The BAFTA Award-winning BBC program Spooks will be appearing on U.S. public television. Okay, it's now called MI-5, but the theory is the same. The show seems to be Britain's answer to 24 and from what I understand it's pretty good.The interesting thing about the article for me was the fact that it's being released to public television. Let me put on my old person's hat for a moment and say that I remember the good old days when public television was the only place to watch BBC (or even British) shows. How do you think Monty Python got famous in the U.S.A.? Or Doctor Who? Now we have BBC America, Sci Fi and various other cable channels that show British imports.
Mind you, the nice thing about having this program on public television is that anybody with a set of rabbit ears on their T.V. can watch the program. However, you may need a digital converter box if you do.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-21-2009 @ 7:34PM
pollypissypants said...
awesome do we know when? You can actually rent it from netflix as well.
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1-21-2009 @ 7:30PM
Seth Brower said...
Personally, while I did greatly enjoy 24 in the first few seasons, I think that Spooks is a much better show overall.
The plots are not hamstrung by the "1 day" aspect, and seem to develop a much more realistic style of presentation that shows a better example of an espionage program.
I first got into it when they showed some of the seasons on A&E, the production company has had some ties with them, they are the same ones who created Hustle, another great program that you could argue is being adapted in the TNT show Leverage, which is a good example of the right way to bring a British show over to the US.
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1-21-2009 @ 8:06PM
Jimmy said...
Calling Spooks Britain's 24 does a disservice to the former. I'm a fan of 24, but where that series is over the top, Spooks is more smartly written and more realistic (at least as realistic as a television series can be). Where Jack Bauer likes to torture people with electrical cords and sacrifice good people for HE believes is best for the country; the agents of Spooks actually tend to think before they act and still not let the bad guy get away.
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1-21-2009 @ 8:17PM
Richard Lawler said...
You can catch it on Netflix Watch Instantly right now, I'm going through it myself and wow, this is way more hardcore than 24. I agree they're not at all the same (MI-5 is not campy), but I think they have enough overlap you can compare them a bit.
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1-21-2009 @ 8:45PM
MrMischevous said...
Spooks came out before 24, so it's far more accurate to say that 24 is America's answer to Spooks. Spooks also had the splitscreen camera device that 24 copied afterwards. I'm a little disappointed that you didn't do basic research on this one.
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1-21-2009 @ 8:50PM
MrMischevous said...
"Always mince your words - it makes it that much easier to eat them later"
A quick look at wikipedia reveals that I was wrong - 24 was out about six months before Spooks, which is a little strange given that on the first Spooks DVD they claimed ownership to the splitscreen approach before 24 did.
1-21-2009 @ 9:13PM
Anita said...
Yay! I loved the first two seasons of Spooks. It was realistic (agents on budgets), slightly humorous, and made me think I could join MI-5 due to lack of overt violence & firearms ;) The seasons I enjoyed actually remind me more of NCIS (in its earlier incarnations). However, I strayed away when the later seasons became more 24-ish & the lead agents started dropping off. Either way, I, too, miss the days of watching Coupling & Red Dwarf on PBS in the late night A.M . . .
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1-21-2009 @ 11:11PM
Fred said...
Spooks/MI-5 previously aired in the US on A&E and BBC America. Third time's the charm?
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1-22-2009 @ 12:34AM
bc said...
Except that A&E and BBC America have commercials and therefore edited the episodes down to 42 min or whatever. PBS is apparently showing the original, uncut BBC episodes.
1-22-2009 @ 12:48AM
rahul said...
Spooks : 24 :: Ferrari : Pinto
that is the best way i can describe it, having been a fan of spooks for a while watching 24 is just lame in comparison, in no way am i afraid that jack will die. in spooks however anyone can die at any time for any reason.
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1-22-2009 @ 6:56AM
mark perna said...
Spooks is an amazing show. I'd compare it to something brilliant like Dexter for it's writing and acting instead of 24 which is kind of hacky. It was shown on A&E and BBC America but with 25% of each show edited out for commercials making them pretty much unwatchable.
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1-22-2009 @ 9:49AM
Mark Adams said...
The American cable networks butchered the show, along with moving it from time period to time period, ending it in mid-season..no wonder it didn't do well.
ANyone know when/where PBS will be airing it?
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1-22-2009 @ 10:41AM
kenm said...
The first 3 seasons of Spooks were fantastic, then it slowly started degrading and becoming more unintelligible. Season 6 was the worst but the just completed season 7 was much better I thought. It's no longer great but it's still watchable. Spooks: Code 9 is another story entirely - a complete waste of time.
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1-22-2009 @ 11:32AM
kts said...
Love, love, love this show. It was on A & E for a bit, now it's on BBC Canada. Smarter than 24--and I say that as a big 24 fan.
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1-22-2009 @ 4:00PM
schleifnet said...
spooks was more like Alias than 24 with leads being killed off often, and law an order with episodic content and only small overall plot lines (you can come into the middle of the season and not be left out)
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1-22-2009 @ 6:36PM
BritTVFan said...
Don't get too excited, like others have said above, the first 3 seasons are great and you think to yourself, "why can't US shows be more like this?" Then season 4 hits and it was never the same. Those first lead actors were what made the show great - don't kid yourself into thinking the writing is grittier or less comical than the best of 24 just b/c you want to believe it's "exotic and british" so it must be better. Spooks was a great show that jumped the shark very soon
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