Vera - A Very Special Case - Season 2 - DVD

Content: Warm, outgoing, a real team player - these are not exactly attributes that apply to DCI Vera Stanhope (Brenda Blethyn) of the Northumberland & City Police. Not all of her colleagues can cope with her cynical and gruff manner. The actually very tough DC Holly Lawson (Wunmi Mosaku) therefore throws in the towel at the beginning of the second season and gets transferred. The eternal teasing was just too much. Her colleague DS Joe Ashworth (David Leon), on the other hand, knows how to deal with his boss. With a lot of patience he always manages to get to the soft core underneath the damn gruff shell. This allows him to learn better from her, which ultimately makes him a better cop.

Together with the rest of their team, the two are once again confronted with very different cases in Season 2. For example, the daughter of Stuart Macken, Vera's first sergeant, becomes the victim of an arson attack. Shortly after, Macken takes his own life. For Vera, this is a very personal case that takes some unexpected turns. The same goes for the other three cases in the season, where the cops have to investigate a military base or deal with a dead social worker. And along the way, Vera learns a secret from her own past that could turn her life upside down.

With over seven million viewers, Vera - A Very Special Case has been a huge success in the UK for four seasons now. In Germany, too, the fan base for the series based on the novels by Ann Cleeves is growing steadily. This enormous popularity is certainly not due to the individual stories, which are essentially very conventional and do not revolutionize the crime genre. Rather, it is the wonderfully quirky main character that makes this series so special. Vera Stanhope is a very complex character, which Brenda Blethyn brings to life in a wonderful way with many fine nuances. She manages perfectly to fill the quirky investigator with a lot of heart despite her sometimes very gruff manner, so that as a viewer you just have to like her. David Leon is a very good counterbalance to this. As a young family man with some private worries and big professional ambitions, Vera is more to him than just an experienced boss, but also a kind of mother figure. There is a very special dynamic between the two, from which the series can benefit again and again.

The four episodes of the second season are all good crime entertainment, whereby the first two cases are a little superior in quality to the last two episodes. The fourth episode in particular has some noticeable lengths. But that's complaining on a high level, because overall season 2 offers again crime entertainment at its best. Atmospheric locations, great actors and exciting stories make Vera - A very special case a must for all fans of British crime fiction of the particularly entertaining kind. And this is what the four episodes of the second season are all about:

DVD 1: Phantom Pain

Policeman Stuart Macken is on his way home to his daughter Stella. When he arrives, the house is on fire. Macken manages to rescue his badly injured daughter. At the hospital she falls into a coma. The cause of the fire was an incendiary device thrown through a window by an unknown person. DCI Vera Stanhope takes up the investigation. Stuart Macken is a colleague she knows from the early days of her police career. (Text: ZDF)

DVD 2: Silent Scream

On the banks of a river, social worker Jenny Lister is found murdered. DCI Vera Stanhope falls to the task of informing Jenny's daughter Hannah of her mother's death. The investigation reveals that Jenny Lister has recently had several personal items stolen, including her laptop. From Hannah's boyfriend, Vera learns that his mother does not accept his girlfriend Hannah. (Text: ZDF)

DVD 3: Booby Traps

Sergeant James Deverson celebrates his retirement from military service. The next morning he is found dead. DCI Vera Stanhope and her assistant Joe Ashworth investigate at the barracks. It's obvious that the lieutenant in charge wants to write the incident off as a suicide. However, forensics and forensics quickly have doubts about this theory. (Text: ZDF)

DVD 4: Bridging

On a motorway service station, the body of a junkie is found in a dumpster. This one fell seriously injured from a bridge onto a truck and was dragged along. As the dead man is from DCI Vera Stanhope's jurisdiction, she requests a transfer of the body and takes over the case. Clothes and stolen papers lead Vera and her team to amateur beekeeper Guthrie. (Text: ZDF)

Picture + Sound: Also in the second season, it is positively noticeable that the visual realization of the dreary, quite gloomy atmosphere of the crime stories through a coherent, somewhat reduced and undercooled-looking color scheme is well reproduced. The image sharpness is on a good TV level, especially in the brighter scenes, while in the darker scenes here and there some minor blurring and minimal image noise can be detected. The sound, which is available in stereo, lets the dialogues sound clear and well understandable from the home theater boxes and also the rather restrained soundtrack provides a very coherent atmosphere. Good!

Extras: Bonus material is unfortunately not available except for some program tips.

Conclusion: Vera - A very special case offers thanks to atmospheric locations, exciting stories and an outstanding leading actress again crime entertainment of the particularly worth seeing kind. Although there are minor lengths here and there (especially in episode 4) the box is a must for all who already liked season 1. Technically, the four new cases are very atmospheric. The missing bonus material can be forgiven due to the quality of the series. The bottom line is that there is again a: Absolutely recommendable!

Source: Review Sebastian Betzold / Synopsis: ZDF