tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7319951361865255810.post3631489480559191531..comments2024-02-22T15:57:45.391-07:00Comments on Lost In British TV: Spooks Ending: A Real. Life. Fail.Amyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05257485838861137689noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7319951361865255810.post-75328801220267882762013-03-06T05:38:12.989-07:002013-03-06T05:38:12.989-07:00Hi,
I just finished all seasons (series) of Spook...Hi,<br /><br />I just finished all seasons (series) of Spooks/MI-5. A few thoughts that I feel compelled to share … somewhere, somehow. Hopefully, someone connected with the show reads this blog and will consider these comments for future endeavors.<br /><br />First, although the first season caused me to develop the phrase “24 on Valium” while falling asleep from the tedium, I took a deep breath and gave it a little more time. As it turned out, Spooks progressed and actually matured nicely through subsequent seasons, with some glaring flaws.<br /><br />Main among those flaws: I've watched my share of television over 50 years, but I'd never seen a show before Spooks that discarded, chased off, or otherwise lost so many main characters. The losses were so excessive that it killed the momentum of the show a few times. The comments of the blog owner, in the main article above, are “spot on” regarding the character losses and most everything else. I haven’t watched a lot of English TV drama -- is that rate of character loss seen as normal or expected?<br /><br />A viewer on another blog, commenting about the show “Hunted”, had the following related thoughts about the Spooks ending:<br /><br />“I was quite excited about this [Hunted] until I saw it was from the creators of Spooks; they say it like it's a good thing. However, I like my fiction to have at least some redemptive qualities. If I want a realistic view of how bleak life is I can look out of the window. The killing of Ruth in the last episode of Spooks was a betrayal of my loyalty which I will not allow to happen twice. I'm out.”<br /><br />Finally, my most heartfelt comments about the ending of Season 10 probably aren't appropriate here, so I'll withhold them. Let's just say that it's a good thing that ordinary citizens like me don't have access to writers' home addresses and large shit-flinging catapults. Harry and Ruth in a nice little house by the sea would have been a just and redemptive way to end it all; not just for the characters, but for the loyal viewers. Instead, after ten &!@*$ seasons, viewers got a big finger poked in the eye right at the very end. And for no apparently good reason. GRRRRRRR!<br /><br />That ending struck me as stupid and senseless on the part of the show’s management and creative team. However, that result isn't a uniquely English malady. The American series “Lost” was fantastic, right up until the dumbest ending in the history of TV. Do they just get tired and go on mental holiday? I don’t think I’ll ever understand.<br /><br />Anyway, Spooks was a good and entertaining show overall. Thanks for the good articles on the show and characters and for creating a place to express our thoughts. <br /><br />And the healing process continues …<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7319951361865255810.post-31957539541731337732012-08-23T18:22:12.416-07:002012-08-23T18:22:12.416-07:00Thank you! And thanks so much for taking the time ...Thank you! And thanks so much for taking the time to comment. It's funny that almost a year has gone by since the ending and I still feel such a strong sense of sadness and irritation for how that show ended. We have so few bright moments of great tv to cling to don't we, we just want things like Spooks to live up to its real potential.<br /><br />I haven't actually watched Fry and Laurie so I'm going to have to check that out! thanks :)Amyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05257485838861137689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7319951361865255810.post-58774801738149538822012-08-23T10:29:55.037-07:002012-08-23T10:29:55.037-07:00I just finished season 10, close on the heels of s...I just finished season 10, close on the heels of season 9. Actually, I've had an MI-5 mini marathon for the last few weeks. In spite of already knowing the fate of Ruth before I watched the last episode, it was painful.<br /><br />So I've been trolling (not in the cyber sense) the internet looking for solace on forums and in clips of "Ruth" and "Harry" sitting close on a bench discussing the show, still alive & well. 'Course one thing led to another and I was watching Fry & Laurie & got a much needed belly laugh.<br /><br />Then I found your blog and you analyzed and articulated the whole situation perfectly. Thank you for providing relief through understanding.<br /><br />I don't watch much TV or even movies, and most of what I do watch is British stuff on PBS. And some of the best ones stay with me for a while and the sad ones make me sad. But nothing like seasons 9 & 10 of MI-5. I actually had trouble sleeping after watching the last episode of season 9. That's a first for me. I couldn't figure out why it was so disturbing, but you have explained it beautifully. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7319951361865255810.post-34686366729002595072011-12-05T12:27:53.136-07:002011-12-05T12:27:53.136-07:00Thank you for these great comments dweomeroflight,...Thank you for these great comments dweomeroflight, TSS and EB!! Spooks fans (or ex-fans, haha) are some of the most intelligent people on earth. Maybe I just like you all because you agree with me, but in any case, these are very welcome thoughts!<br /><br />EB, I didn't realize that there were extras for this season up on youtube already because I've had my head in the sand since that ending and really haven't wanted to see or hear more about it. ...what you describe confirms that feeling! Though its interesting to think about that justification for Harry, it still feels shallow. There is no doubt (no one who has looked at his face when he looks at Ruth can deny it) that Harry had deep passion for Ruth. To me, whether they would have had a disfunctional relationship or not is not really the point. They deserved better treatment, better closure and a chance to express their passion. If you're bitter, I'm right there with you.<br /><br />TSS, I love your comment that in a way you need to be at least a little sympathetic to the writers for having to work with material they didn't necessarily ask for. I hadn't thought of that, but you're also right that still, what they got was a gift and they should have worked like mad to preserve it.<br /><br />There are so many ways to process what happened with Harry, with Harry and Ruth, or what happened to the show in general and you have all written wonderful intelligent commentary. We all feel this sense of loss and disappointment and in a way that's testament to how powerful the show was -- that this all "mattered" so much. As dweomeroflight says, its that loss of potential -- that jumping the shark -- that felt like such a waste for a show that had so much class.Amyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05257485838861137689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7319951361865255810.post-88867388505742970682011-12-05T02:22:31.490-07:002011-12-05T02:22:31.490-07:00So, after seeing the extras on the DVD (most of th...So, after seeing the extras on the DVD (most of the bits regarding Ruth and Harry are already up on youtube), but if you haven't seen it and don't want to know what they're talking about, don't read on...<br /><br />Perhaps their (writers, producers) image of Harry differs from the viewers. We really like him and in our minds give him a shred of humanity that perhaps the writers don't imagine him to have. They say that because of his sacrifice to the service, 30 long years, have left him unable to have a normally functioning relationship. He is literally unable to put anything above the service, he IS MI5. I don't doubt he loved Ruth but well, a normal person wouldn't have proposed to someone at a funeral as a first step in a relationship. What about dating, maybe saying I love you first... =) And above that, with the argument that he didn't want her to have only six people at her own funeral. Not very romantic, Harry! <br />They are basically saying that because Harry is emotionally crippled he can never function outside his job, Ruth is in the end just an asset to be manipulated and with the death of her, Harry got a welcome excuse to continue working. (Bitter? Me? Oh no, not at all)<br /><br />"It's like Peter Firth and Nicola Walker gave the writers a gift, and the writers threw it back at them." Exactly!! They created something beautiful with great potential and the writers mucked it up so completely. After watching the extras on the dvd I feel like throwing up all over Kudos (oh please, can I just this once be allowed to be this childish about this???). <br /><br />-EBEBnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7319951361865255810.post-76968178383159834232011-12-04T13:49:25.959-07:002011-12-04T13:49:25.959-07:00"It is common knowledge that the writers didn..."It is common knowledge that the writers didn't plan that romance, but I now realize that they really didn't know what to do with it once it showed up in front of them."<br /><br />THIS! This this this this this. You have summed up in one sentence the problem with ... all of it. And in a sense I do feel for the writers: when your characters completely take on a life of their own, it's hard to know what to do next. When your spy story suddenly wants a romance plot, how can you have any idea what to do with it? <br /><br />But even as I sympathize, I'm still reduced to incoherent rage at what we ended up with. I understand not knowing what to do, but you still ought to have some sense of what *not* to do. (Hint: If it involves giving both your viewers *and* your actors nothing to work with, it goes on the "what not to do" list.) <br /><br />I've had the vague feeling that my sense of frustration at this ending is a little out of proportion--that it has to be about something more than feeling like I, as a viewer, have been let down. And I think the "something more" is a sense that *the very people who developed the story line in the first place* have been let down. It's like Peter Firth and Nicola Walker gave the writers a gift, and the writers threw it back at them. So I think my frustration is as much indignation on their behalf--they built something lovely and then had it smashed by people who should have worked like mad to preserve it--as anything else.<br /><br />--TSSAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7319951361865255810.post-71437081730520316962011-12-03T00:22:30.266-07:002011-12-03T00:22:30.266-07:00I love you for writing this. I really do. It is ev...I love you for writing this. I really do. It is everything I despise about what Spooks became in one handy post. <br /><br />This is ultimately what I feel about Spooks. It started off a great show, with great stories, themes and characters, but its later series became sillier and sillier until there was nothing worthwhile to hold onto aside from great acting.<br /><br />I had a feeling Spooks was no longer for me from halfway through s8 but I clung on because I love Nicola and I loved Ruth and I wanted to see her story resolved. If the finale would have achieved this I would have forgiven previous series flaws.<br /><br />As it is, now I feel like I rather wasted my time. <br /><br />And yes people can say, "well why did you keep watching?" and I will keep saying till I am blue in the face "Because the potential to be great was still there and because I didn't want to admit one of my favourite shows had well... jumped the shark." <br /><br />-dweomeroflightAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com