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coalescentI never really got into Spooks (tagline: 'MI5, not 9 to 5'), despite regular endorsements from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ajp, tomburnell, iainjclark and others. I saw the episode featuring Anthony Stewart Head, and one or two others, and for whatever reason it failed to grab me. Then, over the weekend, I saw the first episode of season three, and it--particularly the hard-nosed ending--impressed me enough to make me watch the second episode (especially since my download of the Farscape Peacekeeper War miniseries is being slow).
The plot, in brief: MI5 set up an entrapment operation to flush out terrorist organisations trying to get hold of red mercury by activating a sleeper agent, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist played bythe Emperor Ian McDiarmid (you wouldn't believe how long it took me to recognise him). Harry Pearce, the head of the counter-terrorism unit at MI5, is the man who contacts Professor Roberts.
The episode is a fairly tough-minded examination of Harry's last statement--of the emotional and psychological cost of being a spy. Professor Roberts is by turns uninterested, scared, curious, and by the end of his tenure as a temp-spook he's actually starting to enjoy himself; meanwhile Tom, recently cleared of treason but in charge of this operation, starts out over-zealous, openly blackmailing the Professor, but eventually veers towards a complete breakdown. He has what one of his colleagues calls a conscience explosion ('I've seen this before. Three field agents ende up dead'), and tries to sabotage the operation. He fails, of course, and at the end of the episode is decomissioned, and out of the service.
I think the script missed a beat here and there--the confrontation between Tom and his colleagues was over-obvious, and the reunion phone call between the Professor and his wife was rushed--but more often than not it was spot on. I liked the use of real newsreaders as scene-setting, and I liked the moral ambiguity of it all. The cynic in me assumes the episode came about because the actor playing Tom wanted out of the series, rather than it being a strictly artistic decision, but such is the way of TV; and in this case, boy did they take that opportunity and run with it. The final conversation between Harry and Tom was excellent.
...although looking at that, it was as much in the acting as the writing. But in short: I like. And I think I'm in for the rest of the season.
In other news, I'm more than a bit disappointed that The Line of Beauty beat Cloud Atlas to the Booker Prize.korovyov_x, you have my permission to say you told me so. Me, I'm going to have another Thornton's chocolate-coated almond marzipan bar to cheer myself up.
ajp, tomburnell, iainjclark and others. I saw the episode featuring Anthony Stewart Head, and one or two others, and for whatever reason it failed to grab me. Then, over the weekend, I saw the first episode of season three, and it--particularly the hard-nosed ending--impressed me enough to make me watch the second episode (especially since my download of the Farscape Peacekeeper War miniseries is being slow).The plot, in brief: MI5 set up an entrapment operation to flush out terrorist organisations trying to get hold of red mercury by activating a sleeper agent, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist played by
HARRY: That was the agreement. We'd help you to become an expert in your field, and if we ever wanted to call on your expertise, we would.
PROFESSOR ROBERTS: What am I? Faust? Sold my soul to the devil for my success?
HARRY: You sold your soul to your country. What's wrong with that?
The episode is a fairly tough-minded examination of Harry's last statement--of the emotional and psychological cost of being a spy. Professor Roberts is by turns uninterested, scared, curious, and by the end of his tenure as a temp-spook he's actually starting to enjoy himself; meanwhile Tom, recently cleared of treason but in charge of this operation, starts out over-zealous, openly blackmailing the Professor, but eventually veers towards a complete breakdown. He has what one of his colleagues calls a conscience explosion ('I've seen this before. Three field agents ende up dead'), and tries to sabotage the operation. He fails, of course, and at the end of the episode is decomissioned, and out of the service.
I think the script missed a beat here and there--the confrontation between Tom and his colleagues was over-obvious, and the reunion phone call between the Professor and his wife was rushed--but more often than not it was spot on. I liked the use of real newsreaders as scene-setting, and I liked the moral ambiguity of it all. The cynic in me assumes the episode came about because the actor playing Tom wanted out of the series, rather than it being a strictly artistic decision, but such is the way of TV; and in this case, boy did they take that opportunity and run with it. The final conversation between Harry and Tom was excellent.
TOM: Everybody safe? Fred's family? What about Laurence Sayle, you get him? [laughs, slightly]--of course, you can't tell me. I'm a member of the public now.
HARRY: You are. I envy you.
TOM: I doubt that.
HARRY: No, I mean ... if this thing is really ... leaving you, then ...
TOM: The spy thing? [nods] The urge to be secret. To give a false name, lead a false life.
HARRY: You'll get the really very generous special pension.
TOM: The payoff. For rogue officers. Yeah.
HARRY: You won't be disciplined, Tom.
TOM: Thanks for that.
HARRY: And of course you realise we'll never meet again.
TOM: [beat] Yeah.
HARRY: Good luck in the real world.
...although looking at that, it was as much in the acting as the writing. But in short: I like. And I think I'm in for the rest of the season.
In other news, I'm more than a bit disappointed that The Line of Beauty beat Cloud Atlas to the Booker Prize.
korovyov_x, you have my permission to say you told me so. Me, I'm going to have another Thornton's chocolate-coated almond marzipan bar to cheer myself up.
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no subject
Date: 2004-10-19 05:03 pm (UTC)And about time, too. :-D
The cynic in me assumes the episode came about because the actor playing Tom wanted out of the series, rather than it being a strictly artistic decision,
Well, duh. I think it being on BBC America really helped boost his profile.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-20 02:44 am (UTC)I'm sure Tom leaving is an actor-led thing, but what's nice about it is that it plays on one of the core themes of the series, visited over and over again, which is the impossibility of leading a normal life while working for MI5, and the kind of desperate, schizophrenic longing for normality which all the regulars have experienced at some point.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-20 03:41 am (UTC)and the kind of desperate, schizophrenic longing for normality which all the regulars have experienced at some point.
Exactly.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-20 03:53 am (UTC)Plus they renamed the show to MI5.
no subject
Date: 2004-10-20 04:06 am (UTC)Not even that; it's 'MI-5', which makes it look like a Mission Impossible franchise...
That reminds me of a time in the SFMOMA