Q on the case

Prismark10

I found London Spy to be infuriating, compelling and ultimately unsatisfying.

The series written by Tom Rob Smith writer of the novel Child 44. London Spy is obviously inspired by a true incident and like many I thought Ben Whishaw's Danny was The London Spy.

Of course with director Jakob Verbruggen we are heading for another slice of moody, sparse, vacuous and slow burn Scandi crime drama. Gosh I have not seen one of these since a few weeks ago, what was it called From Darkness.

I found the first episode intriguing when Danny, leaving a gay nightclub, slightly high on drugs has brief encounter with the enigmatic Alex (Edward Holcroft) who works for the intelligence service. When Alex is found dead with a cylinder that Danny hides. It leads him to a trail that he is barely equipped to start never mind finish.

There is Danny's older friend Scottie (Jim Broadbent) who is also a former spook and who helps Danny. We always feel that Scottie might be more involved than he lets on. Danny discovers that Alex is not an orphan and meets his parents who tell him a different story about Alex, his mother (Charlotte Rampling) warns him about pursuing the investigation further.

The mystery is the cylinder and it is something that Scottie discovers that all the international spy agencies are after.

Like Patrick McGoohan's seminal spy series The Prisoner we might think that this could be all happening in Danny's mind everything including his belief that he has been deliberately given the HIV virus.

The series started off slowly but promisingly. It steadfastly destined to remain puzzling and intriguing like a cipher. Ben Whishaw gives a powerful performance as the all at sea Danny but I was disappointed by the show.

The resolution was full of holes unlike Alex's case which suffocated him. I really started not to care at the end although I do wonder why would spies who would have partners and children themselves would kill a fellow spy in such a nasty way. Did they never think that it could be them inside one day?

score 3/10

Prismark10 10 December 2015

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3369539/