"Ripper Street," the Victorian-era police procedural debuting on BBC America on Saturday, opens with chilling promise and on a decidedly modern note.

It's 1889 in London's notorious East End and a man leads a group of middle class English citizens to the sites of the Jack the Ripper killings. Six months since the body of Mary Jane Kelly, the fifth victim, was found, and already murder tourism thrives in Whitechapel.

It is interrupted, in this case, by the discovery of another woman butchered, which leads the members of local H division, including Det. Inspector Edmund Reid (Matthew Macfadyen), to fear that the Ripper has not died, emigrated or simply gone to ground as so many had hoped. Fending off the voracious press (some things really never change, do they?), Reid resists jumping to such headline-ready conclusions.

With the reluctant aid of the suspiciously seedy U.S. Army surgeon/former Pinkerton agent/budding forensic examiner Homer Jackson (Adam Rothenberg), Reid quickly concludes that this bloody corpse is the work of another brutal murderer a revelation oddly presented as a relief and sets out to bring him to justice.

To do this he and his tough and ready detective sergeant (Jerome Flynn) must delve deep into the dim and slop-strewn East End, with its picaresque warrens of corruption and decay. If this sounds slightly familiar, it most certainly is not only does "Ripper Street" faithfully follow BBC America's other period procedural "Copper" in form and function, it borrows scenes, music and even credit imagery so freely from Guy Ritchie's "Sherlock Holmes" series that you expect Robert Downey Jr., or at least Stephen Fry, to make a cameo.

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Anybody watch yet? Just qued for download--looks like the first 4 episodes have already been broadcast across the pond!

Looking forward to a new dose/ of BBC crime drama - especially a period piece.

I enjoyed Copper, although I found the main character a bit less interesting than those in Luther and Whitechapel.

On my DVR... Thanks for the review. Looking forward to checking it out.

I watched the first episode of Ripper Street last night. The plot was interesting but I found the main character rather dull; hopefully we'll learn more about him in future episodes to pique our interest.

Has anyone else watched it?

Watched it. The period scenery is very good. Some very cute young policemen (bobbies?). Not sure the direction they're going. Killed the perpetrator of the suspected Ripper like killing. Worth checking out a few more episodes. Set my DVR for tomorrows episode.