Review of Murder Investigation Team Complete Series 1 (3 Discs)

Introduction

The Bill has been one of the longest current running crime series of recent years, and whenever there has been a major murder as part of the storylines then we witness the arrival of the boys in big black boots: the ubiquitous MIT. MIT is an acronym for Murder Investigation Team and this team are called in for the specialised police work required for investigating the very serious crime of murder.

In The Bill, we have seen MIT arriving with one of the old regular CID members as part of the team, which has allowed MIT to both work alongside their ex-colleagues but also for information to be passed from the team that probably shouldn`t have.

In 2003 the first stand-alone series to highlight the work of MIT arrived and co-incided with the exit of a popular character from The Bill. This murder was therefore a cross-fertilisation of a popular series with a newer one in the same way that CSI led to CSI: Miami and then CSI: Miami did the same with CSI: New York. As with the others, the link to its predecessor ends there and the series then stands on its on two feet. A second series is currently airing on ITV1 as I write this.

Episode 1: A busy street in Sunhill turns into a crime scene when a drive-by shooting leaves Sergeant Matt Boyd and a teenager dead.

Episode 2: Construction workers discover the preserved body of a young woman in a concrete tomb at a demolition site. The team discover that the victim has been reported missing for 3 years.

Episode 3: A partially dismembered body of a child is discovered on a Thames refuse barge, and discoveries made during the post mortem lead the team down the avenue of potential ritual sacrifice.

Episode 4: The team have two bodies on their hands. The first is a vagrant dumped in a lake, the second a young local teacher. Very quickly it becomes obvious that the two murders are linked, but how?

Episode 5: The body of a red-haired woman is found decomposing in woodland. The team at first suspect her husband, but he has a cast-iron alibi during the time of death. Then news comes through of another red-haired woman who has been attacked but survived. Are they connected?

Episode 6: The body of an ex-glamour model is washed up on the bank of the Thames. A background check into the life of the victim throws up some interesting clues as to how she may have met her death.

Episode 7: A convicted paedophile has been murdered and mutilated, which doesn`t bring out the best of the team which struggles to identify with him as a victim. DI Friend pushes her team to investigate this crime like any other, who are shocked to discover very little is known about him officially.

Episode 8: An investigative journalist is murdered in a deserted shop on a busy market street. Although the team suspect a gangland killing from the MO, they struggle to find witnesses who can confirm this. Then the team discover that the victim was working on a story about local racial tension and there were many people who were against her story being published.

Video

Picture is good for a recent TV broadcast, not as sharp as some releases but more than adequate.

Audio

Soundtrack is Dolby Digital 2.0, which is more than adequate. One of the big contrasts is the song used in the end credits, Sweet Bitter Love, which is used to show the contrast between the way that the MIT view murder as a job or business against the reality that it is a tragedy that affects many people.

One big downfall to this disc is a complete lack of subtitles, which is a major no-no for a big release. Shockingly absent.

Features

Interview with Michael McKell - 25 minute interview with the actor who plays DS Trevor Hands. A little bit luvvie when describing relationships with the other actors and creative staff but quite detailed opinions on both the show and his character.

Commentary on episode 1: commentary by Exec. Producer/Creator Paul Marchioness and former DCI/series consultant Jackie Malton. Very informative if a little dry commentary at times on police procedure and why story lines go a certain way.

Conclusion

When this series first hit the small screen, I thought it might be a true cross-over series with The Bill and this got me a little excited at seeing this. I was a big fan of The Bill at the time and the chance to see regular characters engaged in this type of series appealed. No story beyond the first episode has involved the Sunhill mob however, and despite my initial disappointment this has worked out for the best.

Aside from the fact that I`ve become disinterested in The Bill as a series as it got more soap-esque, the following seven episodes allowed this series to find its own feet and this has subsequently led to a second series broadcast at the time of writing this. I can`t help but feel that the DVD release of series one was a deliberate strategy to cash in on the new series, but that tactic seems to work well with major films so why not with TV as well?

As to the cast, well it`s a bit of a large ensemble cast here so most characters only have bit parts. Whilst this means that the show focuses on the two larger stars in Lindsay Coulson and Samantha Spiro, the presence of the others actually gives some depth to the overall feel of the show and you feel like this is a proper team effort rather than the clichéd detective duo doing all the work.

Lindsay Coulson is the undoubted star of the show and surprisingly is not the lead character. Playing the Lewis role against Spiro`s Morse (loose comparisons obviously), Coulson excels as the down to earth mum who just happens to investigate murders for a living. One of the highlights for me in the performance of this cast is the off the cuff looks that communicate far more than just the script would. According to Michael McKell, a lot of these are unscripted and just caught on the day, but they really do make a difference. Most of these involve Coulson in some way. Sadly, I haven`t quite got over my initial impressions of Samantha Spiro and this has biased my impressions of her character. Whilst Spiro is clearly a good actress, she mostly looks like a rabbit caught in headlights with a permanent pout, as if she is constantly sucking a lemon. I`ve never really understood why this is (and it is a tad unfair on the actress herself), but as I say this impression still stays with me and I find myself counting the times I catch this on screen.

MIT stays focussed on the murders and subsequent investigations with no real effort to show the private lives of the team. Whilst this may inevitably lead to a sense of dislocation with the characters, it does mean that the storylines can focus on more complex murder investigations and get as much detail into the individual episodes as necessary. There will inevitably be comparisons with this series and the much more glossy CSI franchise, which was my initial reaction on seeing this, but this series works in a different way. CSI is a glossy franchise with swift editing and a penchant for forensic minutae. MIT gets down and dirty with the circumstances surrounding the murders at a more languid pace, which seems to be the British way. The forensic evidence in MIT just points the team in the right direction, leading to the climactic interrogation whereas CSI is all about the evidence. The two can easily stand side by side but remain separate rather than one being a pale imitation of the other.

I`m a big fan of detective/murder shows and this is another to add to my viewing collection.