The first Prime Suspect introduces Helen Mirren's detective chief inspector Jane Tennison, the only female DCI on an old boy's club London homicide squad. She is like a phantom lurking around the edges of the action while the men rush through their latest murder case, joshing and winking with the kind of male camaraderie the cop genre has celebrated for decades. When DCI Shefford dies of a sudden heart attack, Tennison demands to take over. Despite her superintendent's resistance ("Give her this case and she'll start expecting more"), she becomes the squad's first woman to head a murder investigation. Scrutinised at every moment by her superior officers, Tennison is faced with a case that spirals out from a single murder to a serial spree, a second-in-command who undermines her authority and her investigation at every turn, a team resistant to taking orders from a woman and a private life unravelling due to her professional diligence.

Lynda La Plante's script is a compelling thriller riddled with ambiguity that turns dead ends, blind alleys, and the mundane legwork of real-life cops into fascinating details. Mirren commands the role of Tennison with authority, intelligence, and a touch of overachieving desperation. Superb performances, excellent writing, and understated direction make this BBC miniseries one of the most involving mysteries in years. Look for future stars Ralph Fiennes and Tom Wilkinson in supporting roles. --Sean Axmaker

This box set contains the first five Prime Suspect crime dramas, which star Helen Mirren as detective chief inspector Jane Tennison. The original story, first aired in 1991, was written by Lynda La Plante and established a compelling template--grisly murders, fascinating operational details, well-written characters and believable domestic drama.

The feature-length titles in this box set are also available individually:

Prime Suspect (1991)
Prime Suspect 2 (1992)
Prime Suspect 3 (1993)
Prime Suspect 4: The Lost Child (1995)
Prime Suspect 4: Inner Circles (1995)
Prime Suspect 4: Scent of Darkness (1995)
Prime Suspect 5: Errors of Judgment (1996)

In 2003, Mirren reprised her role for Prime Suspect 6 (not included in this box set).

In Prime Suspect 2, Helen Mirren's ballsy woman detective chief inspector Jane Tennison is assigned to head a racially charged murder investigation in a largely African / Caribbean neighbourhood. It's politics as usual in the image-conscious organisation, so the superintendent adds to the team black detective Robert Oswalde (Colin Salma), a sharp but hot-headed investigator who has just broken off an affair with Tennison. Now she has to grapple with her own conflicting feelings while fighting political and public-relations battles both in the media and within the police system itself as she investigates the labyrinthine case.

Given scant clues left to sift, a prime suspect who's almost dead and divisions in her own team that result in a devastating death, Tennison soon begins to suspect she's been hung out to dry by the department. Screenwriter Allan Cubitt dives into the murky waters of volatile racial and social relations to create an even more complex and compelling mystery in Tennison's second appearance and Mirren rises to the challenge to explore the contradictions of an uncompromising cop in a compromising position. --Sean Axmaker