At long last, fans of Britain's long running police procedural starring Helen Mirren will get to see an American version. Lesbians will likely be the shows biggest fans when the show debuts Thursday Sept. 22 on NBC. Here's why:
1. Star Maria Bello, who plays Jane Timony, is almost as hot as Helen Mirren: Yes, Mirren personified the hard-nosed police detective Jane Tenneson from the British hit series, Prime Suspect (which is being re-released on DVD from Acorn Media as well) and there's no debating she's the sexiest woman ever seen on BBC. But Maria Bello, who got inked up for Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit last season and has made waves in films like History of Violence and Role Models, is damn foxy.
2. The character of Jane Timony is probably the biggest badass on television this year — male or female. She's rude and belligerent and smart and ambitious and queer girls will spend episode one debating whether they want to do her or be her.
3. She's butch and she wears sensible clothing. Cagney & Lacey dressed sluttier than Bello does. No cleavage, no high heels, a sensible ponytail keeping her hair out of her face during fight scenes with perps. Bello's Jane makes the women of CSI look like showgirls.
4. The hat: All the great crime fighters — from Kojak to Columbo — wore fedoras and so do many of the detectives in the NYPD. So Jane wears one too, even though (male) critics and producers keep complaining about it.
5. Jane's a chick that doesn't take guff. Her coworkers are misogynists from the dark ages (as in the British original), which means within 44 minutes of the pilot Jane gets to make strides for women everywhere as she sticks it to the old boy's club.
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6. Off-screen, Bello is a practitioner of Muy Thai, a combat sport from Thailand. No doubt that makes her many on-screen fight scenes all the more realistic. And hot.
7. Bello co-founded an organization called We Advance, which aims to end gender-based violence in Haiti. That's sexy.
8. Her best friend is real life is The Matrix star Carrie Ann Moss, who wore black leather slash PVC outfits in every film in that sci-fi trillogy. Somehow imagining Bello (in her biker jackets, fedora, white oxfords, and jeans) and Moss (in her black leather getup) just hanging out together is better than any lesbian porn I've seen.
9.The more that people tune into Prime Suspect, the more likely it is Bello's show will lead TV producers to green light more TV series with female leads. In a TV landscape filled with women who are only neurotic, obsessive, frivolous, and dependent on men, Jane is refreshingly none of those things. We could use more of her.
10. Did we mention how sexy she is? She may have a boyfriend on the show but his appearances in the pilot are slim and based on how butch and attractive the character is, we're hoping she'll come out bisexual mid-way through the season. A girl can dream.
