Spooks/MI-5 6x10-7x01

[rachelmanija]

Despite the fact that it ate an entire weekend of my life a while back, and so obviously held my attention with its patented crazy-making suspense, S6 was probably the weakest of all the seasons I've seen so far. (Thanks rilina!)

While it did a good job of carrying a single storyline through an entire season, its focus on a single character at the expense of the (excellent) ensemble really hurt it-- especially as that character did not have a particularly compelling personal journey, and interested me far less in the entirety of the season than in previous ones.


Though Zaf's offscreen death was quite sufficiently heartbreaking and awful, and made Jo's breakdown in 6x01 quite believable, I think he deserved better as a character. I would have been much more content with his fate if we'd actually seen it onscreen as a full story, complete with the attempts he no doubt made to escape and survive.

I was divided on the fate of Roz, as I was glad she didn't die, but it seemed so similar to Ruth's poorly motivated exit. I am a lot happier with it now that she's back, just as competent and twice as crazy.

With Jo, I was glad to see her get a meaty story for once, but not thrilled about it being all about her being victimized. Again, 7x01 redeemed that for me, as it turned out that she was both victim and avenger, and is now back, traumatized but still in the game.

I loved Adam but I was glad to see him leave in a dramatically satisfying and heroic manner, since the writers had clearly run out of things to do with his character.

I am uncertain about Lucas. I like the remaining ensemble so much that I hope he doesn't steal the focus.



Spoil me for anything whatsoever in episodes to come and I will stab you in the eye with a ball-point pen.

Comments

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

Season 6 has been described to me as "pants." I think someone else also commented on its unusual lack of quality in comparison to other seasons.

I have yet to make my way through this series and am doing my best to remain as unspoiled as possible since, apparently, everyone dies all the time.

[gwynnega]

I was a loyal viewer of MI-5, but I quit watching towards the end of S6 and haven't watched any of the current season. I really wish they'd done more with Zaf...

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Is the stabbing in the eye with a ballpoint pen a plot point from the show?

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

The woman in rilina's icon in comments below threatens to do so.

By the way, you might like the show-- lots of extremely tough women.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think I added it to my Netflix queue based on rilina's posts when I decided to keep the account for a while.

[riemannia.livejournal.com]

I've only watched till season 5, so can't spoil you. But, in fact, I read these kind of posts, so I'm able to continue watching. I need to know to brace myself, or the tension becomes too overwhelming.

Must get hold of season 6. I'm an Adam fan so maybe it will be okay. Course I'm a Zaf fan too, so maybe not.

[mystcrave.livejournal.com]

I'm still on Season 3. This will help to lower my expectations for 6, so I'll probably enjoy more than I would have otherwise. Plus you can just put British people on a screen doing any kind of crap and I'm pretty happy.

[rilina.livejournal.com]

Ros threatening the Russian agent with a pen is one of my favorite Spooks scenes ever.