MAGDALENE- A woman escapes from the trunk of a car when it crashes which leads the cold case team to investigate a kidnapping tied in with an old murder and the Turkish mob

END OF THE NIGHT- A brother and sister are thrown off a bridge, but the sister survives.  Can Boyd bring closure to finding the guy who killed her brother and the man who raped her in this two man team or will it all end badly for her

SUBSTITUTE- Frankie becomes suspicious of the man she is in a relationship with and decides to do a DNA test off his DNA left in her trash can which results in a hit tied in with a 13 year old murder case tied in with the illegal organ trade

ENDGAME- Boyd matches wits with Linda Cummings, a woman he and the team put away in prison, as she leads the team to the remains of a woman set free from prison that starts a new game with connections to Boyd’s son Luke.

 

WAKING THE DEAD season eight see the team tackle a series of new cold case mysteries while doing more and more ethically questionable things.   Spence starts to question it while Boyd even breaks into a house to get a lead on a suspect.   Stella questions her worthiness to Boyd in what becomes one of the weakest exits for a character which leads the way for DS Katrina Howard to join the squad (who only is on the show for this season).   Season eight ties back into season seven with ENDGAME which is a sequel to SINS and reveals something about the death of Boyd’s son, Luke.   Linda Cummings is like Moriarty to Boyd’s Sherlock.  He feels very connected to his team and the cold case team is fraying at the edges during the season as more than one want to leave and another team member fears they might not be around forever to help Boyd.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Nothing except previews for other BBC releases like COPPER Season 2 and LUTHER 3.   I wish they recorded audio commentaries for the show or have some behind-the-scenes featurettes on the making of the show.  I hope they really include some extra material for season nine (which may not be likely since the UK release had no extras).

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:   Season eight of WAKING THE DEAD is shocking because the team is doing more ethically questionable things as the team is coming apart at the seams.   I will feel sad the show will be over after season nine sees release next year and then the spin-off series THE BODY FARM (which lasted only one season).

 

This DVD review is (c)9-29-2013 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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