Karen Arthur

A close-up need not end with a cut in Karen Arthur’s television work. She can move the camera and the actors together, carrying a scene from one close view to another in a single, planned take. That habit comes from dance and choreography, and it is a practical skill for episodic television, where an intricate scene still has to be finished. In Cagney & Lacey, that is worth noticing even when the actors seem to be doing all the work.

Her early features gave that interest in performance demanding material. Her feature debut, Legacy (1975), adapted a one-woman play; The Mafu Cage (1978) followed, a psychological drama made with a largely female crew. These films placed women’s psychological lives at the centre. Her collaborators have included cinematographers John Bailey and Thomas Neuwirth, and editor Carol Littleton. From the late 1970s, television became her main field, with Cagney & Lacey (1982) among the series she went on to direct.

The reason to return to Cagney & Lacey is still Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless. We warmed to their friendship because they remained persuasive company even when the cases became routine. Arthur’s choreographed long takes are worth noticing here: moving between close-ups within a shot asks the actors to sustain a scene without relying on separate reaction shots. That is skilled direction, but it does not make the series’ plain presentation any less plain. Arthur directed eight episodes, so neither the programme’s strengths nor its limitations should all be laid at her door.

The Jacksons: An American Dream (1992) and True Women (1997) belong to the later run of television films and miniseries. That work received less critical attention than her early independent features, which is a reason to look more closely, not to praise it indiscriminately. Begin with her episodes of Cagney & Lacey, and allow the cases to take second place to the company.