{ Spooks, 9x02. }

[delga]

I liked that! Hurrah! I enjoyed the various superspy shenanigans - dropping to the floor! Palming the phone! Learning the camera numbers! Pretending to be the driver! Interrogation room we haven't seen in a while! - whilst also liking Beth more, too. I still dislike Sophia Myles' choices a lot, and sometimes they throw me, but the character is solid, and she has sort of a reverse arc - she's already dirty when she comes in, and she's trying to break clean. (This is NOT the same as Ros. Ros' ideals were always clean, but they got her into a lot of trouble.)

I feel like Lucas' story this year is going to be a MASSIVE BORE. Why is Lucas Always Cranky now? Why should I care about whoever the fuck John is? I get it: he did something Bad and Wrong, became Lucas North, and spent his sins in a Russian prison. And-- so? Why is all his character development retroactive? Instead of changing in the present, they keep going back and fiddling with his past. I-- don't care. I really enjoyed him walking around that guy's house and learning the camera numbers; I really didn't enjoy seeing him with That Lady (the actress is tres lovely, by the way! Is that Rouas?) I felt like this episode showed you Lucas at his best and his worst. His best: ninja brain powers. His worst: sappy lap dog. Lucas' weakness isn't that he's the human equivalent of an onion - something that should make him interesting, but somehow fails to - it's that he falls in love too easily. Which. Um, okay?

There was the scene in the conference room when Tariq and Dimitri were sat side-by-side. EVERYTHING ABOUT THAT WAS GREAT. I suddenly felt that they needed more interaction. Maybe people on the Grid talk to each other face-to-face sometimes, not through headsets?! Also, whatever filter they are using on Tariq is abysmal. He looks more anaemic than me. "I'm like a shark, Lucas." Yes, a DYING ONE. Dimitri is incredibly efficient at Getting Things Done, isn't he? I like that.

OH HARRY. Harry's attitude to Traitors is so-- is there any consistency there? No-one gets a second chance. Except for Ruth. Oh, and Ros. And Tom Quinn that one time, even though you suspected he was a lost cause. AND, YES, YOU YOURSELF. I always wondered why he felt he had to reprimand Tessa so strongly back in the first season when it never really panned out that way again. But that is arc work, because, of course, his idealism has faded even more since then. And now Lucas wants Beth around (...okay) and Harry doesn't? ...OKAY. I don't know. I don't even really understand why there was a fight about it. I understand that those men came to kill Beth and slaughtered everyone else, and I understand why that is A Bad Thing. But. Okay, never mind.

RUTH. Ruth and her red wine; Ruth and her late night epiphanies; Ruth and her attention to detail! I saw this collage on tumblr the other day, re:3x01, when she's been buying up the cabs in London to save time and money, and I remember thinking how GREAT she was, and how much I miss that side of her. But she is still great now; just Sad.

So, anyway, mostly I thought that was enjoyable fare! Excellent.

--

edit: Apparently I have decided to take the same approach to S9 as I did to SpyGran and 2.0: hysterical amusement. I have been reading some of the comments in the comm - enthusiastic and not - and I realised: I don't care if it turns out to be terrible, as long as it is entertaining. I don't want to be bored.

Comments

[tigertrapped.livejournal.com]

Someone should write meta about the parallels between Lucas North and Don Draper. Because, yes, to everything you say about what's interesting and what's not about Lucas, now. Just as Don's brilliance in the boardroom hypnotises me while his implied inner monologue has me tuning out..

In Spooks, right from the start, it annoyed me when the heroes were shown to be too flawed. I love a flawed hero, god knows I do, but on a show about spying and "saving the nation" - I'd like more competence less fannying about, please.

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

LESS FANNYING ABOUT. That is-- we should score them! Where competency is marked in plus points, and Fannying About in negatives. So, Dimitri didn't have a lot to do but was Quite Efficient, which gives him, what, a 3? And Lucas used his Ninja Brain but was self-involved to the point of idiocy so, say, +1 for Competency, and -4 for everything else? (I am not taken with Lucas AT ALL at present). Which lands him at -3. Dimitri, having done less, has six up on Lucas.

Tariq is a high 5 at all times. Shark boy.

[tigertrapped.livejournal.com]

If I'm honest, I didn't spot the memory trick with the cameras. But he did that, so yes points, but he loses as many for the navel-gazing and also how come even with Beth to help out he let the Nigerian get away? I'm tempted to dock Dimitri a point for his Moustache of Doom, which I thought was a disguise but which he kept wearing afterwards even though, if it was real, he hadn't had enough time to grow one - and if it was fake - TAKE IT OFF YOUR LIP. He still scores higher than Lucas, though.

Tariq wouldn't know fannying about if it shook him by the hand. Good shark boy.

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

Oh goodness, ways in which I was asleep: Dimitri's moustache? There was a moustache?! (As you can see, I put a lot of effort into watching this show, tumbling straight into bed once the trailers have rolled.)

I hope Tariq continues The School of Malcolm. Being utterly brilliant whilst everyone else is crying, 'Fire! Fire'!

[tigertrapped.livejournal.com]

I was wrong about moustache appearing midway through. He has it from the start of 902 but it's less conspicuous at the start of the ep.

[izzicat.livejournal.com]

I love your scoring idea.
The wonderful bookishy did this for Robin Hood and it always made me giggle http://bookishy.livejournal.com/49837.html
We could have a series league table and I think the only thing that would stop Tariq winning hands down is that he is not given enough to do and so could lose out from the lack of opportunity to be fabulous.
I think I am sufficiently shallow enough to score on fannying about, competency and boy do you look hot in jeans but that puts Harry at a disadvantage and also Ruth who I don't think owns any denim clothing.
As well as the team members being scored individually we could add an extra character called Oh Show as characters can't be held responsible for props, make up and continuity etc.but I fear Oh Show may never recover from the minus points ststanding from this episode alone.
xxx

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

You are right, also, about Don Draper. His mental fuckery is not at all of interest to me; his mental acuity in the way he does his job really is.

[tigertrapped.livejournal.com]

I spoke with some men in advertising about Don and they all agreed "Men don't have inner monologues". Like Lucas falling in love, Don just likes a lot of casual sex. That's the extent of his "mystery".

Did you watch Bouquet of Barbed Wire? I didn't, except for the last episode one night when there was nothing else on. The entire show hung off the premise of "We couldn't help ourselves". Everyone shagging everyone else, because they couldn't help themselves. What a load of balls. You can help yourself. I can help myself. We can all help ourselves. There was some epic fannying about in that.

[delgaserasca.livejournal.com]

Have you been watching the latest series? I am fifty-fifty on it, but I do love Joan.

No, I didn't watch that - from the previews alone I was sceptical, and then everyone's reviews put me right off. I also didn't bother with Identity, which I was later told was a good move.

[tigertrapped.livejournal.com]

I too love Joan, and Sally (I'm hoping she gets more airtime as the series unfolds). Don and Lane together was hilarious. Maybe if they stick with more of the humour....

Identity stank. Well avoided.

[hestia8.livejournal.com]

Sorry my reply is so late.

I loved it. I was amazed so many people hated it, tbh, I had great fun.

I have these sort of theories about why all Lucas' development is retroactive, but they're cobwebs at the moment so I can't make anything out of them. I think that he never recovered from Russia, he just papered over the cracks and - like Beth - hoped it would never come up.

Harry's reaching the point where I can barely stand to watch him. Be less of a sociopath, man.

Ruth is still amazing. And soon she will start going out with Beth and then won't be sad. And I wish that wasn't just in my head.