"No one ever loses their memory. It just gets locked away like the mad woman in the attic. Occasionally you hear her scream, but you dare not unlock the door and have a look in." - Robbie Coltrane as Fitz Fitzgerald
Cracker: The Complete First Season DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald is a hard drinking, chain smoking, gambling addicted psychologist. When he is not fueling his bad habits, Fitz finds the time to help the police crack tough cases by getting into the heads of suspects. At first, Detective Chief Inspector David Bilborough (Christopher Eccelston) is wary of receiving help from an outsider, but when Fitz proves to be successful, he reluctantly makes him part of his investigative team. Detective Sergeant Jimmy Beck (Lorcan Cranitch) remains skeptical of the interloper, but DS Jane "Panhandle" Penhaligon (Geraldine Somerville) slowly warms to Fitz, becoming his de facto partner.
In the first season of Cracker, a British series that ran in the U.S. on A&E, Fitz and company take on three big cases. The first, "The Mad Woman in the Attic," involves an amnesiac who may or may not be responsible for several brutal murders that occur in and around train stations. The second, "To Say I Love You," revolves around several murders committed by Sean, a violent young man with a severe stuttering problem (Andrew Tiernan), and his Lady MacBeth girlfriend, Tina (Susan Lynch). The final case, "One Day a Lemming Will Fly," centers on the murder of a young boy and the teacher (Christopher Fulford) suspected of killing him. In each case, Fitz uses his psychological skills to chip away at the suspects' stories and to develop profiles of the killers.
Fitz's combative, combustible style aids in solving crimes, but is a liability at home. When his wife, Judith (Barbara Flynn) discovers that he has forged her name in order to mortgage their house to repay gambling debts, she leaves him, taking their daughter Katie (Tess Thomson) with her. Teenage son Danny (Clive Russell), who Fitz considers a slacker, stays behind.
Robbie Coltrane, perhaps best known these days for his role in the Harry Potter movies, is Cracker's best asset. He is an incredible actor. His acting talents are matched by his physical size. Coltrane is huge - he fills the screen, dwarfing those around him. Compared to him, John Goodman is svelte.
The series bravely presents us with a lead character that is barely likeable. Fitz is a bully. He berates suspects who he knows are not guilty. He reluctantly attends a Gamblers Anonymous meeting at his wife's insistence, but as an act of defiance he uses it as an occasion to tempt the recovering addicts into starting a card game. He deliberately humiliates people in public places, including the wife he is trying to win back. To him, love is a combat sport.
While we do come to love him anyway, the series has a few other slightly more lethal quirks. The series is only ten years old, but its reliance on Oprah era pop psychology makes it feel dated. Fitz often comes across more like a psychic than a psychologist. Some of his pronouncements seem to come out of thin air. He spends twelve seconds with someone and is able to completely guess their entire life story and personality. This feels like a writers' cheat - real evidence and well thought out crimes are not needed since Fitz can simply provide us with information on who committed the crime, why they did it, and what they ate for breakfast that morning.
The three cases that comprise the first season are divided onto three individual discs. "Mad Woman" and "Lemming" consist of two episodes apiece while "To Say" consists of three. Viewers can play all or select individual episodes. The episodes are also divided into chapters.
