Murder Investigation Team: Series 1 Visits Very Dark Places
Murder Investigation Team is another in a line of dark British police dramas, and it is definitely the darkest. In its episodes, viewers will meet some of the skankiest criminals to inhabit television—incestuous father, cop-killer, murderous mother, serial killer specializing in redheads, pedophiles, and white supremacists—assuring us that British TV is not just Upstairs/Downstairs and Monty Python.
Acorn Media releases Murder Investigation Team: Series 1 on DVD March 1; there are eight episodes on the three-disc set. The ensemble cast includes Samantha Spiro as Vivien Friend, head of London’s Metropolitan Police Special Crimes Unit, Lindsey Coulson (the sympathetic and intuitive DC Rosie McManus), Steven Pacey, Michael McKell, Richard Hope, Howard Ward, Patrick Lincoln, Joe Shaw, Richard Hew, and Vincenzo Pellegrino. Each team member brings his or her unique skills, personality, and sometimes prejudices to the cases they investigate.
Murder Investigation Team cases are never pretty, and viewers are warned of “strong language, violence, and graphic images.” Besides blood-spattered, perforated bodies, there are plenty of nude corpses in the morgue awaiting or undergoing autopsies. The show is not for the squeamish; it is intense, realistic, and unsettling.
Years ago, my father told me that he had stopped watching Law & Order because too often the bad guys got away with their crimes. He would not have enjoyed Murder Investigation Team. The emphasis is on investigation and the guilty parties aren’t always indicted. The audience feels the investigator’s frustration when it becomes evident that a perpetrator will go unpunished. The episodes end abruptly, leaving viewers to their thoughts on the issues presented.
Fans of Law & Order, Cold Case, and CSI will enjoy Murder Investigation Team, which combines elements of all three.
Bottom Line: Would I buy/rent/stream Murder Investigation Team: Series 1? Yes, it’s an absorbing program that takes the viewer to some very dark places.
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