Spooks 8 - 2

I promised myself I'd put some effort into reviewing Spooks 8 because Richard Armitage is in it. I've even hired a consultant to understand the linguistic and cultural differences. Ok, it's my viewing buddy from Somewhere-stan and he's doing it for fun, but it's the thought, you know.

"You don't know where's Tazbekstan?" I glared at him, "I want my money back."

I've heard of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Mount Kazbek but not Tazbekstan. I scratched my head and felt a little insulted. Sure the writers make up terrorist plots and the whole show is fictitious, but making up a COUNTRY takes us into LaLa land doesn't it? It tripped us up for a while until we saw how boo-hiss-bad they made the Tazbek politicians.

Villain of the week:

Rustam Urazov, an ethnic-sounding name to my buddy

Bloody bloggers, full of spoilers - like the rest of this entry!

While the plot revolves around oily politicians and England getting more gas, the best thing about it is Lucas getting more screen time. If only it wasn't spent in strip clubs (what's with that?) or with Sarah Caulfield.

When I saw what I saw I almost lost the will to blog, oh! It seemed to violate Newton's law of universal gravitation: two bodies are attracted to each other with equal and opposite force. As Lucas kissed the-coldest-lips-west-of-Siberia I cried "Noo! That's soo wrong!" I shivered with horror as he opened the door to danger and bad taste in women.

What an overreaction, even for me. What's wrong with me?  So her accent's as patchy as my pre-RA Spooks viewings and her character's more of a plot device so far than a human being, but their moonlight rendezvous elicited such repulsion as if I was dared to french kiss my cousin. I rewatched it and finally had one of those wide-eyed Dr House revelations with a slack jawed close up: After watching so much past on-screen drawn-out relationship angst, I've got RA emotional baggage. I think I've launched into a new level of Richard-centric orbit.

The scene wasn't bad, it's just me watching with Thornton and Guy-tinted glasses. I subconsciously built up expectations of chemistry and tension, to see something like his previous dysfunctional tv relationships. What did I think I was watching; this is Spooks! Bombs, assassination and today's crisis drive the plot, not character development and inner conflict.

I urged myself to rewatch it with a clean slate, and even muted the sound so her accent couldn't get to me. Ok, the actress is fine, and RA's subtle facial expressions reveal as much as spoken dialogue. But it still feels like they've cut a scene between Lucas and Sarah Caulfield between their lunch with Mr Bell and The Smooch, it's so abrupt.

At the lunch: Lucas is distrustful and betrayed realising that she's been manipulating him the whole time.

The Cheshire cat playing with her mouse

 Lucas is unimpressed with her malicious revenge.

Mr Bell backs up his colleague - Come on make nice Lucas, we're allies

Oh alright here's a wry sneer

 

She plays the game without so much as a prick of conscience. Railing against the frozen smile is futile; he needs to get her off guard.

 This is their next scene.

They're standing too close. Since when did they get on sweety friendy terms? I figured something must have been edited out between that last wry smile and this one, something that would have shown Lucas shifting gears in his approach to her. Anyhow, with clean slate eyes and the sound off I realised maybe it's intentional there's no chemistry from her. Lucas is toying with her; oh beware ye victim of Lucas' charm. He's goading her on, and the first one to blink loses.

He lashes out with an abrupt kiss...and they're off

She hits back daring him to you-know-what.

Ha, she's experimenting with a hard drug.

He tries to trip her up with a question, watching for a slip-up

 As she walks off he lets down his guard.

I wanted to like her character, but I can't help resenting her frigid guts at the moment. What's there to like? We don't know enough about her except that she's vindictive, arrogant and manipulative. Crossed fingers that we get something redeeming soon, otherwise Lucas is loving a cardboard cutout. There's gotta be something in her that he needs in his emotional make-up to heal past wounds or make himself more complete...Oh no! There I go again chasing my tail too early. Stop judging and just keep watching.