Prime Suspect
NBC | Release Date: September 22, 2011
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
6
Negative:
2
Watch Now
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesLori RacklSep 22, 2011
Season 1 Review: The show sometimes lays on the misogyny a bit thick, but Timoney's alienation feels painfully realistic, thanks to Bello. Read full review
88
New York PostLinda StasiSep 22, 2011
Season 1 Review: Bello doesn't need to adapt to anyone else's role model (literally), because she's created her own strong, stand-alone character. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineAaron RiccioSep 20, 2011
Season 1 Review: It's arresting and criminally entertaining. Read full review
83
Uncle BarkyEd BarkSep 21, 2011
Season 1 Review: The best new crime drama of the fall season doesn't necessarily have to be an original idea. It just has to have the right people in place. Read full review
83
NewsdayDiane WertsSep 21, 2011
Season 1 Review: There's texture galore in this city-shot cop hour, eyed by handheld lenses echoing "Homicide's" edge (and director Peter Berg's "Friday Night Lights" intimacy). Read full review
80
Miami HeraldGlenn GarvinSep 22, 2011
Season 1 Review: Bello's performance as the weather-beaten Timoney, swabbing her emotional scars with alcohol, nicotine and invective, is easily the highlight of the fall television season. Read full review
75
People WeeklyTom GliattoSep 27, 2011
Season 1 Review: [Bello's] sour, tough intelligence is right on the money. [3 Oct 2011, p.45]
75
RedEyeCurt WagnerSep 22, 2011
Season 1 Review: Thanks to the rock solid performances of Bello, O'Byrne and co-stars that include Kirk Acevedo, Kenny Johnson and Chicago homeboys Tim Griffin and Aidan Quinn, Prime Suspect rises above the formula network procedurals that focus more on forensics than good, old-fashioned grunt detective work. Read full review
75
HitfixAlan SepinwallSep 22, 2011
Season 1 Review: If Jane Timoney continues to be an interesting character--and if the characters around her become three-dimensional enough to stand plausibly with or against her--then this could hearken back not only to the original "Prime Suspect," but "NYPD Blue," "Homicide," etc. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeMatthew GilbertSep 12, 2011
Season 1 Review: This is a million miles from PBS and Mirren, but it works because of Bello's visceral energy. Read full review
70
SalonMatt Zoller SeitzSep 22, 2011
Season 1 Review: Not great, but good, and promising. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushSep 22, 2011
Season 1 Review: It feels awfully dated, except when Bello takes matters in her own hands to keep things fresh. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesMary McNamaraSep 21, 2011
Season 1 Review: Fortunately, terrific performances all around quickly ground the tensions in character rather than theme. Read full review
70
The New York TimesAlessandra StanleySep 21, 2011
Season 1 Review: This Jane is not as morally spent and self-interested as Ms. Mirren's character, but she has an unusual and appealing roughness around the edges. Read full review
70
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob OwenSep 21, 2011
Season 1 Review: Prime Suspect improves as the hour goes on. The guys' attitude toward Jane evolves. Read full review
70
VarietyBrian LowrySep 19, 2011
Season 1 Review: Surrounded by a solid supporting cast, it's a workable if not quite prime piece of development. Read full review
67
Boston HeraldAmy AmatangeloSep 22, 2011
Season 1 Review: While some of the best dramas can dovetail a character's work and personal lives, Prime Suspect might be better off, at least in the beginning, focusing on solving the weekly case. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyKen TuckerSep 19, 2011
Season 1 Review: Filled to the brim with good actors, from Aidan Quinn as Bello/Jane Timoney's boss to The Shield's Kenny Johnson as her boyfriend, Prime is overripe with hard-boiled detectives (and I love hard-boiled detective stories) and renders Jane not a feisty broad to admire, but rather a bullying pain in the ass you'd cross the street to avoid. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterTim GoodmanSep 23, 2011
Season 1 Review: You should at the very least check out Bello, who does fine work here. Read full review
60
Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen GraySep 22, 2011
Season 1 Review: It doesn't yet feel like just another cop show. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsDavid HinckleySep 21, 2011
Season 1 Review: If you're looking for subtle, Prime Suspect will not become your appointment television. On the other hand, if you're looking for an intense police drama that suggests women face brutal obstacles in the police world, Maria Bello's Jane Timoney keeps the pedal to that metal. Read full review
50
PopMattersLesley SmithSep 22, 2011
Season 1 Review: Parts of the show seem archaic, more Life on Mars than life in a 21st century police department. Other parts seem careless bricolage. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandSep 22, 2011
Season 1 Review: The show has to get beyond plot predictability and one-dimensional characterization if it's going to survive. Read full review
50
USA TodayRobert BiancoSep 22, 2011
Season 1 Review: Give Maria Bello credit, if you like, for having the courage to take on a character so indelibly linked to one of the great actors of our time, Helen Mirren--and then take it away for the ridiculously behatted mash she and the show have made of the character. Read full review
16
Washington PostHank StueverSep 16, 2011
Season 1 Review: Maria Bello was convinced to star as Det. Jane Timoney, bravely attempting to make up for a so-so script by donning a fedora and laying things on about 10 times too thick. Read full review
10
Wall Street JournalDorothy RabinowitzSep 16, 2011
Season 1 Review: The only suspects of interest in this crime series are the producers and writers who threw this hapless business together and called it "Prime Suspect." Read full review
Current TV Shows
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 92 The Pitt: Season 2
2 90 The Celebrity Traitors UK: Season 1
3 87 Hacks: Season 5
4 87 Industry: Season 4
5 87 Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal:...
6 85 The Beatles Anthology
7 85 The Traitors [UK]: Season 4
8 85 Bait: Season 1
9 84 Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!
10 83 Lord of the Flies
11 83 Riot Women: Season 1
12 83 For All Mankind: Season 5
13 81 The Muppet Show (2026)
14 80 Outlander (2014): Season 8
15 80 The Other Bennet Sister: Season 1
16 80 The Mighty Nein: Season 1
17 80 The Comeback: Season 3
18 80 The American Revolution
19 80 One Piece (2023): Season 2
20 80 Dark Winds: Season 4
SEE ALL