyes. Through his grief, the cop takes the high road in finding criminals and bringing them to justice. Very much like "Midsomer Murders" [recommended] without the multiple murdered victims, but with the multi-plots in police, private, and associates lives. Bacchus has a money problem in one of episode from this series. Good writing makes the show. Will the large volume of Hunter novels available for adaptation cause this show to continue? Hopefully!

Gently, played by Martin Shaw, is through, calm, and plays the mentor/father to his youthful assistant, Detective Sargent John Bacchus (Lee Ingleby). Their relationship is as important to the story/series as the crimes and investigations. Both are performance perfect. Bacchus provides some laughs. Gently's grief, sometimes brings tears. An emotional crime series, mystery, suspenseful, fast moving, and packed with plot. Setting is 1966.

Feature length episodes, each carry SUBTITLES.
"Gently Evil"--Gently and Bacchus investigate a brutal murder in a coastal Northumberland village. A BEAUTIFUL location to get bludgeoned. There are signs of a sympathetic nature to this killer of this girl. A birth certificate indicates Satan being her daughter's dad. There is much to uncover yet to get to the bottom of this crime. A dark nature here.

"Peace & Love"--Peace protesting and mob action against the police is due to the arrival of a nuclear sub. A demonstrator's leader is dead. Plenty of university turmoil surrounds the case when the investigation leads to a local campus for Gently and Bacchus. Jarrow is the location and football (soccer) was supposed to be the game.

Not recommended for the kiddies, bloody good murder, and emphasis on the bloody.

I rank it four stars instead of five because there are only two episodes, not because of the content. Both episodes are excellent. If you haven't watched this series, it is good to start with season 1 so you know the background of the two main characters.

Judge David Johnson, DVD Verdict -- "Series 3 continues the adventures of grizzled, no-nonsense Chief Inspector George Gently (Martin Shaw) and his jumpy sergeant John Bacchus (Lee Ingleby). The pair is tasked with investigating murders in 1960s Northumberland, their cases almost always containing layers of twists and reveals that leave them stunned by the end. Two shows on deck this time -- Gently Evil, Peace & Love -- running 90 minutes apiece. I confess I'm not much of a lover of the genre, but these Gently offerings are so well-staged and absorbing, I always find himself hanging on to each minute, up until the usually surprising reveal. The anchor is Martin Shaw, who consistently turns in great stuff as the eponymous inspector. Gently is understated and stern, yet he's doubtlessly a bad-ass and owns every scene he's in. He may not have the martial artistry or gunplay skills of your generic Hollywood Alpha, but everyone fears him and the guy is never wrong. Gently is quick to rebuke his over-eager and occasionally knuckle-headed partner and Bacchus takes umbrage at this. Still, Gently is so legendary, Bacchus knows how lucky he is to be paired with such a stud. Shaw and Ingleby have good chemistry together and despite their character's sporadic friction, there is affection there, approaching a father/son dynamic and it works. Both episodes are reliably strong, though the "Gently Evil" is my favorite. The twist was faintly telegraphed but the writers were deft enough to keep the twists rolling until the very end. The result is a tense, upsetting 90 minutes. "Peace & Love" has twists of its own, but ends up focusing on the social mores and anachronisms of the '60s. One of the reasons I enjoy the series is that the setting supplements the mystery and doesn't overpower it. Acorn knows how to do Blu-ray and their presentation here is sublime. The 1.78:1 widescreen transfer may be "merely" 1080i, but it is absolutely beautiful, razor-sharp and starkly colored. I don't care what the tech purists might say; "p" or not, this is as awesome a slice of video fidelity as I've seen in some time. A clean 2.0 stereo PCM provides the sound. No extras."