Vera

    With each season of Vera, I adore DS Aiden Healy (Kenny Doughty) a little more.  However, if someone suddenly knocks off DCI Vera Stanhope (Brenda Blethyn), I would put Aiden at the top of the list of suspects.  She just keeps needling him!  Aiden does start to dish it back as the series goes on, which is good.  But still!  A person can only take so much.  Aiden, however, is a better person than that.  Because in the end, no matter what he and Vera go through, he always shows he cares.

As the Tide Comes In/Artwork by Kate Dorsey

    Vera’s entire team cares about her.  This is good because she can be very brusque.  She changes her mind at a rapid pace about what she wants people to do.  She also gets impatient when people don’t do things immediately, even though she told the command only the breath before, not giving anyone time to move.

    Having worked with her for a while now, Aiden, DC Kenny Lockhart (Jon Morrison), and DC Jacqueline “Jack” Williams (Ibinabo Jack) all roll their eyes when she does those things.  DC Mark Edwards (Riley Jones) is the only one who jumps when Vera displays this behavior, even though he has been working with Vera longer than Aiden and Jack. 

    Mark is such a sweet man.  He’s also good at his job.  I’m glad to see him getting more time on screen.                    

    Despite how Vera sometimes treats her team, the only truly antagonistic behavior towards her comes from Dr. Malcolm Donahue (Paul Kaye), the medical examiner.  He says cutting and sarcastic things at Vera all the time.  And she sends them right back at him.  As much as these two irritate each other, I think they enjoy this back and forth.  It’s possible it gives them a lightness to the murder they are trying to solve.  Giving their minds something to concentrate on other than the case.

    This may also be why Aiden gets poked at so much.  Some of it, yes, is because of Vera’s personality.  But the rest of it ...  Now that I think about it, I have to wonder if Vera does and says certain things to break the tension of the moment.  To make something not as serious for a second, even though it actually is. 

    Unfortunately, this can come off as Vera not caring, such as when she brushed off Aiden getting punched by a suspect’s son.  Vera let the young man go, which upset Aiden.  When he questioned her about it, she told him to learn how to duck for next time.

    This is definitely a case where it appears Vera does not care about those she works for.  But that is far from the truth.  A few seasons ago when DC Bethany Whelan (Cush Jumbo) died, Vera was devastated.  She was also concerned about Aiden when he was upset about a case they were working on (not the one where he was hit).  If Aiden were to truly come to harm, I have a feeling Vera would be even more of a wreck than she was with the death of Bethany.  She and Aiden are that close.  Vera may not show her care with hugs or long talks.  She does it with gestures and tones of voice.  And yelling.

    Vera may be this way because of how she grew up.  From the little we know of her father, he was not the warmest of men, and her mother died when she was young.  Her experience with her own father is something she uses to help a son struggling with his own.  The boy’s father was murdered, and while he did not have the best relationship with him, he does not hate him either.  There is a mix of feelings Vera understands and helps him with.

    Another thing Vera does is save a retiring racing dog.  She does not keep the dog for herself, but gives it to a loving family.  These are not the acts of someone who does not care.

    Vera may also be the way she is because of how she went up through the ranks of the police force.  There aren’t many specifics in the show, but based on what has been said over the years, it does not sound like she had an easy road.  It would be really interesting to have a series of a young Vera, like the show Endeavour, to see how exactly Vera got to where she is.

    While Vera most often works with Aiden, she does sometimes wander off on her.  Usually, this is fine.  Then there are the occasions where she finds herself in front of a dangerous suspect.  These times do not go well with Aiden at all.  Despite all she puts him through, Aiden wants Vera to be safe.  When she isn’t, he goes a little crazy.  Yet, he always finds a way to show up when Vera needs him, no matter the circumstances.  He’s there for her when she wants him near, and he gives Vera her space when that is what she needs.  A good, sweet man, Aiden knows Vera better than anyone.  Probably even more than Kenny, who has known and worked with Vera for decades.

    I have watched every season of Vera, and I have to say the most recent season, season 10, felt different from the others.  Each mystery had more twists and turns than ever before.  There was more humor, some of it coming in the form of needling or teasing.  The team seemed to work more as a whole than I have ever seen.  In earlier seasons, Mark was hardly ever out in the field.  He mostly stayed in the office.  This time he was out at the scene with everyone else.  Jack’s expertise and skills were used more and more.  Actually, it was Kenny, and a little bit of Aiden, who was not featured as much.  But neither one were in the background either.  Malcolm’s expertise also was referenced more as well.  Sadly, PC George Wooten (Steve Evets), the nice man who has a thing for Vera, was not in the most recent season.  I hope he returns for season 11.

    It will be interesting to see if these changes continue with season 11.  I also wonder how long the series will go on for.  I’m certainly not looking for it to end.  I love this show, watching Vera, a short woman, intimidate all these much taller men who have been lying to her.  And Aiden, standing behind her on the rare occasion she doesn’t intimidate all by herself.  Then there are the cases and the characters I love.  It would be great if this series were to go on for a long time.  Midsomer Murders has been on for over twenty seasons.  Why can’t Vera?