Customer Reviews

The Commander Set 1

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Clare Blake, (high praise for Amanda Burton's acting) takes the leadership of the Murder Review Team, but immediately does something that assuredly was in the "Commander Manual" in red lettering, #1 under the "DO NOT DO" list. Blake has a sexual affair with a murder convict just released that she herself had help get convicted. This affair gets publicized and creates a situation interfering with each the the murder investigations for the rest of the four episode, 570 minutes of top-notch murder mystery.

The 4-star rating is due to this UNBELIEVABLE action by the newly appointed Commander Blake. The movie even had the nerve to make this main character a female "BLOND". Would anyone in their right mind, especially the traditional conservative British population, make such a terribly wrong judgment error after a 20-year career of making the right decisions that get you appointed to the top leadership position?

Okay, now, getting beyond that initial event, the rest of the series is on-the-edge-of-your-seat, bewildering intrigue, plots braided together holding thrilling mystery, and 5-stars. Each of the 4 episodes (About 2 1/2 hrs each) have a new primary murder to solve. The MRT actors/actresses remain the same in each, additional cast in introduced related to the complex plots, Blake's affair with Murder Lampton resurfaces, Blake's family situations get involved, and the outcome will not be guessed, until the DVD does the disclosing.

There was the police shooting of a suspect, Cripps, that went awry and covered up for 4 episodes. Blake's blunder with the Lampton affair was further aggravated by her entrapment attempt. Will she never learn? The commander's sister gets cancer at the same time someone hacks into a hospital records system and begins murder blackmail. A special deputy, "Blackdog", is assigned to look into both the Lampton affair and the Cripps shooting. Plenty of police cover-up to go all around. And finally, date rape murders begin appearing with the first London victim being, of course, Commander Blake's goddaughter.

The DVD box warns about graphic scenes and nudity. Plenty of nasty victim scenes, so beware. There is no captioning so "Blackdog's" words are sometimes a bit hard to catch, but the rest is not bad.

Summary: worth watching for murder mystery fans, once you accept the dumb-blond syndrome of the Commander's initial "misjudgment."

I highly recommend this boxed set, it is a terrific series. My only complaint is that this US release contains the episode 'Blacklight' & the earlier UK release didn't. so now all of us who bought the UK set have to buy this set also.....not happy Acorn Media

This is a brilliant series. I couldn't be torn away from it -- I was in its thrall for about 4 days, when I watched all 10 hours of it and couldn't wait to get back to the TV to watch more. The casting, acting, directing, photography are all superb, and the plot is complicated and compelling. My only (slight) reservation is that the last disk is a disappointment. It has nothing to do with the three previous ones, and seems like an add-on. (My inspiration to buy this was an interview that I heard on NPR with its author/producer, Lynda LaPlante, which is available on the internet. I recommend it highly.)

This show is a excellent example of a realistic U.K. crime drama.
The show features a flawed and foolish leader whose hormones get in the way of common sense. We have seen this in real life in every profession over and over and on the screen with many a movie. What's interesting here is that is a ruthless police chief who is a woman and who is stumbling here. And her ruthlessness isn't a sign of corruption , it's just how she has risen to the top. The cast is first rate and it pulls no punches and that makes for a better acted show too.
Of course most female commanders in the U.K. are not this foolish but the author of the book this came from specializes in troubled police women. See the excellent "Prime suspect" series for a even better show about a british policewoman who is flawed badly but still a good cop.
Like all recent british detective shows the quality is very high and they can compete with any top show made anywhere. If You like cop shows that are HEAVY on personal drama with murders as the backdrop then this show will be a good bet for you.

This set really disppointed me. I consider Lynda LaPlante's Prime Suspect series some of the best stuff ever on TV, and so I was very interested in this series after reading that she'd written this one, too. But I not only didn't care for The Commander set, I really didn't care much for the 'heroine' at all! I had little sympathy for her...and very little respect for her; she's definitely NOT what I'd call a heroine! Prime Suspect's heroine is flawed for sure, but she has character & integrity in spades; the woman in this set is a bit too smug and I didn't find her to have much integrity at all, spending far too much time trying to dig herself out of the hole she'd dug for herself without much plausible reason (in my view) for having fallen in to begin with. If I'd rented the set, I would probably have stopped after 1st segment, but -- given I'd bought the set based on the high review rating, I plodded on, thinking that surely it would get better. It didn't, in my opinion. By the end, I didn't really care if she succeeded in saving herself or not. Too bad I had ignored the few more negative reviews in light of the majority of great ones; I wasted way too much money on this set! I would not recommend it to anyone. Far better are any of the Prime Suspect series (my faves are 1st and 6th), the Cold War era Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy set & the Smiley's People set (I think these are my absolute favorites of any TV mystery series I've seen), the House of Cards trilogy, and to just a little lesser degree, Reilly Ace of Spies. A Very British Coup, and the terrific Inspector Morse series (the last episode of which actually brought me to tears as I'd grown to care so much for the main character).

A well acted drama with some inconsistences, but well worth watching. It got me interested and kept me watching in spite of myself and a few logical problems with actions and inaction on the part of individuals and institutions involved in this drama. Probably not entirely realistic but compelling and very watchable.

Amanda Burton - what a compelling performance - strong dialog and in depth stories - Lynda LaPlante obviously has the lion's share of credit here but her choice of Amanda brings it alive and gives us that; in your face emotion. When will we ever see DVD set TWO??? The wait will be far too long.

This series reminds me of the 'Prime Suspect' series. Amanda Burton does a great job in providing the viewer with a three dimensional character. The series is well written, well acted, has suspenseful story lines and all in all kept me very interested. I look forward to watching the Set 2.

I like the stories and the acting, but the premise of a commander being this hands on in so many cases is not feasible. I think it limits the possibilites of the series and the story lines. I keep thinking - not in real life; but I ended up wishing for more.

This is good, similar to all other police procedurals, but doesn't have personal relationships among police themselves.