Cracker (DVD)

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As far as brilliant criminal psychologists go, Dr. Edward "Fitz" Fitzgerald is at the top of his game. He can profile a criminal better and more accurate than anyone in his field of expertise. He has helped the Greater Manchester Police crack some pretty tough cases in the past. He can go head-to-head with any criminal mind, probe their motivations for committing the crimes that they are accused of and come out smiling with a confession in hand. Alas, if only he can keep himself sober long enough to put his great talent to work. You see, our good doctor is also a chain-smoking, hard-drinking compulsive gambler with a self-important attitude that seeks to alienate everyone around him, including his own family. Fitz can easily find other people´s psychological weaknesses but can´t see his own faults. Even Fitz´s almost-Sherlockian power of deduction cannot save him from the scorn of many of the police officers that he works with.

Working for Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Bilborough (Christopher Eccleston), Fitz´s closest associate on the force is the attractive and young Detective Seargent (DS) Jane Penhaligon (Geraldine Somerville). At the start of Series 1, Penhaligon found Fitz to be a hard man to work with but as their friendly jabs slowly turn into flirtatious innuendos, Penhaligon starts to like him more and more, even though he is an overweight middle-aged guy who is married with two kids. By the end of Series 1, they were both set to go on holiday together but Fitz backed out at the last minute, opting to try and patch things up with his wife Judith (Barbara Flynn) instead. Well, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. In Series 2, Penhaligon has no trouble showing her despise for Fitz, even refusing her boss, Bilborough´s request to bring Fitz in to help on an important murder investigation. At the same time, Fitz´s life is falling apart faster than he can say "Freud". Even with a temporary reprieve from Judith, Fitz manages to screw it up with his own arrogance and constant denial. Sometimes, I think Fitz is as flawed as the criminals he helps catch.

To its credit, Series 2 tries very hard to top Series 1 with more sensational stories and even more shocking events that affect the main cast of characters deeply. In an unexpected turn of events, a very important supporting cast is killed off, making for some major changes on the show. Whether the demise of that character helps or hobbles the show, it is hard to say but personally I can´t help but think that it creates a tense atmosphere and puts the audience on its toes, not knowing what the show´s writers have in store for them next.

Unlike many television crime dramas, "Cracker" is a show that does not hide the identity of the perpetrators until the end but instead shows the crime being committed. So what kind of incentive does the audience have to tune in to the show if they already know who did it? Well, the biggest fun is following the process that Fitz´s mind goes through in figuring out how the crime is committed and by whom. With lots of naysayers around him, there are plenty of funny quips and intelligent exchanges to be had, especially between Fitz and the sometimes-incompetent DS Jimmy Beck (Lorcan Cranitch).

Smashingly portrayed by Scottish gentle giant Robbie Coltrane--who is now more famous for his role as Hagrid in the Harry Potter movies,--Fitz is somewhat of an unorthodox hero, able to catch the bad guys but can´t get past his own failures to save his own marriage. Other regular supporting cast members like Somerville, Eccleston, Cranitch and Flynn successfully combine to give "Cracker" a believable and dark tone that is unusual for television in the early 1990´s. Among the guest stars, Robert Carlyle ("Full Monty" and "The World Is Not Enough") stands out as he gives a chilling performance as the disturbed serial killer Albie in the episode "To Be A Somebody".

"Cracker: Series 2", like Series 1, comes in a 3-DVD set that consists of 3 different episodes, one on each disc. Each episode is divided into 3 parts.