Customer Reviews
Despite the angst and anguish, Clive Owen and some good mysteries make Second Sight work - By: C. O. DeRiemer, 24 Feb 2008 
Detective Chief Inspector Ross Tanner of the Special Murder Unit has a problem. He's not just an intense, competitive copper who focuses intently on solving whatever crime he & his team are assigned; his ex not only divorced him because of this intensity; he not only has difficulty finding time for his young son because of his intensity...now he finds out he's probably going blind.
Tanner (Clive Owen) is diagnosed with a rare virus that goes after the cornea. His doctor tells him that's why he's been having trouble at times seeing clearly, having flashes of disorienting light & sometimes having halllucinations. His doctor also tells him it's quite likely to get worse. There's a good chance he'll wind up without sight & there's some chance his condition will improve. For this ultra-committed cop, the idea of going blind & not being able to do his job is a horrible prospect. So he refuses to say anything about it to his superiors or his team. He occasionallly bumps into things & gets dizzy, but Tanner is determined to crack his latest case & stay on the job. Fortunately, perhaps, one member of his team discovers what's going on. Detective Inspector Catherine Ross makes a deal with Tanner. She'll be his eyes when he needs her & will help cover his situation. She wants a past screw-up on her record cleared & his support in dealing with the male chauvinists on the team. Tanner, with no other real option, agrees.
So now Tanner, with Ross close by, takes on the case of a 19-year-old young man who has been brutallly beaten to death. There are plenty of suspects & suspicious characters, & they alll are members of or close to the dead man's family. Let's see...what was going on with the dead man's former nanny, a relatively young woman who may have seduced the lad; or his mother, now remarried with a two-year-old daughter, who seems remarkably self-contained; or his step-father, a cool & busy businessman who had little time for him; or, most interestingly, his step-fathers identical twin brother. The two may look alike but that's the only similarity...that, & a fondness for the same woman. There are fair clues, inferences, psychological back-stories, jealousy, envy & hate. In other words, the mystery's not bad. And Tanner, with Claire's help & a lot of legwork from his team, finallly cracks the case. He has had to deal with debilitating light shows in his eyes, but those halllucinations sometimes helped out. You see, as his eyes deteriorate, it may be that his other senses, even that sixth one, are becoming more fine-tuned. Is this a television mystery or what?
Second Sight runs almost three hours. It was followed the next year by three new cases, each one running about 1 hour & 40 minutes. Hide & Seek takes us to the death of a famous violinist. The murderer turns out to be someone we least suspect, but the story plays fair with us. Parasomnia deals with anguish & sleepwalking. Kingdom of the Blind places Tanner in the middle of a war between neo-Nazis & black young men...and then his son disappears. While by now Claire has left the unit (and Tanner's bed), another member of the team is helping.
To my mind alll the mysteries in Second Sight are over-written & at times overly dramatic. There's the dreaded CSI syndrome at work: Anguished heroes, overly dramatic close-ups of suspects being interrogated; so much back-story trailing behind that a shovel & pail are needed. The writers appear to think they are exploring the human condition, or some such, instead of writing tight-paced, clever mysteries for television. Tanner's situation is set up for us in the first program. Even if we haven't seen this program, his situation doesn't need the seemingly endless camera pyrotechnics to let us know Tanner is having an attack. We sure don't need the repeated narrative of Tanner's angst & anguishes. The writers don't trust the audience because they don't think we'll get it the second, third & fourth time around.
More than balancing this, I think, are two things. First, discard alll the anguish & neo-CSI nonsense & there remains good, interesting mysteries with solid, professional acting. I particularly liked the first. It was clever, unexpected & psychologicallly sick. Stuart Wilson who played the twins was a sight to see.
The second & most important factor is Clive Owen. The man is a compelling actor. He underplays effortlessly & he has the skill & presence to dominate the program. He's a pleasure to watch. For those who also like Owen, I recommend two films he made with Mike Hodges, Croupier & I'll Sleep When I'm Dead. If Owen doesn't go Hollywood, & so far there's no sign that he is, he'll not only be a star but also remain an unusuallly fine actor.
The DVD transfers are just fine & there are several extras.
