end of an era

tonight, starting at 9 pm on pbs's masterpiece theatre, helen mirren will make one last appearance as that gloriously difficult and bitchy detective jane tennison in the final (final?!) installment of the prime suspect series. my detective fiction-loving heart is horribly broken. jane got me through some very dark periods in my life -- perhaps most notably the rigours and endless demands of coursework in my PhD1 year. whose will now be the picture on my bitch card? you know the card that one is allowed to play every so often when the burdens of performing perky, friendly, meg-ryanesque femininity get to be too much? i'm at a loss to think of a replacement. this description of jane found on the homepage for the series sums up why i'll miss her so much: "DCI Jane Tennison [ . . . ] is single-minded, compulsive, difficult, frustratingly arrogant, highly regarded and very, very good at her job." tune in folks. you're about to witness the end of an era.