The Best Action Show on TV
At a time when the schedules are top heavy with imported American action series, 'Spooks' is like a home-grown breath of fresh air. Spooks is a series which has generally improved with each successive year. It has been running in the UK since 2002, with the ninth series airing in the autumn of 2010.The change came about around series three and four with important cast changes and more dynamic plots. It contains none of the soapy sub-plots or meandering gloom which afflicts much British detective drama. Nor is it burdened with the self-importance and brutal nastiness of the American '24'. The result moves at Formula One pace and is the most gripping and watchable British action series I can recall. The series takes place in a very real post July 7th London beset by terrorism, both external and of 'the enemy within' kind - from home grown suicide bombers to government traitors to Christian fundamentalists to FSB moles and Chinese agents.
The opening two parter of series 5 (2006) involved an MI6 led attempted coup-de-tate against the government, with only MI5 standing between Britain and martial law. It's scary and fast-paced. Other plots involve what appears to be an Al Quadiea takeover of a Saudi Trade Centre in London ( but, in reality, it's Mossad), with MI5's job hindered by a Mossad mole in their department hampering every move; and a terrorist take over of the Thames flood barrier.
Series 6 (2007) grew even more ambitious with a 10 part story line involving the team attempting to stop Iran going nuclear. Plots can be labyrinthine in their complexity, but it's glossy and big-budget looking. It benefits from some convincing performances. None of the characters are especially warm or likable - nor should they be, from Peter Firth's steely MI5 head Harry Pearce, to Herminoie Norris as Ros Myers - the best written female role on TV - and Rupert Penry Jones as the hard as nails but deeply troubled chief agent Adam Carter (who, during one episode almost has a nervous breakdown during a key operation). In episode one of series 7 (2008), Carter is killed by a car bomb and replaced by Lucus North (Richard Armitage) - fresh from a decade long incarceration in a Russian jail. Series 7 is the best of the lot, involving the return of the cold war, a Russian mole in the department (Harry is framed as the mole) and an episode in which an evil banker attempts to destroy the British economy by causing a collapse of the banking system.
Series 8 (2009) pitted MI5 against a secret global organisation called Nightingale, which has members in the CIA and the Home Office and ends with the death of Ros in a hotel bombing. Series 9 (2010) has North turning into a villain. It's all totally unpredictable. Anyone can die at any time in this series and that's what gives it its edge over other dramas.
score 10/10
DesbUK 9 November 2007
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1760487/14705
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