A Touch of Frost Season 4
January 2005 Reviewed by: Rad Bennett Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Jack Frost is an old-fashioned detective working in a modern world. Looking natty and rumpled in the same instant, he is a chief inspector in the not-so-glamorous English town of Denton. He has little social life. His unsatisfactory marriage ended in the first season when his wife died of cancer, and his liaisons since that time have proven furtive failures. Though he is all heart, Jack has no social graces, managing to speak his mind whether his opinion is wanted or not. But all that Jack is makes him one hell of a detective. He methodically wheedles and wrestles facts out of his witnesses and suspects, putting them together to form solutions to seemingly insoluble crimes. He fights for the truth, becoming more lovable and laudable with each episode in his hit series.

At the beginning of the fourth season, Jack’s house burns down while he is investigating a case. In a manner typical for him, he purchases only one new shirt and continues the casework while living in a vacant jail cell. In the second episode, he finds himself at odds with the higher ups at an army post when he takes it on himself to investigate the mysterious shooting of a soldier during maneuvers. The third show takes place in the world of male escorts, and the fifth at a local university, where Frost attempts to track down the stalker of a beautiful member of the swimming team. The fourth episode, the best of the lot, finds Frost trying to discover the murderer of a beautiful young psychologist.

The show is an advert for casting against type. David Jason, scarcely known in America at all, was mostly known in England as a comic actor. When asked by his agent what he wanted to do next, he indicated a desire to break into the detective show genre. The stretch worked. Though Jason plays Frost in a dogged manner, there is a touch of whimsy under the surface that makes his character irresistible. A little grimace or grin or a shrug of the shoulders gives away the detective’s befuddled amusement at the events around him, just as surely as a scowl or good shout lets one know his displeasure with his boss (Bruce Alexander) and criminals in general. All of the bit parts are impeccably cast; Frost has good support. In the fourth episode, Michael Kitchen, later to become a detective himself in Foyle’s War, plays a minister suspected of murder, and the scenes between him and Jason crackle with energy and tension.

The first three seasons of this show looked rough around the edges, but this one is much better. The grain is gone and most shots, especially those outdoors, are crisp and clear with excellent color balance. The Dolby Surround sound makes the upfront dialogue clear while providing appropriate ambience in the rear speakers. The only extra is a commentary from David Jason on the fourth episode. It is clever and convincing, however, revealing many facts about the show’s production. If you love good detective shows and haven’t experienced Frost, you can be grateful that MPI has made it possible for you to see this excellent show in the US. So far, four seasons are available, with more to come in 2005 -- and because the show is still filming new episodes as I write this review -- for years to come.

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