DVD REVIEW

Wire in the Blood: Prayer of the Bone

Koch Vision || Not Rated || Aug 5, 2008

Synopsis

When an accused rapist confesses to brutally slaughtering his family in a small Texas town, renowned clinical psychologist Dr. Tony Hill (Robson Green) is called from across the Atlantic to testify as an expert witness.  Alone in a strange country, Dr. Hill finds himself at the center of a maelstrom of controversy, cover-ups and capital punishment.  There are dark secrets in the town, and someone is willing to keep them buried.


Critique

Prayer of the Bone, the twentieth episode of Wire in the Blood (they call it a “full length feature,” but at 90 minutes, it’s as long as all the other episodes) finds our hero, Dr. Tony Hill, in the small town of Luther, Texas.  The mean streets of Bradfield have given way to wide open spaces, the cold, grey English weather to brutal Texas heat.  Tony is out of his element in every way.

Tony comes late to the party.  Those of us familiar with the show are used to seeing Tony inspect the crime scene with the Bradfield bobbies, but here he arrives a year-and-a-half after the crime has occurred.  We know this because when he asks to see the crime scene, the sheriff tells him, “The scene is 18 months old.”

The episode opens with the murder of a woman and her two children.  The main suspect is her husband, Iraq War veteran Darius Grady (Brad Hawkins).  Grady is a convincing suspect.  Tony had a run-in with him once before when Grady was arrested in England for sexually assaulting an underage girl.  There is the possibility of PTSD from Grady’s service in Iraq, and the troubling issue of Grady’s confession.

Tony goes to examine Darius, to see whether or not he actually has PTSD, and whether or not that would have contributed to his supposed actions.  Tony startles Grady, who jumps.  Grady does the same thing right back to Tony, who jumps even more.  “You jumped,” he says, “do you have PTSD?”  Tony, nonplussed, replies simply, “You know, I probably have.”  This is an interesting moment between the two of them, and it is a rare admission from Tony.

As we get deeper into the case, it becomes clear that Darius did not kill his family.  Tony is being followed, and it is clear that someone wants Darius gone forever.  There is something up in town.

Tony eventually gets to the bottom of it, of course, but it’s all a bit convoluted.  It’s never totally clear exactly why Darius would be framed for murder and sent to death row to be executed, but we know it has something to do with a shady drug bust from years earlier.  The lawyer “defending” Darius, we learn, was also sleeping with his wife, so there’s that, but none of this is ever fully fleshed out.  And of course the big question is never answered: if these shadow figures want Darius out of the picture so badly, why go to all the trouble?  Why not just kill him?

Prayer of the Bone is probably not the best introduction to Wire in the Blood.  This is the slickest looking episode yet produced, but it is a relatively lackluster entry overall.  For anyone who is not familiar with the show, you’re better off starting with just about any episode from the series, particularly episodes from the first season or two, and working from there.  Prayer just doesn’t do the series justice.  The episode is like a picture of a girl that show’s how cute she is without really capturing her true beauty.

The big problem is that the franchise – Tony’s brilliant insight – is almost totally missing here.  The series is one great whodunit after another, with each one of Tony’s psychological leaps taking the plot in a new direction.  By the time we get to the end, we’ve been through several suspects, all believable, with a twist coming in the final minutes that comes out of nowhere while still managing to make complete sense.  I’m not one to believe that a series must stick to its conventions like the word of Koresh, but that might have helped here.  The story becomes too much of a courtroom drama, and it is a muddled drama at that.  The characters come off more two dimensionally than they should, not that we ever really get to know any of them.  The overall effect is a version of the show that is too watered down to really get in to.

Those last two paragraphs might have made this sound worse than it is.  This entry is still better than most of what is on TV, and Robson Green is as good as he always is, but he does not have a lot to work with.  There are some good elements here, but there are too many that just don’t work.  I like the new setting; I like the idea of taking Tony out of his usual surroundings.  The problem here is that the new surroundings overwhelm everything else.  They should wrap Tony around a new locale, not the other way around.


Video

Prayer of the Bone is presented in a 1.77:1 aspect ratio.  This is the slickest entry in the series, with a lot of rich, warm colors dominating the picture.  This presentation translates that expertly.  The black and white levels are rich, and the show’s full color scheme is brilliantly rendered.


Audio

This DVD is presented in Dolby Digital sound.  The presentation is sharp, with the full aural range coming through with great clarity.  This is not a taxing soundtrack, but we get a full presentation.


Special Features

Nothing.


Final Thoughts

Prayer of the Bone is a lackluster entry in an otherwise great series.  Robson Green is as good as ever, but he doesn’t have much to work with.  This isn’t bad, but I can’t recommend it as highly as the rest of the series.

VERDICT: RECOMMENDED

 

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Review posted on Aug 13, 2008 | Share this article | Top of Page

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