BLUE MURDER, SET 3

Product Description A single-mom cop who brooks no nonsense at home or on the job. When strangers ask Janine Lewis what she does for a living, she tells them, "crisis management." And she?s not kidding. As detective chief inspector, she supervises a squad of cops investigating some of Manchester?s most brutal, highly publicized crimes. As a single mom, she wrestles with soccer practices, field trips, and schoolwork for her four children. She handles her daily crises with energy and aplomb, protecting her kids as well as the detectives under her command with a fierce maternal affection. Award-winning actress Caroline Quentin (Jonathan Creek, Men Behaving Badly) portrays Janine with the perfect combination of toughness and tenderness. And Ian Kelsey (Casualty) brings a subtle vulnerability to his role as DI Richard Mayne, the lead detective on Janine?s team. These tense, tightly plotted mysteries show the everyday trials and triumphs of a woman balancing career and family. DVD SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE behind-the-scenes documentary and cast filmographies. Amazon.com Blue Murder Set 3 includes the three most recent episodes in this crime drama and police procedural starring Detective Chief Inspector Janine Lewis (Caroline Quentin), a superwoman who juggles career and motherly demands with finesse. Akin to Prime Suspect, Blue Murder follows in the footsteps of American femme police detective programs like Murder She Wrote or Cagney and Lacey, though this show reveals more of Detective Lewis's domestic life to contextualize her moods and hunches in the office. Set in Manchester, dialects are thick and one gets a cultural education about dry wit in this seemingly crime-ridden city. As Lewis struggles as a single mother, these three complex episodes show how her team solves each case while further developing character and their relationships with one another. In "Not A Matter of Life and Death," the 19-year old black football star, Duane Kent, is stabbed over what the police team assumes is a hate crime. However, as Kent's friends and siblings reveal this young man's fast-paced double life, Lewis begins to suspect the most innocent person. "Desperate Measures" opens with the shooting of controversial physician, Dr. Halliwell. Lewis must investigate several angles through forensics and heavy questioning to determine revenge motivations against this corrupt doctor. "Crisis Management" features a sergeant major murdered on a military base, who at first seems to have been killed out of jealousy. As Janine develops a crush on a colleague, DI Richard Mayne (Ian Kelsey) begins to see that other factors must be considered. In each episode, one sees the deepening relationship between Janine and Richard, her foil character. While Kent's siblings are reluctant to share information about their brother's death, for example, Richard is secretive about some medical results he awaits. Similarly, Richard's attention to the case increases exponentially once Janine gives extra thought to her military colleague. Blue Murder's strength is its interwoven plot lines in which the personal and professional blend into one vision of this woman's active, managerial life. -- Trinie Dalton Review All three are well scripted and nicely acted. Quentin makes Janine the most fascinating British female cop since Jane Tennison. -- San Francisco Chronicle Intricate storytelling, convincing characterizations and pleasing plot twists are the hallmarks of this whodunit. -- DVD Talk