Spooks/MI-5 3x01-3x02

[oyceter]

3x01 Project Friendly Fire

Duuuuuude.

Obviously, I'm not surprised that Tom proves his innocence, but duuuuude.

I'm sort of sad that Christine ended up quitting; I wanted more hard-nosed, take-no-prisoners women on the show, a la Tessa. And Tom's just falling apart completely now, isn't he?

I love how all the agents come together, and I especially adore Ruth and her spy taxis. That rocked.

The Christine/Tom angst fails to move me, particularly when Tom is stupid enough to tell her MI-5's plans for Carmen Joyce.

On the other hand, he did cold-bloodedly kill Joyce.

I love it when this show lets characters be amoral and ruthless.

Also, wow, who is this Adam person? I was a little disinclined to like him at first, since he and Tom seem to be jockeying for positions, but that scene with Carmen Joyce was awesome. I can't believe he went on to talk her into killing herself. I mean... wow. Especially after getting the confession. I am very interested in seeing what the show does with him!

3x02 The Sleeper

Eep! I knew about the casting decision going in, because someone at work let it slip, but still! Tom just completely went rogue! At the worst possible moment, as Tom is wont to do!

And oh, that shot at the end, Tom waving back, knowing that they can see him, but that he can never see them again... ouch. And I never thought how much he would have to reconstruct his life from scratch. He's basically had no personal life at all because of this job, and all the friends/connections he had at work are completely gone now.

I will pretend that he and Christine get back together and be all angsty, or something. Somehow, I can't quite see Tom as being happy and non-angsty.

But oh, I wonder what will happen to the professor?

Also, I am so sick of the wives and children always being the damaged parties when it comes to MI-5 missions. One day, they are going to run up against a terrorist organization and/or sleeper agent who is female, and then it will be her husband/boyfriend/lover who is at risk! Muhahahaha!

Anyway, that's partly why I liked Carmen Joyce from the previous episode so much.

Poor Zoe. I somehow doubt that her relationship is going to last long, although props to her for trying.

But mostly, ouch for Tom, and for the complete erasure of one part of his life.

Comments

[rilina.livejournal.com]

The best thing about Spooks, I think, is that it doesn't pull its punches. Its willingness to write out key characters, whether Helen back in S1 or Tom here, make you genuinely afraid for the characters. I don't think most shows would have been willing to let Adam talk Carmen Joyce into suicide, etc. And as a result, the show has a serious HSQ and major drama without descending into Alias-style ridiculousness.

By the way, have you see vonnie_k's Spooks posts (http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=vonnie_k&keyword=MI-5&filter=all)? They're good reads.

(Reposting to fix HTML.)

[oyceter]

Oh, do you know if they actually wrote out Matthew MacFadyen, or if he had already decided to leave?

I loved that entire scene with Adam and Carmen Joyce and how the show went there, and how Harry wouldn't let Tom stop it.

Thanks for the link, I haven't read those yet!

(oops, reposting because I replied to the wrong one!)

[rilina.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that he decided to leave on his own, and the writers worked with that. In other random casting gossip, did you know that Matthew MacFayden and Keeley Hawes are married in real life? (I"m so glad the show never went in the direction of Tom/Zoe, since that would have been so, so tedious.)

[oyceter]

I didn't know that! How weird!

I'm really glad that the show has been light on the romance, especially given what happened with Alias.