Maria Bello's take on Jane, NBC 'Prime Suspect' previews

By April MacIntyre Aug 31, 2011, 21:08 GMT

The NBC version takes a look inside a tough New York City homicide department and follows Jane Timoney (Maria Bello), an unconventional detective on her journey to solve cases and make a name for herself in this new department.

"Prime Suspect” on NBC was inspired by the British miniseries that starred Helen Mirren.

The NBC version takes a look inside a tough New York City homicide department and follows Jane Timoney (Maria Bello), an unconventional detective on her journey to solve cases and make a name for herself in this new department.

Aidan Quinn costars; Peter Berg serves as director and producer of the show.

At the recent television critics' association, Maria Bello shared with us her approach and view of the character:

"I like to say that I’m not Jane. Alex [writer Alexandra Cunningham] and I are Jane together. Without the writing, the kind of quirkiness and edginess that this character has and this dry sense of humor, she wouldn’t be able to come to life. But we all agreed in the beginning not to make her a conventional cop, right?"

"My favorite shows growing up were, like, 'Baretta,' 'Columbo,' 'Kojak,' and they were all detectives who had a little weird thing, their own quirk. And we haven’t seen a woman detective like that on television.   We didn’t want her to be in a traditional pant suit and being earnest. That’s what I love about our show too. It’s not earnest. and there’s nothing earnest about this character. So I feel really lucky that I get to explore her."

The latest clips showcase the detective’s intense investigation techniques – check out how she gets a confession out of a suspect.

And life on the force isn’t always easy for Jane, especially because she has to deal with her coworkers’ attitudes as you can see from the included sneak peek. But even though she faces opposition, Jane is a great investigator and can find clues that her fellow detectives overlook.

"Prime Suspect" premieres Thursday, September 22 at 10/9c.
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