This is the show that made me forsake the glam and predictability of Hollywood productions for the breathtaking landscape of Northumberland and the astounding scripts of British drama. Brenda Blethyn as the sharp- tongued, no-nonsense detective pulls the viewer into each episode and doesn't let go until the end. Each episode is superbly written, with attention grabbing plots and conclusions that mirror human nature at it's best...or worst. Here's hoping for another season.

A perfect blending of superb acting, brilliant dialogue, exceptional photography, somber, moody landscapes and an understated and totally appropriate musical score all result in just about the best detective mystery program I've seen on TV. Totally believable and never overdone. A must see program.

What a relief to have a good detective series back on the tele that doesn't rely on bad language, bad acting, shock topics and model style looks of the main character. Blenda Blethyn, with her "pet"s and "luv"s is just delightful as the down to earth, emotionally damaged but very clever detective Vera. She allows herself to be stripped back to basics, dressed in frumpy clothes, often shot at unflattering angles, and by doing so "becomes" Vera. As for Vera herself, what a woman to work with! I don't think I'd last long if I were poor old Kenny but the fact that everyone does stick around and work well together getting good results shows that Vera, although in all appearances is so ordinary, she really is extraordinary.

We have loved the first three seasons of Vera and some of us have watched them again and again, so when Season Four showed up in the US, we jumped right in.The first episode didn't seem up to snuff though. It was slow and the characters didn't show the intelligence they'd been given in the past and we had to deal with a bit of barnyard vocab. Ew. We also had to watch whiny and ornery teenagers which are never interesting. Oh, and we were sad to see the original set of Joe's children gone. They were beautiful. After enduring these changes, we were hoping hoping hoping that the other three episodes would be better. And they were!! The last three episodes are practically perfect Vera again. Yay!!!!! Besides enjoying the characters and the stories and the locations, we also love that they're able to make the scenery bleak w/o washing out the color like some other current UK shows. And we love that they keep the vocab high road and often throw in local slang. We miss Billy a LOT, but enjoy the new coroner. And we'd like to see more of Mark and we'd like to see Joe do more. Have noticed that he might not be sticking around though. Bummer.These are good stories and they're filmed well. We haven't read the books yet, which is probably a good thing. When we read the books first, we're almost always disappointed with the films. Films are better when the book author's stories are adhered to as much as possible. We're doing films first, books second this time around.