"A man who believed in a cause killed himself for love. Totally pointless."
That line may sound harsh and cruel, but it's not. Not when it's uttered with sadness and anger, yet still British upper lip, by Matthew MacFadyen in the British series MI-5 (IMDb knows it as Spooks). Not when you witnessed the bonds that still linked those two men, Agent Tom Quinn (who says the line) and Renegade Agent Peter Salter (played by none other than Tony Head, ladies and you menfolk).
Two episodes ago, MI-5 had me cringing in horror at the harsh reality of the danger of their lives, the true horror that accompanies their jobs. Two episodes ago, it had me shed tears over them. One episode ago, it spoke to me of the lack of recognition those people got, and it erected a fascinating tragic figure in the person of Leyla, a Kurdish woman who ssaw no solution but extremism.
And this episode, today... One of the things that I like most in British TV and cinema is that they don't spell things out. They present problems, raise issues, but they always remain... how to qualify it... It's a form of sobriety and economy - not unlike what draws me in in Jack Davenport's acting, when I think of it. There's a quality of authenticity to it all. And you need TV shows like MI-5 to balance out Alias and their likes.
Now, it's only been four episodes, so I'm overlooking some tiny flaws which might not be flaws at all, depending how the series unfolds. But I'm impressed all the same.
Sans transition - going to Alex's tonight, yay! After eating crêpes here with my folk. I miss my Alex-shaped, English-talking friend.
Two episodes ago, MI-5 had me cringing in horror at the harsh reality of the danger of their lives, the true horror that accompanies their jobs. Two episodes ago, it had me shed tears over them. One episode ago, it spoke to me of the lack of recognition those people got, and it erected a fascinating tragic figure in the person of Leyla, a Kurdish woman who ssaw no solution but extremism.
And this episode, today... One of the things that I like most in British TV and cinema is that they don't spell things out. They present problems, raise issues, but they always remain... how to qualify it... It's a form of sobriety and economy - not unlike what draws me in in Jack Davenport's acting, when I think of it. There's a quality of authenticity to it all. And you need TV shows like MI-5 to balance out Alias and their likes.
Now, it's only been four episodes, so I'm overlooking some tiny flaws which might not be flaws at all, depending how the series unfolds. But I'm impressed all the same.
Sans transition - going to Alex's tonight, yay! After eating crêpes here with my folk. I miss my Alex-shaped, English-talking friend.