stephentrooper

I appreciate people have very different tastes - we like different things. But some of these comments (as is often the case online) cross the line from expressing a point of view to being downright aggressive and cruel (a bit like the title of this review)! People are on the receiving end of your reviews, so be kind!

As for this show, I thought it was excellent entertainment. And that's what it is meant to be: entertainment. It's not history. It's not a drama doc. It's not a statement of Britain's position in international information gathering.

To appreciate this show, I think you need to understand irony, which runs deep in this comedic spy caper. It's Brits laughing at ourselves. It's Brits poking fun at the establishment. It's Brits enjoying seeing the "underdog" triumph over the smug, privileged and powerful. It's all that and more.

So, sit back, enjoy excellent acting, a tight script with so many jokes coming so fast that you might miss them, and something that offers a typically British counterpoint to the glossy "24", "The Americans" et al spy genre that tends to originate in the USA (not that I'm against them, they have their place too).

For me, it lost 2 stars because I felt the final episode was rather predictable and more improbable than the show deserved.

For the first 5 minutes I thought, "this is interesting, I wonder where it'll go?" For the rest of the episode I hoped it would go somewhere new and interesting. It didn't. Very Black Mirror-esque. Minimalist, but lacking substance. In the end, I just didn't care. Why do the suits behind so many recent shows appear to be so condescending to the audience? Perhaps it's because when they're in their ivory towers, they also can't remember that people on the outside are, in fact, discerning? Perhaps this show is a metaphor for the state of today's TV production companies?

Deals with an important issue in a sensitive, subtle and impactful way. Moves swiftly, can be difficult watching, but gripping.