The final season of WAKING THE DEAD is an uneven season where the first story HARBINGER introduces a new character, Detective Inspector Sarah Cavendish, while ending the story on a whimper.  The season gets better from there leading up to the series finale WATERLOO.  It all comes down to all the violations that the Cold Case team did in the name of justice for the dead have come home with Detective Inspector Boyd being the prime target.   Boyd is called upon to build up Sarah again where the police brass consider a place where she can lay low from an incident in the Counter Terrorism squad.  She warns Boyd that he will call heads one day and it will end up being tails.   She is first at odds with Boyd only to slip into the unorthodox habits of the cold case unit, but one wonders if Boyd will go to far and get himself kicked out of the cold case unit he has formed so many years ago.

 

The show has an assortment of guest stars over the years, but Doctor Who fans will notice a guest star spot by Paul McGann in the series finale WATERLOO.    Grace’s past is focused on in SOLDIARITY, but I am split on her not wanting to trust Boyd in that story and sounds like forced drama for the convenience of the plot.  WATERLOO is a look into Boyd’s past as he finds one more case to solve as Grace confronts him with not facing the death of his son Luke.   The series chronicled the team having their own methods to catching the killers and sometimes they paid the price with three team members losing their lives and even two of the team leaving.   The cold cases are more of quest for Boyd to stay busy and bring justice for the victims long forgotten while he doesn’t want to face the disappearance (and death) of his son. The cold case unit has become like a family that sticks together despite what mistakes they make or when they fall out with each other from time to time.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

No extras except for previews for other BBC shows.

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:   The last season of WAKING THE DEAD isn’t the best season, but it has its moments as I will miss there not being any more adventures of Boyd and his unit, but I do hope BBC America does release the short lived spin-off THE BODY FARM starring Tara Fitzgerald to DVD soon.  I wonder what Boyd will be doing now whether he is investigating cold cases on his own now or taking up a nice retirement.

 

This DVD review is ©6-7-2014 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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