Good movie but grossly overrated

Brilliant and touching

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It starts with Jane Tennison, in her first week in the Police Force assisting the CID.because the Detective Inspector fancies her. In the first of the Helen Mirren series there were jibes abut her sleeping her way up the ranks and it appears there was some truth in it. It would have been far better if the first series at least, kept her away from murder investigations It does, however, have Alun Atmstrong, omne of our very best actors

As a great admirer of the Helen Mirren portrayals of Jane Tennison, I have to say this recent "prequel" is a huge disappointment. Stefanie Martini is simply not believable as the young officer who would become the later Tennison. Her pretty face almost never changes its expression throughout; she does not inhabit the role as Mirren did so completely. I could only sit through a few episodes but did watch the final one straight through, and it reinforced my low opinion of both the star's acting and the show's writing. If you want to see how a police drama focusing on women can be done with both realism and superb writing and acting, check out Scott & Bailey, a much better British series.

It's 1973. Jane Tennison (Stefanie Martini) is a young probationary police officer in London. She gets coffees and types up reports. She still lives at home with her parents. Her mother disapproves of her life choices. A drug-addicted prostitute is found dead and DI Len Bradfield leads the investigation. Bradfield takes her under his wing and develops a romantic relationship with her. Meanwhile, lifelong criminal Clifford Bentley (Alun Armstrong) is in prison waiting to get released as his family plans a big heist.Stefanie Martini looks to take over the prequel version of the iconic TV character created by Helen Mirren. The biggest question is that if she can match the legendary Mirren. The character maintains her personal flaws and superior mind. She struggles with murky ethics which leads to her later mistakes. Martini shows flashes of acting power but time will tell if she is up to the task. She's definitely plenty cute enough. There is good 70's settings with dirty earth tones. I'm glad they kept the smoking although it's a little toned down. The murder mystery is perfectly fine. Alun Armstrong holds the other end of the story quite well. This is a solid start although a second series is unlikely.

It's excellent all the way around... But it suffers from a common problem. The music is louder than the dialogue. I'm not talking about the songs that are played during transition sequences, I'm talking about the "wall paper" (As randy Newman called it). The music that plays in the background in order to create a mood is just a bit louder than the exchanges between actors. When you turn it up to hear the dialogue the wall paper turns up as well. As I said, I notice this is a common problem in some of the programs produced for Masterpiece. I wonder if it's a translation problem between the U.S. and the U.K. Something to do with direct current vs. Alternating current in the way things were recorded... Maybe it's just bad sound people- maybe it's just me...