"Prime Suspect", the British detective masterpiece starring Helen Mirren, is coming back

For those who trembled with fear when seven years ago Helen Mirren announced that she would leave "Prime Suspect" fearing to be classified, in the new release of the series, "The Last Witness", there’s a lesson: sometimes, the problem is not the repetition, but the character. And somebody like Jane Tennison will hardly again appear in the looks of "saint" Helen Mirren (as she was nicknamed by the average British from the beginning of the series, due to their perfect compositions). From drug dealers and infantile prostitution managers to serial killers and corrupt detectives subdued to the more corrupt authorities, this detective, who smokes like chimney, drinks as a marine and causes fever within criminals, has known the worse of the worst in the five previous seasons of "Prime Suspect" (without mentioning, of course, her disastrous personal life). And it is not surprising.
Now, Jane Tennison has to investigate the murder of two Bosnian illegal immigrants in England, witnesses of a massacre during the war in Yugoslavia. In "The Last Witness" Jane Tennison won’t climb the service stairs anymore – now she is to supervise the investigations of all the homicides committed in London – but just try to resist attempts to push her out. This excellent telefilm begins with her annual medical examination, during which – against all Hollywood parameters – the age of both Tennison and Mirren is revealed (it is 54). It is supposed, probably, that after thirty years on service, is time to hang the cap, so to say. If there is something more annoying than a woman at a man’s work, it is an old woman at a man’s work (Tennison’s answer: to take the case from a subordinate and see if they are right).
The underlying conflict in "Prime Suspect" has always been a question of gender: Tennison used a different bathroom than the rest of the servicemen (her creator, Linda La Plante, based the character on Jackie Moulton, one of the only three woman-detectives at Scotland Yard). Twelve years later, the political correctness has declined and, obviously, the discrimination is still enjoying good health. This authentic masterpiece of the British TV (which already holds seven prizes of BAFTA and four Emmies) knows how to manage the gears of the plot to disclose the subtle ways of impressing the viewer.
Technically impeccable, the four-hour "The Last Witness" – in which all the performances are positively miraculous performance and first of all "santa" Helen Mirren – gives a vision of the human nature in all its bitter splendor. Something to which Jane Tennison would call, simply, felt common.