Trailer Series 1: https://youtu.be/dyFrBC1rAcg
Trailer Series 2: https://youtu.be/ELmHY-aFe08
Trailer Series 3: https://youtu.be/7jzNaj58ddU
I am going to write about the three series as one, epic, production as they were clearly, marvellously, written as that. Once fully involved in it, I was not surprised to see what else Allan Cubitt had written, notably Series 2 of Prime Suspect which I recall as being of the equal of the superb first one - and there were character similarities between the central parts played by Mirren and Anderson - a woman in an often misogynistic man’s world, an emotional life that was often not understood by her male colleagues. This aspect, particularly the double standard by which men and women are judged, particularly in terms of fleeting/sexual relationships, was very finely done and not annoyingly preached in a loud voice.
Anderson was superb - as ever. I am not sure that she ever truly smiled for the entire duration of the series but underneath the carapace was a (largely) sensitive figure, very well shown in her relationship with female colleagues.
But dramatically, the most unusual aspect of this was that we knew form the very start who the killer was and the screen time of the two was virtually identical. In the third series the moving back and forth between the two did seem to be come a little forced, but this did not affect the power of it at all. And intially, the killer was shown as a wonderfully interesting split personality - not in a lurid sudden change way, but just as someone who could live s stunningly compartmentalised life and in his family life he was a truly good and supportive father. Only as the series progressed, particularly from Series Two onwards, did this discrepancy become more and more disturbing and so he lost a degree, but not all of, our sympathy.
The ending did, pretty well, match up to the rest of the series although there was a big error made in leaving some characters, particularly central ones to the killer, in something of a limbo. They simply vanished which was rather disappointing as there was no resolution, for them or us. But then that may have been the point I suppose.
So, superb and gripping and I looked forward to every single episode even though some critics may have said that the pace was glacial - which it was, but this was a strength I felt.