Having seen a boatload of police procedural TV series, from both the U.S. and Britain, I have to admit that I wasn't expecting much when I received Waking the Dead: The Complete Season Two. I'm not a fan of the curiously similar Cold Case series on CBS, and the thought of seeing yet another high-tech, gadget-laden, music video-styled policer (avoid the junky Murder City like the plague) quite frankly depressed me. But I was pleasantly surprised by the thoughtful, suspenseful Waking the Dead: The Complete Season Two. Taut, intricate scripts and a decidedly low-key production - with a good ensemble cast - made for an entertaining eight hours of TV mysteries.

The premise of the series is very simple. Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd (Trevor Eve) leads a crack "cold case" squad. Their mission is to reopen unsolved murders and through dogged legwork and the very latest in high-tech forensic techniques, solve the cases the regular police either missed or couldn't resolve. Two other police detectives join D.S. Boyd: Detective Inspector Spencer Jordan (Wil Johnson), a tough, no-nonsense copper; and Detective Sergeant Mel Silver (Claire Goose), a questioning female officer not adverse to challenging the preconceived notions of the men on the squad. In addition to the police personnel, Psychological Profiler Dr. Grace Foley (Sue Johnston) offers critical information on the makeup of victims, potential suspects, and crime scenes - as well as a reliable counterbalance to Boyd's more headstrong actions. Forensic pathologist Frankie Wharton (Holly Aird) provides the hard science like DNA matches and fiber and fingerprint analyses that confirm - or initiate - the inquires and theories of the other members of the team.

What struck me immediately about Waking the Dead: The Complete Season Two was the relatively measured, restrained, straight-ahead production. There aren't a lot of showboating, flashy edits or surging, pumping techno music cues blasting on the soundtrack in the series. Instead, old-fashioned storytelling with a logical, almost clinical (if you'll forgive me) precision to the layout of the stories creates quite a bit of suspense (the last episode here, Thin Air, achieves a remarkable air of charged erotic suspense). The direction of Waking the Dead: The Complete Season Two is sober, as well, with a clean, evocative style suitable for the similarly constructed scripts. The production design, nicely restrained (the squad's digs isn't a multi-million dollar lab, nor does the group wear expensive designer duds), gets quite a bit of value from its British location work, and the burnished browns, golds, steely blues and leaden grays of the cinematography create an appropriately downbeat (and stylish) atmosphere.

A few missteps do crop up in this second season, nitpicky details that nagged me when I stopped to think about them. In Life Sentence, would real police and prison officials really leave an attractive female cop alone with a serial killer, unsupervised, in a common room where anything could - and does - happen? And what is Boyd doing handling evidence sent by courier with his bare hands, when the scripts frequently make mention of "compromised evidence" at crime scenes? Still, those are minor details, glossed over by the professionalism of the cast, and the sure hand of the series' producers. My understanding is that Waking the Dead is one of the most popular dramas on British television. I'm not surprised. It's a well-made show, but I would imagine that the appeal is deeper than just appreciation for a nicely-turned product. After all, these police procedural series - extremely popular here in the States, as well - must be enormously reassuring affirmations of logic and order in these stressful times. While the heroes and villains of Waking the Dead: The Complete Season Two occupy varying degrees of moral culpability, the magic application of high-tech forensics renders the guilty party visible, while vindicating the sometimes wobbly police. Order - both moral and civil - has been reestablished through the microscope.

DISC ONE:

Life Sentence
The cold case squad must deal with an imprisoned serial killer whose past crimes may have involved a partner - who now wants to carry on with his sadistic crimes.

Deathwatch
A former WWII submariner, attached to a covert squad dedicated to hunting down and killing Nazis, is somehow connected with a series of murders of jurymen who sat on an infamous murder trial of a local gangster.

DISC TWO:

Special Relationship
An ardent feminist-turned-Home Office insider is found murdered in her flat, and the cold case squad soon finds out that a well-connected peer - as well as the CIA - are involved in the crime, as well.

Thin Air
The macabre discovery of a dressed mannequin leads the cold case squad to a fifteen-year-old disappearance case of a young girl who may have had secrets that got her killed.

The DVD:

The Video:
The anamorphically enhanced, 1.78:1 video image for Waking the Dead: The Complete Season Two is quite good, although I wondered if some slight, occasional wobbliness in the picture might stem from a PAL conversion. Otherwise, it's a solid, subtly hued transfer.

The Audio:
The Dolby Digital English 2.0 stereo mix is adequate for the largely dialogue-driven material here. English subtitles are included.

The Extras:
There are no special features for Waking the Dead: The Complete Season Two.

Final Thoughts:
Measured, methodical, and tightly scripted, Waking the Dead: The Complete Season Two is a crackerjack police procedural suspenser, with a solid cast and an admirably restrained production. I recommend Waking the Dead: The Complete Season Two.