Vera - Series 5 [DVD]

I remember the first time I watched some episodes of “Vera Season 1”, which originally aired in May 2011. I wasn’t sure what to make of this new detective. Her most frequent phrases were “Mmm” and “Mmm?” uttered in a squeaky little murmur. And, after 5 seasons, I still feel unfamiliar with her calling strangers “love” and “pet”.The difference is that NOW I know there is an intelligence and intuition behind her shuffling that is proven by her cases solved. And she is not some grandmotherly figure mistakenly given a badge. As a matter of fact, DCI Vera Stanhope is driven and alone, if not lonely, likes to drink and isn’t always pleasant. In Season 5, her longtime sergeant, DS Joe Ashworth, is replaced by a transfer, DS Aiden Healy. In episode 1, Aiden makes the mistake of mouthing off a bit and Vera gets snappy. DC Kenny Lockhart, who’s been with Vera since series 1, tells Aiden: “She doesn’t like them cheeky.”Aiden: “I’ll bear that in mind.”DC Bethany Whelan: “Don’t worry. The first three years are the hardest!”Above all, it is the plotting that keeps me coming back to “Vera”. I enjoy a good mystery, and these are good mysteries. They take place in NE England, shown in red on the attached map. Her precinct is called the "Northumberland and City Police."If you didn’t already know, the characters are based on the mystery novels by Ann Cleeves. I can highly recommend another TV series based on Ann Cleeves mysteries, the new Inspector Perez stories titled “Shetland”, because it’s on those stormy islands the mysteries occur:Shetland Season 1 & 2The 4 episodes of “Vera Set 5” originally aired in April 2015. They are about 93 minutes each, for a total 371 minutes of engaging mystery viewing. If you buy the DVD Set 5, the show is presented in 16:9 widescreen and stereo. English subtitles are available. There is only 1 DVD extra, a 2 minute Photo Gallery.Episode 1 “Changing Tides” The sun is barely over the horizon when a huge explosion rips through a caravan park, what we’d call a trailer park in the U.S. The fire spreads to the caravans on either side, which fortunately were empty at the time. Unfortunately, the first caravan was supposed to be empty, too, but the police find a woman’s body inside. As the door was locked from the outside, it becomes a murder investigation.I found this a very human, moving plot. It’s not always about greed.Episode 2 “Old Wounds” The body of a young woman is found in Hollowthorp Woods. It’s fully decomposed, and the 1st clue to when she died is a button on the clothing: “Coal not Dole”. Thirty years before, the Hattington Colliery was home to a violent miner’s strike and that’s when a teenaged Carrie Telling was last seen. As her bitter grieving father tells Vera, the police wouldn’t budge to solve the disappearance of a “half-caste miner’s daughter”. After leaving the father, Vera says to Aiden: “Should never have brought uniform. Sore thumb. Winds people up.”Aiden: “Pensioners mainly, aren’t they?”Vera: “Meaning?”Aiden, joking: “Less likely to jump us.”Vera: “They’ve got long memories, love,”Trivia: A colliery is a coal mine and its surrounding buildings. The 1984-85 strike in the TV show takes place at a fictional colliery, but the nationwide coal strikes of ’84-’85 were very real. Margaret Thatcher made her name by breaking the miners’ union. By whatever means possible.Episode 3 “Muddy Waters” At Danny Pryor’s farm, his foreman, Milosh Beqiri is trying to hook up a pipe to the slurry pit. It sloshes and stops and the exasperated Milosh tells Danny it is blocked. It sure is, by a man’s body. Couldn’t be an accident because it’s been weighted. When the leads don’t come fast enough, the irritated Vera snaps to her crew, “Why are we still referring to our victim as Slurry Man? How hard can it be to find a name?”Trivia: When Milosh has trouble at the slurry pit, he gives an exclamation in Serbian, “Zaboga!” As near as I’ve been able to find out, this translates to something like, “For God’s Sake!”Episode 4 “Shadows in the Sky” It’s a strange beginning. A young woman in her prom formal is quietly crying. Her Dad comes to pick her up in an upper level of a huge empty parking garage. She stays in the car while he goes up one level to find a payment machine that works. Then he doesn’t come back. He doesn’t answer her phone call. She leaves the car to investigate, just in time to hear his body fall from an upper story and land on its back on a car below. Head first, on his back – and he already paid the parking fee. That doesn’t sound like he jumped of his own volition.I thought this episode’s plot was a little contrived, but the acting is great and it does a great job of showing the grunt work involved in police work.Good entertainment!Happy Reader