Two out of three ain't bad. Acorn Media has released Trial & Retribution: Set 3, a collection of three "series" (seasons in BritTV-speak) of the hit two-part police procedural films that run once a year in England (these episodes originally aired during 2005, 2006, and 2007, comprising seasons 9, 10, and 11 of the series that began in 1997). At only three films here, that's one less episode than the previous Acorn Media collections of Trial & Retribution; however, two of the movies gathered here are strong, well-crafted examples of the series, and they're worth seeking out for fans of the show and genre.

While each two-part film is meant to stand alone, previous experience with the series helps considerably - particularly Season 10's film, Sins of the Father, which trades on DCS Walker's backstory with his son - so a little background on the characters at this point will be helpful. Trial & Retribution deals with the day-to-day workings of the AMIP (Area Major Incident Pool) of the London MPS CID (Criminal Investigation Department), supervised by Detective Chief Superintendent Michael Walker (David Hayman). Walker, a hard-nosed copper of the old order (i.e.: not above bending the law a bit to get a criminal behind bars), never seems to find much peace, either in his private life or in his work environment. Coming off a failed marriage and a subsequently failed romance with a co-worker, Walker's career has had as many ups and downs as his romantic life. Having clawed his way back from a bust-down to uniform after murdering the psychotic boyfriend of his ex-wife who was abusing her and terrorizing his young son, Walker employed a bit of hard-nosed trickery to snag the high rank of Detective Chief Superintendent. Walker seemingly lives for conflict, which is often provided by Detective Chief Inspector Roisin Connor (Victoria Smurfit). A former protege of Walker's who is all too-well aware of Walker's ruthlessness and his willingness to break the rules, Connor walks a thin line between contempt for her boss' methods and deportment, and admiration for his doggedness and skills as an investigator.

TRIAL AND RETRIBUTION IX: THE LOVERS

DCS Walker receives a request to meet with William Thorpe (David Calder), a wealthy, influential businessman whose son-in-law, Mark Harrington (Milo Twomey), has gone missing. His distraught daughter, Susan Harrington (Miriam Heard), in London with Mark on their honeymoon, last saw her husband in Covent Garden when he walked away to get a coffee. He never returned. The team assigned, headed up by DCI Roisin Connor (Victoria Smurfit) and DS David Stachell (Dorian Lough), are fairly certain Mark either did a runner or he's dead somewhere, but the case is given a low-priority ranking...until William Thorpe drops dead of a heart attack during contentious questioning by DCI Connor and Mrs. Thorpe (Penny Downie), who accuses the police of not listening to her distraught daughter. Covered now in the headlines, with pressure from above to solve the case, the investigation is given top-priority, particularly after another deadly twist - Susan goes missing, as well - rocks the investigation team.

SPOILERS ALERT!

Beautifully designed like a serial-killer update of The Collector, The Lovers offers more than its fair share of horrific scenes inbetween the suspense of the investigation team tracking down the murderer. Trading on the potent set-up of someone disappearing into thin air without a trace (such as The Vanishing), The Lovers gets good mileage out of Trial & Retribution's trademark use of split-screens, with numerous shots of the investigators trying to find Susan, as we see at the same time Susan, shot in night vision goggle-style, her eyes glowing green, screaming in abject terror as she crawls around the starvation dungeon of the serial killer's, discovering the body of her own dead husband, and realizing there's no way out. It's a gut-wrenching sequence, nicely handled by director Tristram Powell and editor Ian Sutherland, and it's further strengthened by the episode's general air of panic and anxious suspense. Michael Feast is excellent as the serial killer Tom Franke, while Smurfit has some good moments questioning her commitment to the case when Susan dies from her imprisonment and her mother blames the cold, dismissive inspector.

I wasn't quite sure why the final courtroom segment was so truncated - a trend that continues through the other episodes. That would seem a mistake since the series was designed to show both ends of the process of justice in investigating and then trying a case. I particularly enjoyed writer La Plante's head-on assault, though, of psychiatrists' excuses for murderers, put into the mouth of prosecuting barrister, Harper Knowles (well played by Julian Glover): "Whilst doctors will instinctively seek to give human aberration a recognized medical label, they cannot define medically what we would instinctively describe as wickedness of the most heinous sort." Amen to that. As well, it seems there's a tacit nod of approval from DCI Connor towards the grandfather of one of the victims, played by Patrick Godfrey, when he guns down the killer after he's been convicted (La Plante cleverly sets up dread in the viewer when she shows a few jurors looking distinctly zoned-out during the trial). That's a significant expansion in showing possible compassion lurking in the rigid, tense DCI Connor. On the whole, though, the officers' personal lives are kept to a minimum (Satch's new baby and the demands it makes on his time is used at first for comedic effect, but later as a legitimate expansion of the character, especially after he sees the ghastly death chamber at Franke's place of business), and that's a welcome about-face for the series, particularly after the previous season showed signs of slipping over into unrestrained soap opera melodrama. The Lovers might have tried to make it more clear, as well, as to how, exactly Susan died, even though she was found alive at the scene by the cops (no one explains how she died - just that she did). However, that small carp aside, the overall impact of The Lovers was impressive: cold, clean, methodical, and quite suspenseful.

TRIAL AND RETRIBUTION X: SINS OF THE FATHER

Beautiful, intelligent, driven young girl Emily Harrogate (Carey Mulligan) is found dead at the bottom of her parents' home's cellar, after suffering a massive head wound. Her parents, John Harrogate (Greg Wise), and his wife Diedre (Nadia Cameron-Blakey), project a "perfect family" façade, but in reality, they're on the precipice of divorce. John is seeing another woman, and Diedre has devolved into a obsessive-compulsive, constantly cleaning and rearranging items in the house. Their son, James (Max Benitz), argues frequently with her, but he and the rest of the family apparently have an air-tight alibi for the evening when she was killed: they were having a family dinner at Diedre's mother's (Claire Bloom) house. Meanwhile, personal problems ravage Mike's equilibrium as he discovers his son Richard (Benedict Smith) has severe mental problems, landing him in jail from a sadistic, cruel act that shocks Mike. Who killed Emily? Was it a family member? Or was it nearby neighbor, Michael Summerby (Andrew-Lee Potts), a troubled youngster with no father, a grasping, clinging mother, Ellen (Rachel Davies), and a past with Emily?

SPOILERS ALERT!

Another gripping entry in the Trial & Retribution series, Sins of the Father is not only a twisty, convoluted, complex mystery (I certainly didn't see the ending coming), but it's amplified and given more depth by La Plante's subtext involving the sometimes treacherous dynamics of parenting. Looking at the mystery angle first, director Andy Hay keeps the proceedings moving at a good clip, employing frequent flashbacks to orient (and ultimately disorient) the viewer, further obscuring the crime as we realize just how fraught with danger some of these parent/child relationships are. I was particularly impressed with the way La Plante wove three parent/child relationships into the mystery, with all of them amplifying her central (and depressing) theme: damage is done to a child whether a parent ignores them, loves them, or smothers them. James' father John wants to protect him no matter what he suspects or is told about his son's involvement with his sister's death (which is par for the course for the lying, secretive John, who carries on an affair). Mike, who sees psychopaths every day in his line of work, is mortified when he realizes his son Richard may indeed be mentally ill; he blames himself for not being there for the boy (he left the family in a nasty divorce), and so does Richard. Now, it appears Richard may even be suffering from schizophrenia, as he recounts delight in killing neighborhood cats, and watching a dog strangle itself on its lead. And potential witness Michael turns to threats and intimidation against his clinging mother, who begs him to stay with her, but whom thoughtlessly turns him into the police, to enjoy the drama of being a part of the investigation. It's a pretty bleak view of parenting, burnished by the dark, brooding murder mystery angle that winds up tragically ironic: there was no murder, and yet an innocent boy goes to jail. One of the better Trial & Retribution episodes I've seen.

TRIAL AND RETRIBUTION XI: CLOSURE

Two months into a fruitless investigation of a dead girl found raped and beaten to death at an abandoned water pump house frequented by drug addicts and hookers, DCI Connor, desperate for any leads or help, asks Walker if it's okay to bring in a visiting American profiler, Max Stanford (Michael Brandon), in on the case. Walker, skeptical of the benefits of bringing him on, tells Connor it's her case...and her budget. Stanford's theories immediately start to pay off, as Connor realizes that Stachell may have made a mistake during the initial investigation. A young witness to the crime is eventually found, but he's promptly killed when he's run over repeatedly by a mysterious black car. Could the number one suspect be a former partner of Mike's, who now resides in rehab? Will Connor and Stanford catch the criminal...and tumble into bed with each...before the next victim falls?

SPOILERS ALERT!

Certainly the lesser of the three films included here, Closure's biggest problem is its most obvious: the killer is known from the very first shot in the film. If you truly don't want to know whodunit, don't read any further. Anyone who has watched even a smattering of detective or mystery shows is going to understand that dropping an American character in the middle of this British television mystery is Big Red Flag Number 1, while having that character be a profiler of serial killers BRFN 2, and then having that character be so accommodating to the police (he doesn't charge them anything...right), while subtly making advances towards Connor, while the director inserts several meaningful, long pauses of this character looking guilty as hell, well, that's BRFNs 3, 4, and 5. It's a chaotic rather than intriguingly convoluted mystery plot - a lot of noise covering up the obviousness of the solution - but again, none of that matters because we get it from the very first shot of the film, that the American profiler is the killer (forget also the rather silly moments, too, that La Plante should have caught, such as Connor asking what "narcissistic sociopath" means...she's never heard that term during her duties?). I was surprised at the obviousness of this plot, particularly for such a top-flight series like Trial & Retribution.

The DVD:

The Video:
Acorn Media has released all four episodes of Trial & Retribution: Set 3 in their correct, 1.78:1 anamorphically enhanced widescreen transfers. Looking quite sharp as a result, the image is detailed, with correctly valued colors and little or no compression issues to speak of here. Edge enhancement effects are minimal, but minor interlacing was detectible (although not at all a deal-breaker). Overall - quite a good looking picture.

The Audio:
The Dolby Digital English 2.0 audio track is adequate technically - all dialogue is clearly heard, with mild separation effects left and right. English subtitles are available.

The Extras:
There's a 46-minute behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of the series, produced in 2006 (I would assume for British television). It's a fairly entertaining look at the show, but you won't hear anything you couldn't get from just watching the films. There is also a text bio of Lynda La Plante included (it's been featured on earlier sets).

Final Thoughts:
Two of the three films in the Trial & Retribution: Set 3 box set are among the best episodes I've seen from the series so far. Always suspenseful, at times horrific, these police procedural films rival the best examples of the genre found here on American TV, with the added bonus of longer running times to delve more deeply into the characters and stories. I recommend Trial & Retribution: Set 3.