Spooks 5-02
Good things: lots - Zaph's fight with Jensen, throw in a few kicks and I'm entertained, and the reprise was great, Jensen thinking he'd get a second chance, Zaph having availed himself of a weapon. Jo too continued being more or less being sensible and capable, Fledgling REuan all but admitting to a crush before bunking off was cute enough not to count as anything. Though why Harry had to tell Ruth twice that Jo would become less than Sam if she didn't get Fledling REuan back, I don't know.
I really liked the visuals and the use of CGI (I assume) and mixing of shots to suggest the size of the protest cum riot, the smoke rising throughout London at the end. Oh, and the shot of the two planes flying away from each other at the very last minute, very good. Style too (apart from maybe the way they had Juliet hitch when she was caught uop by the blast, I think they were doing a bit of the speeding up slowing down trick, and the effect was actually comedic there.) But then there was a spectacular use of split screens when Malcolm and Ruth were screaming soundlessly into the phones while we could see the police still unleashed on the other screen. All that was good.
Plotting and the order of events...not so much. People kept repeating things and not saying or doing things at the logical time. The only tension it added was wondering whether the script writers had dropped all the balls they were throwing. Also, why (apart from the dramatics) were they so dependent on Ros to find out the location of Harry's prison (his getting detained was another good scene), couldn't they have discovered that from keeping an eye on communications and unusual activity? Or at least tried to?
Was pleased with self for guessing that Ros was the one who had the info on the newspapers (well, who else would it be?)
Malcolm and the reading! The symmetry (thought the detail was close to the line of what is allowable to show re suicide) of Collingwood hanging himself, having been esponsible for the hanging of Colin. I mean he did lots of other stuff, but that was what hit the nerve. Slo mo and the water at the detention centre just looked really striking (I had the idea a good minute before Zaph. Er, sorry, this ep I was mostly being smug.)
And then Juliet and the spaniel/are you in love with her/wonderful qualities scene. Oh, Harry, you dolt. I'm curious to see how they'll handle this. Because the show has pretty much shown the job as eating up everyone's personal life - Adam may have Wes, but Tom and Zoe had to leave, Harry's first marriage broke down, there's a long list of the dead. I thought for a bit that they were going dor a triangle with Juliet calling for Harry and him worrying about her right at the beginning.
The Home Secretary grew on me in this ep. As did Ros, to an extent. I still think that they could (should?) have cast someone else, but Norris did well on rage and disappointment.
Oh, and did anyone else wonder if William Turner (the little boy who was apparently going on one of the planes that nearly crashed) was flying to THE CARIBBEAN!? I need a Spy! icon of some sort.
Anyway, a variation on a poll that I saw on the BBC website today, with some options they chose not to put in.
Poll The Panto Decider