Before becoming internationally famous for playing British monarchs on film, Helen Mirren was a television sensation for her portrayal of Detective Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect. The British series, which spanned over 13 years, might be the finest procedural drama ever made. Indeed, it allowed English television to set standards that still determine how the genre is approached.
That negative space is its own kind of violence. Lana Del Rey steps into the shadows it leaves. She has power there, whispering old secrets, giving voice to characters who never got to speak for themselves. She counters a world in which “rape” is not even considered in the same category as “ultraviolence” by dragging up the second word and blaring it in capital letters below a photo of herself gazing enigmatically at the camera. She does her violence to the last century’s culture as we’ve rendered it in pixels the second time around. She is exactly the villain our history needs.
