Cracker: The Complete First Season

It’s not an uncommon irony in mystery fiction that a detective so brilliantly able to perceive the hidden connections of the world still can’t make sense out of his own personal life—in fact, it’s a difficult cliche to avoid. But Cracker’s criminal psychologist Eddie “Fitz” Fitzgerald—an alcoholic, sarcastic, arrogant gambler—is a surpassing example of the form, both because of the sharpness of the series’ writing and the consistently great performance of Robbie Coltrane. The big Scottish lug has long been one of our favorites, an actor with an impressive range for both drama and comedy, and he breathes bristly life into the brilliant train wreck of Fitz, who you can’t bring yourself to like, but can’t stop watching. Originally made for Britain’s ITV, this three-disc DVD collects the three two-hour stories of the show’s first season. Coltrane would quit the series three years later citing fears of typecasting; his current role as Hagrid, the lovable hairy half-giant in the Harry Potter films, couldn’t be more different.