I Can't Look At Deep Fryers The Same

Guild and I have just started watching a long-running British show called Spooks.

This endeavour started out as the grinding task of sitting through 7 seasons of a show we knew nothing about, in order to get up to the entry of one Richard Crispin Armitage, who comes in as a main character called Lucas North.

We were not overly impressed by episode 1, finding it confusing and difficult to keep track of all the characters, with a plot that did not particularly pull us in.

But then episode 2 happened.

Episode 2, where a character previously thought to be quite main was brutally murdered. And I mean, brutally murdered. It sprang out of nowhere, I didn't think they would go through with it, when BAM, they were dead, and Guild and I were left staring at each other in horror over the remains of our dinner.

Nothing has shocked me this much since Hershell's leg got chopped off in the series 3 premiere of The Walking Dead.

Upon reading about the reaction to this episode I learned that it was originally going to be the season finale, but got pulled forward, and the character death was for the express purpose of letting the viewership know that in Spooks, no one is safe.

And gosh darn did they get that across well.

They wanted me to sit up and pay attention? THEY HAVE MY RUDDY ATTENTION. I am hooked to this show now. No longer am I just sitting around waiting for RA's character to enter, I am genuinely invested.

Matthew Macfadyen's character (or baby Darcy, as I mentally see him - this show started 11 years ago) is also great. In fact, all of the characters are starting to become more developed (and I'm hoping the show goes a Stargate SG-1 route with their cast) and are all very well acted. But Macfadyen's Tom is currently my favourite because while he is quite stoic, he has a very subtle personality that he plays extremely well. He has also, in the course of a mere 4 episodes, sustained enough trauma to fill an entire h/c bingo.

In any case, I look forward to watching the rest of Spooks (and hearing Guild's thoughts on the show so far, once she gets around to actually posting something).

I think this might even make it up there with Endeavour and Breaking Bad. I'm honestly enjoying it that much. It's very well written, but there have been a few slow bits thus far - we'll see where the next 9 seasons take it.

(It is also complete, which means we can marathon it :3)