Fuller response to Spooks 5:04
5.04 I was having fairly reasonable responses 'till about 9.59 pm last night and then there was the trailer and flailing and if the Beeb put the next episode of Spooks on straight after (I suppose Spooks viewers are expected to watch the news, which is always a weird shift from fiction to fact) I'd have HAD to watch it. As it was, I had time to think, decided not to stay up (but I didn't sleep much in any case, so I might as well have watched it.)
Okay, the ep. It definitely had its moments - the spying stuff was cool and the escalation of obstacles worked pretty well, although I don't think it all entirely held together. The grasp on what was going on in Africa and the whole world was a bit iffy - was the fake African Nation meant to be Sudan? Was I really meant to buy that Adam would be that naive about Africa, even if it wasn't his specialty? Others have said that the show is marketed as very Adam-centric, which, yeah it is. Adam (and Tom) have never been the focal point of the show for me, as such, so meh. And leaving alone his breakdown, his ability to only find sympathy for what was going on in the Fake African Country through thinking of Fiona and Wes suggests that he really really should be off work and seeing a shrink. Again.
Its also been pointed out that the real big bad of this series is Six, who unquestionably serve the dubious politicians, while Harry and co. use their critical faculties and serve the country. Or something. (I kept wishing that whatever dirt they had on the Foreign Secretary wrt the French Ambassador, as mentioned last week, would play its part. Instead we had the recorded conve, which even as he was speaking made you think the Foreign Minister was rash.) (It is also amusing that the last character I saw Alex Jennings play was Prince Charles.)
There were a couple of points about the conference that felt off, but the enclosed space and working to a timeline created instant drama. Though the timeline did end up confusing me until I decided to stop thinking about it, though I suspect the writers messed up the time difference between the UK and Washington, but as this is the ep where a British spy pretending to be the White House (?) to an US Minister used British spelling in amessage, was not rumbled, nay, was answered in a the same spelling, I should just not admit how that was the sticking point for me.
Anyway, I'm not minding Ros, I thought she did well in the job, even if I find her personal life and ishoos mildly irritating. She spends most of the time being an unsympathetic bitch, I'm not going to cry over her love for her Daddy. But who cares about that? Malcolm gave voice to the 'shippy 'Oh, Ruth'. Only he added a quote from poetry to back it up because he is articulate and learned. Lots of little R/H (or H/R) moments, from the spying on him at the bar to the arm clutch, living up to the promise of the 'previously'. (Also good to note that whatever else, this hasn't much affected their working relationship, she's still shown to be picking up on things, listened to and trusted.) But nothing about the ep gripped me as much as the promise of what's to come. Please don't spoil me for 5.05.
There was Oliver Mace (right?), Ruth being accused, arrested, on the run?, looking threatened in her house, kissing Harry (!) (also, FINALLY!!) and suffocating Jo (!?!?). My spec is that this has to do with whatever Harry knew from her file/possibly related to the stepbrother of great mystery. Ooh, and there was a scene where it almost looked as if Ruth's real name was Derevko, she was looking so resolutely capable, although my inclination is to believe that she's is being set up and is not in fact eeeeevil. (But what if she were?)
Last night, I FINALLY wastched the last Farscape ep I hadn't seen (Scratch 'N Sniff aka Farscape does Vegas. Kinda.) And The Outsiders, which I found fun, probably because it didn't do anything that I haven't seen before - it felt like a mix of Bond, The Avengers (and all those other sixties spy-pseudo spy shows), Alias and spy movies one's ever seen before. I liked Nigel Harman more the less he talked (not that I disliked him when he talked, he just didn't floor me). I liked the female sidekick although it says a lot about the kind of stuff that I've been watching, where the heroine is the protagonist, that I was disappointed that she needed his help to throw off the Vatican's ninjas (how can you not love a show that has Vatican-sponsored ninjas?) and the hard nut rating Id been assigning her lessened from Alias's Ana's levels. Brian Cox's presence excused a stream of X2 jokes, and I wouldn't mind it at all if this became a series of some sort, because it was fun. (There's a comparison to be made with Spooks, but I can't quite articulate it.)
Okay, the ep. It definitely had its moments - the spying stuff was cool and the escalation of obstacles worked pretty well, although I don't think it all entirely held together. The grasp on what was going on in Africa and the whole world was a bit iffy - was the fake African Nation meant to be Sudan? Was I really meant to buy that Adam would be that naive about Africa, even if it wasn't his specialty? Others have said that the show is marketed as very Adam-centric, which, yeah it is. Adam (and Tom) have never been the focal point of the show for me, as such, so meh. And leaving alone his breakdown, his ability to only find sympathy for what was going on in the Fake African Country through thinking of Fiona and Wes suggests that he really really should be off work and seeing a shrink. Again.
Its also been pointed out that the real big bad of this series is Six, who unquestionably serve the dubious politicians, while Harry and co. use their critical faculties and serve the country. Or something. (I kept wishing that whatever dirt they had on the Foreign Secretary wrt the French Ambassador, as mentioned last week, would play its part. Instead we had the recorded conve, which even as he was speaking made you think the Foreign Minister was rash.) (It is also amusing that the last character I saw Alex Jennings play was Prince Charles.)
There were a couple of points about the conference that felt off, but the enclosed space and working to a timeline created instant drama. Though the timeline did end up confusing me until I decided to stop thinking about it, though I suspect the writers messed up the time difference between the UK and Washington, but as this is the ep where a British spy pretending to be the White House (?) to an US Minister used British spelling in amessage, was not rumbled, nay, was answered in a the same spelling, I should just not admit how that was the sticking point for me.
Anyway, I'm not minding Ros, I thought she did well in the job, even if I find her personal life and ishoos mildly irritating. She spends most of the time being an unsympathetic bitch, I'm not going to cry over her love for her Daddy. But who cares about that? Malcolm gave voice to the 'shippy 'Oh, Ruth'. Only he added a quote from poetry to back it up because he is articulate and learned. Lots of little R/H (or H/R) moments, from the spying on him at the bar to the arm clutch, living up to the promise of the 'previously'. (Also good to note that whatever else, this hasn't much affected their working relationship, she's still shown to be picking up on things, listened to and trusted.) But nothing about the ep gripped me as much as the promise of what's to come. Please don't spoil me for 5.05.
There was Oliver Mace (right?), Ruth being accused, arrested, on the run?, looking threatened in her house, kissing Harry (!) (also, FINALLY!!) and suffocating Jo (!?!?). My spec is that this has to do with whatever Harry knew from her file/possibly related to the stepbrother of great mystery. Ooh, and there was a scene where it almost looked as if Ruth's real name was Derevko, she was looking so resolutely capable, although my inclination is to believe that she's is being set up and is not in fact eeeeevil. (But what if she were?)
Last night, I FINALLY wastched the last Farscape ep I hadn't seen (Scratch 'N Sniff aka Farscape does Vegas. Kinda.) And The Outsiders, which I found fun, probably because it didn't do anything that I haven't seen before - it felt like a mix of Bond, The Avengers (and all those other sixties spy-pseudo spy shows), Alias and spy movies one's ever seen before. I liked Nigel Harman more the less he talked (not that I disliked him when he talked, he just didn't floor me). I liked the female sidekick although it says a lot about the kind of stuff that I've been watching, where the heroine is the protagonist, that I was disappointed that she needed his help to throw off the Vatican's ninjas (how can you not love a show that has Vatican-sponsored ninjas?) and the hard nut rating Id been assigning her lessened from Alias's Ana's levels. Brian Cox's presence excused a stream of X2 jokes, and I wouldn't mind it at all if this became a series of some sort, because it was fun. (There's a comparison to be made with Spooks, but I can't quite articulate it.)