A Mind to Kill : The Last Series Now on DVD
Acorn Media Group releases A Mind to Kill: Series 3 on April 19, 2011. Detective Chief Inspector Noel Bain (Philip Madoc) is back, but there have been some changes in personnel and equipment in this last series of the popular British crime drama. Gone are his crew and his fabulous mobile crime lab. Fortunately, daughter Hannah (Ffion Wilkins) and medical examiner/pathologist Margaret Edwards (Sharon Morgan) are still making Bain's life interesting.
Noel seems to be a happier man, laughing quite a bit more than he did in the second series. Hannah is now a PC herself, and Margaret and Noel have gotten past their thorny relationship and are comfortably friends (in the final episode, “Blood and Water,” they address their relationship, with a little nudge from Hannah).
A Mind to Kill originally aired in U.K., beginning in the mid-1990’s, and the DVDs released within the past year represent the first time the show has been available to U.S. audiences. Dark and gritty, it is set in Wales and focuses on some very nasty business. There are eight episodes in the four-DVD boxed set, and many of the murders are horrific. Many also expose nasty family secrets. Drugs, abusive parents, serial killers, racism, animal cruelty, and revenge—among other topics—all have their turn.
The eight episodes are “Shadow Falls” which concerns the apparent suicide of a very “well liked” young man, “Box” about a sexually confused predator, “The Little House in the Forest” (that echoes a bit of Twin Peaks), “Sound Bites” featuring a neglectful-at-best politician dad , “The Inner Life of Strangers” about a spoiled-brat rock star who wants to make amends, “Colour Blind” which touches on racism, “Engineer” (an apparent case of malpractice), and “Blood and Water” a particularly nasty brother’s-keeper story.
Well written and well acted, with characters that are often difficult to like (not just the perps, but others around them), A Mind to Kill is an intriguing and riveting example of the best of British crime series. It will be available on DVD April 19, 2011.
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