Vera (TV Series) Little Lazarus (2011) User Reviews

my favorite so far

[blanche-2 · 8/10 · 10 February 2014]

So far, this is my favorite episode of "Vera." Adam, an 11-year-old boy, is found nearly dead by Vera when she arrives at the murder scene of his mother, Margaret Wilde. Following the footprints, she finds that the boy has fallen into the water, evidently while running away.

When the boy is well enough to talk, all he can say is that he remembers peacocks and nothing about the murder as he was "hiding." It looks as though Margaret and her son moved from place to place and were en route to Spain with 2000 pounds.

The investigation digs up Margaret's married boyfriend, Bobby, whom Vera believes is the killer. Then Adam points out Judge Patricia Carmichael as someone his mother knew. When Vera confronts her, she claims she has no knowledge of the Wildes.

It turns out that Margaret's real name was something else, and her record emerges. In that record is some information that leads Vera to the killer, and the surprising reason for Margaret's death.

Really excellent episode, with Vera's empathy for Adam making her more impatient for results than ever as she yells at her subordinates. That gruff exterior really covers up a marshmallow. Plus, Vera has health issues that she wants to brush aside, but her assistant, Joe (David Leon) won't allow it. In one humorous moment, Judge Carmichael tells Vera, referring to Joe, "If he were my assistant, I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off him." Vera replies: "Actually, it's the other way around." The Judge looks at her for a second, and then the two women burst out laughing.

Blethyn is a force to be reckoned with as Vera. This is a good quality series, but she really helps to set it apart.

A terrific send off to Series one.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 27 December 2019]

Eleven year old Adam is near the site where his mum is killed, he flees and almost drowns, Vera rescues him, and is determined to find the killer, even if it means trampling on high profile toes.

The first series ends with this wonderful episode, it features an excellent, dramatic opening, and doesn't let up. It's exciting and dramatic, more so than the usual Vera episode.

Blethyn and Leon were a tremendous duo, there's a particularly good scene where they clash, terrific chemistry. She's exceedingly tetchy here, clearly suffering with bad health, a great characterisation.

Kerry Fox and Kieran O'Brien are both particularly good.

Excellent from beginning to end. 9/10

If Brenda Blythn is in it, it's worth watching

[Paularoc · 8/10 · 29 August 2012]

Vera is not an easy character to warm up to but she certainly is unique. Even though there is a strong supporting cast, it is Blethyn that carries the show. As to be expected, she is magnificent in the title role of the insightful, mercurial, dowdy and hard working Inspector. In this episode she rescues a boy who has seen his mother murdered but who remembers nothing about it and little about his life at all. At first his only recollection is peacocks. The mother and son have been fleeing from someone and from somewhere have gotten a lot of money and appear to be heading to Spain. Vera's interaction with the boy is interesting and sometimes quite touching. This is a bleak story and the last scene caught me by surprise. I sure hope two people can keep a secret. One of the reasons I'm still grappling with the show is that I'm having a hard time sometimes in understanding the accents. I'm sure I'll better understand as I watch more episodes but right now I'm missing a good bit of the dialog. Not surprising really as I also don't sometimes understand my relatives from Mississippi. I'm just glad that people in different regions still have accents.

The judge, the taxi driver, the lost son, and the kestril

[safenoe · 10/10 · 14 January 2017]

Vera is impressive for its twists, but this episode really tops itself, and all credit to the writing team for an unforeseeable twist in the plot. Who would have thought?

Anyway, Kerry Fox, who was in Intimacy with Mark Ryall, is a Newcastle-based High Court judge who plays a central role in the murder of a young mother, and her young son who survives the slaying. Then there's the missing daughter, and that is so central to the twist big time.

Also Renu Setna does a top job playing Amnit Singh, a Sikh taxi driver, who also is central to the twist. Good to see Sikh characters in TV dramas and maybe there will be more, given the persecution they suffered in the 1984 brutal massacre Sikhs suffered at the hands of fanatical Hindus following the assassination of Indira Gandhi.

Also, Vera's stuffed kestril also plays a role in her relationship with the young son.

Force

[hazangel-89910 · 8/10 · 14 January 2024]

Vera is definitely a tough boss but it's obvious she is well respected and liked to a certain degree. I have watched this series in reverse. I started with series 10. I enjoy Vera's chemistry with this partner (Joe) much better. It feels more authentic and loving. Not to mention he is much easier on the eyes. His family life is also very interesting.

Vera is tough but she has a heart of gold. I can relate to her as I enjoy my privacy and don't like getting too close to people (especially not co-workers). Also being single at a certain age is something I can relate to. She is obsessed with her job which I guess suits her but I think it is a little unhealthy for anyone to do that.

This was an interesting story. Vera always shows her humanity and softness when there are children involved.

Little Lazarus

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 8 July 2017]

The opening of the episode sees a young lad running away terrified and falling over. We then see Vera on her way home when she sees the flashing blue lights of a police car. A young police officer has discovered the dead body of a woman. Vera notices something and she finds the body of the fleeing child in an icy pond and manages to rescue him. He is still alive.

11 year old Adam is traumatised. He and his mother always seemed to have been on the run, remaining hidden away. They only been close to a Sikh friend although his mother had a married boyfriend who soon becomes a suspect.

When the boy points to a picture of a judge as someone his mother once knew, things take a turn. The female judge was once Adam's mother's barrister in a criminal case and their history has criss- crossed.

It probably is easy to guess the villain, although maybe not the motive. I felt the plot was a little too contrived. It was nice to see dowdy Vera trying to be maternal and no entirely succeeding.

The episode also has an appearance by the legendary Renu Setna, always recognisable by people of a certain age with his appearance in the school's program Cloud burst.

"It's not my job to make people happy"

[gridoon2024 · 7/10 · 7 July 2013]

Vera rescues a boy, who had just witnessed her mother's violent murder, from drowning. The mother appears to have been a penniless wanderer with not much of an identity, and the boy's memory seems to be all jumbled up. But as Vera and her team will discover in the course of their investigation, the boy is much more clear-headed than they think.

This is the first episode of the series not to be based on one of Ann Cleeves' novels; it is a newly written story using her characters instead. And while Paul Rutman is a regular series writer and the story here is just as dark, multilayered, and morally grey as in the previous episodes, I do have an objection against murder mysteries where the killer turns out to be someone whom the audience had never seen before. Also, this episode drags a little in its final portion. *** out of 4.

Start watching with this one

[winopaul · 15 August 2016]

Unlike S1E1, the camera and post-production are decent enough to watch the DVD on a 70-inch TV. Unlike S1E2, this is not so mind-bendingly complex that you have to watch it three times. S1E3 is in between, still complex but if you get the season 1 DVD, start with this one. It didn't take long for the writers and camera people to hit their stride. I have high hopes for the rest of the series. I started watching at Season 3, when the librarian set it out and I picked it up on a lark.

In this episode, you can tell the guest characters apart. Unbelievably, they have a foreigner in this episode, and he is not even white. (Of course he dies.) Its astonishing, after watching the other season 1 episodes I assumed North Eastern England was the Idaho of Great Britain.

Complete spoiler: Like it seems in previous episodes, there is always a bat-shiat crazy women. Indeed, there are two, the murdered mom and then later the judge lady. Thank gosh for the levelheaded Vera and Holly, the cool pitch-black police gal (CP-BPG). I had such fears that the lily-white ITV viewers would demand her removal that I sneaked ahead to the S2E1 IMDb to insure Holly is still with us. Yippee, Holly abides. I should have noted in last episode review, her personalty was so fetching, it was only later that I noticed she has a really nice set. I mean, the girl is built. Tall, cheery, ambitious, and ready to feed the babies. All the more reason to love her, despite the bigots outside the ITV office that must be picketing for her removal.

Like the horrid complex S1E2, there is a twist at the end, but it is only a Schedule III Shyamalan, not the Schedule I twist in S1E2 that makes you want to throw your full beer at the TV screen.

The boy-in-danger trope is great, and Vera's jalopy is really rounding out its character. Implausibility points for a kid that can't remember anything, unless it adds to the misdirection and confusion. I recommend watching a couple episodes of NYPD Blue afterwards, so you can get reset to some mighty fine police work told with brilliantly stupid American directness. Then you can start watching S2E1, which I can't wait to check out from the library.

Why?

[gacsogergely · 1/10 · 20 August 2021]

So, in this episode some guy kills a mother of a boy on the spectrum. Turns out the mother's location was leaked to the killer by some judge and her husband, because way-back-when the daughter of the mother decided to get away from her and stay with the judges after a complicated case.

And the mother wasn't very stable, so the daughter had good reason to escape.

Here comes my problem: what did Vera The Evil Head of Cops gain with making the arrest of the judge?

Further crime was not on the way. The criminal got arrested. Sure, what the judge PROBABLY did (never explicitely proven beyond what a good lawyer could argue away) was moraly grey, but then none's life got any better the judge being arrested. Neither was society, as the judge was not corrupt, or anything. What the judge did, bettered the life of many actualy. And only harmed the letter of the law.

And the final twist is, Vera, the Evil Head of Cops made an evidence disappear, as it'd've collapsed her case against the judge, shifting the blame to the husband.

So either Vera made her decision for political reasons - which we did not get from the series -, or some personal vendetta - on a good judge. Therefor Vera is a crrupt, evil cop, like the ones in Shield, therefor should face consequences of her action eventualy.

But she doesn't.

In comparison, any other detective show, like Columbo, or Poirrot would have made the same investigation, but present the part of the judge to the judge as hypothetical, to face them with the morality of what they've done, but not call any action.

And would have been clever enough to KNOW the husband did it, and the judge only covered for him.