Trial & Retribution is my favorite Lynda La Plante series to have made its way to the U.S., thanks to Acorn Media's release of the feature-length mysteries. In the fifth set, we get murder mysteries XV-XVIII that find DCSI Mike Walker (David Hayman) andDCI Róisín Connor (Victoria Smurfit) working hard together and against each other in their efforts to bring down murderers and set the record straight. It's gritty storytelling at its finest, and the camerawork brings out the best in the stories, with split screens employed (like 24), ample use of music and mood, and full-on delivery of an impassioned drama.

In the American release called Set 5, we get four mysteries from the English broadcast of Series 11. They are from 2008, and open with "Rules of the Game," a two-part story about a dead prostitute, a Ukranian businessman who seems to be above the law, and Walker's burning desire to put the man away for his past sins. We see this first mystery divided between the pursuit of the criminal in the first episode and the retribution, trial, and truth in the second. In these stories, even once a criminal has been "caught," we often haven't seen the truth yet; it's Law & Order with a twist.

The second story, Kill The King, finds the duo's team investigating the murder of a well-respected doctor and philanthropist. His coworkers keep changing their stories; the father of a child who died at the hospital seems complicit as well. The drama builds as Walker's own feelings about the doctor, who he knew reasonably well, interfere with Connor's beliefs about the investigation. This one doesn't need to be in the courtroom to build the drama.

"Conviction," the fourth story in the set, involves an ex-con who may actually be innocent, and a father's desire to avenge his murdered son. While Walker has been wrong twice so far, and admitted it each time, this time, he might not be the only one who will have to struggle his way through his shame and second thoughts. DS Satch (Dorian Laugh), Walker and Connor's "number three," adds some drama to the mix in this episode as well by making a poor decision. It's certainly not clear cut police drama, and that's why it's often better than the average show.

Switching up the locale and situation, the fifth story, "The Box," finds Walker in Glasgow visiting his mum, nosing around the story of a missing woman and uncovering some sinister background on two brothers. Given that one of my reasons for watching is the constant jabbing and stretching between Walker and Connors, this was a different sort of episode to take. But of course, it was no less entertaining!

You get "retribution" in your title, and vengeance becomes a pretty significant portion of your show. It's a powerful emotion, a violent response, and something absolutely stunning to see played out. Watching, it seems that God's reminder that vengeance isn't something we're to take into our own hands is for our own good. Too often here, the wrong person reaps the vengeance, usually death, and then the cops have two sets of guilty parties to deal with. It should make us question our motives and decisions: some choices can't be undone.