Hidden Depths

How is it her subordinate, Joe Ashworth - and later DS Aden Healey, are able to cheek her? Everyone else in the office has to kowtow to her or fear her wrath!! But both of these young men are able to practically tell her off. I'm sure in a real room full of cops, if this kind of thing went on there would be complaints of discrimination!!!

DCI Vera Stanhope and her Sergeant, Joe Ashworth are called in to investigate a suspicious death, plenty of suspects, and plenty of people who are hiding something.

I think the series gets off to a flyer with this episode, it's gritty, intriguing and beautifully acted, anything Blethyn touches seems to turn to gold, it is little wonder that the show is set for an eighth series. A sensible move to have a strong, well known actress from the North East in the opener, and Gina McKee is brilliant, her scenes with Blethyn in particular are excellent.

A lot is done to mask the identity of the killer, so the viewer is given a clever mystery to solve. It also explores life and death, one life is welcomed in as Joe and Seline's newborn baby is welcomed in, while another, Vera's father is put to rest.

A quality start 8/10

How does series get through 9 seasons is beyond me. bad writing, bad acting, bad characters. so pathetic, is not even worth an actual review. where is inspecor morse when you need one.

This first episode introduces Brenda Blethyn's Vera as a curmudgeonly but determined detective inspector in the sparse north east landscape. She is muddling on after the recent death of her father whom she might not had always got on with.

Gina McKee plays a distraught mother whose son is found drowned just a few months after his friend was also found drowned. When a woman teacher is found dead, Vera thinks that the deaths are somehow linked especially by the way the bodies are laid out surrounded by flowers

Vera is assisted by her younger partner Sergeant Joe Ashworth (David Leon) both think a group of bird watching friends might hold a clue to the deaths.

An interesting starter with a few guest stars such as Murray Head playing a philandering professor. Maybe the episode tried too hard to disguise the actual culprit.

Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope is a frumpy, late middle-aged, hard working and empathetic detective who drinks too much. She's also smart and gets the job done. In this episode she and her colleagues investigate the murder of a 15 year old boy and a subsequent murder. The mystery itself was not particularly interesting and the best part of the show was in introducing us to Vera with all her flaws, strengths, regrets and fears. It's odd but one of my problems with the show was that I had a hard time at first telling apart the two leading support actresses as they looked so much alike in their dress, hair and general appearance, at least from afar. As much as I like Blethyn, I think this is the kind of series that grows on one after time and fortunately Netflix has the first four episodes so I'll be able to test this. An observation on the title of the series - why is it that there's Morse, Wycliffe, Lynley, Murdoch, Lewis, etc. but when the lead detective is a woman, the first name is used?