With the fourth season (third boxed set) of ITV's Blue Murder, tough-but-matronly Detective Chief Inspector Janine Lewis (Caroline Quentin) and her crew have settled into a comfortable routine. Our single-mom DCI no longer looks to be searching for a nanny for her children (an ongoing subplot in the third season), while the two longest-standing members of her team seem to have settled into an easygoing mock antagonistic relationship after perennial butt DS Butchers (Paul Loughran) had it out with his smart-ass partner DS Shaps (Nicholas Murchie) in the middle of Season Three. Even the Manchester Murder Squad's newbie, Rhea Bailey's Lisa Goodall, has found a place for herself in the room.
Which is not to say that our crew of coppers don't go through some rough patches. Young Goodall muffs a collar in the first episode and receives a royal chewing out from Lewis' second-in-command, DI Richard Mayne (Ian Kelsey). Mayne, in particular, has his hard moments in two of the season's three episodes. In the first, "Not A Matter of Life and Death," he's snappishly waiting for the results of a medical exam. In the third episode, "Crisis Management," Mayne struggles to tamp down his feelings of jealousy and suspicion over his boss' obvious attraction for a rugged Red Cap during a murder investigation on a military base. "That suits you, the moody look," Janine jokes, noting her second's displeasure, though later she'll take back her little joke.
Janine's family life appears to be running fairly smoothly at this point (though there are hints that our working ma will be having more troubles with her teenage daughter in Season Five). The biggest crisis this season revolves around her ex-husband's no-shows at scheduled family visits. His new young wife is currently in the throes of post-partum depression, but for the series' purposes, the primary purpose of this plot detail is to provide Mayne a brief opportunity to step into the teaching father role with his boss' son Tom.
Lewis' attempts at balancing work and family are thematically reinforced by the season's three murder mysteries, which all hinge on issues of dysfunctional family life. In the third season episode, "Crisis Management," for instance, a single military mom's disrupted family life in the midst of wartime winds up being the key to two killings on the North Lance Artillery base. In the opening episode, "Not A Matter of Life and Death," sibling rivalry proves a major factor. No matter what her own family issues may be, they pale in comparison to her suspects'.
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