After ten years, perilous missions, near global catastrophe and of course many, many deaths, Spooks really is over. Throughout this series, we have seen that Harry and the MI5 team have been played against a background of a mutually beneficial deal between Russia and Britain.
The team have been one step behind a covert group working in the shadows, hoping to derail the talks and to stop the new agreements taking place. At first, we thought it was the Americans, closing in on its former ally and trying to destabilise the diplomatic relationship.
It was also hinted that the architect of the entire affair, Ilya Gavrik, may be behind it all; even his son Sasha was at certain points a prime suspect, but the threat is revealed to be a lot closer to home. Now as you would expect with a last episode, things are supposed to all end in a massive climax, for all the pieces to fall into place and the final showdown to happen in the last few minutes, for the hero to save the day and for everyone to walk off into the sunset.
Ad — content continues below. The thing is, Harry is in the process of being transported to America in a lovely case of special rendition. Of course, the team have a cunning plan to rescue him, and would in all likelihood have sprung their intrepid leader even if the country was not at risk.
Ruth was new to this particular mix , but she shared strong history with Harry, Malcolm and Jo. By the time we lost Malcolm, Jo and Ros, we were already bonding with Tariq, and Ruth was fully phased in. It felt smooth and seamless and it worked. Meanwhile, Ruth's interactions with Harry were powerful, sad and sexy. We were fully invested in what would happen to them and all the agents around them.
It was great TV. And that greatness withstood and transcended the loss of some of the best characters the show has ever known. But, then with Season 9 and continuing into 10, the show seemed suddenly bent on destroying itself from the inside out.
The meaning seemed to take a back seat and character development and trust stopped mattering. Things that a viewer had a right to rely upon were jerked away. All this was done toward no real end other than to woo viewers. Despite a season of buildup and a proposal she should have respected if not craved, Ruth's character not only denied herself happiness but denied herself even the comfort of some rational motivation for staying celibate.
And toward what end? Apparently only for the hope of stringing along viewers. What was the point of that? I suppose they couldn't do anything about Sophia Myles not wanting to stay on for another season, but they could have gotten her to do a single episode and then maybe kill her -- that would at least have preserved her memory, given the remains of the team a bonding moment, and allowed her character some enduring meaning. Instead of immediately drawing upon past themes and building continuity they so desperately needed, the writers went and took out Tariq!
One of the few who was actually part of a continuing team. Hitting us over the head with Calum and Erin Watts was jarring and awkward. But we didn't get that either. And Ruth and Harry lost all the momentum they had gained by Harry's act of passion at the end of Season 9. Lost without reason. It would have healed so many flaws to have allowed a proper conversation about what Harry did and what it meant. Great idea. But even this was so horribly executed it provided nothing. Was Ruth allowed to see and connect with Tom?
He showed up in the final minutes of the final episode in order to walk alone down a hallway. Someone who could have actually provided a meaningful link to the past was wasted. The writers couldn't have dismantled the continuity of this show any more had they tried. Maybe you've noticed, I haven't yet even mentioned how they killed off Ruth in the last episode. And I was more than a little upset by that. But more than the death of Ruth, I am disturbed by the way the writers squandered who she was and how she had moved forward.
Her character became pointless. It underscores the lack of grounding to have taken her life just to prove that they could. I did not need Harry and Ruth to have lived happily ever after, married and settled in a nice cottage somewhere.
But there was no conceivable reason to have denied them some resolution, some real love scenes. They were artifically held in limbo and then denied real consummation. Their chemistry and motivations were squandered. And this incredibly powerful story lost. Anyone may know how much I cared about Harry and Ruth as a couple.
And I was hardly alone in that regard. I now realize that this amazing couple was not a product of the show and its writers. It came from Nicola Walker and Peter Firth. It is common knowledge that the writers didn't plan that romance, but I now realize that they really didn't know what to do with it once it showed up in front of them.
It proceeded organically from two talented actors, thus, their very best moments came when the writers weren't trying to manage it, but when Nicola and Peter managed to infuse regular interactions with more meaning and eye contact.
In Season 10, the romance felt thin and squashed by the plot lines they were required to follow. Its a dream. I could be imagining it, but when I was watching the last episode --and it became clear they were offing Ruth -- I could almost see Peter Firth's acting breaking down.
It seemed to me that he as an actor just couldn't hang with it anymore because it was becoming so stupid. It really seemed to me as if he was distancing himself and closing down. He seemed to be sleepwalking through those last moments unable to find a place of truth and reality to draw upon.
What a shame to have done this to Harry. To make the last 10 years condense down to the plugging away at a desk, endlessly fighting lost battles. In Conclusion In its early years, throughout all its traumas, Spooks always carried with it a mantle of care and tightness between our team members. Now it seems that the writers wanted it to end on a note of: "we don't do happy and everyone must die or toil endlessly toward the same miserable end. That's what I waited 10 seasons for?
Yes, its just a show. It's only TV. But, really great fiction is more than just fiction. It mirrors reality. Books, movies, music and TV, are the stuff of life. They intentionally work on us at an emotional level. They are supposed to do that. Really good fiction does owe us something.
I don't watch bad fiction. I don't read bad fiction and I don't listen to bad music because I won't allow myself to be manipulated and jerked around by "powerful" media that is "weak" in quality. Powerful media that is good is one of the best things in life. This show was rare in that it did feel important and had so much capacity to be brilliant. I hope fans will tune in this September to see what promises to be a fittingly high-octane thrilling finale.
To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor mediatheguardian. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". This article is more than 10 years old. Corporation says hit spy drama will go out with a 'thrilling finale' after producer decides to end it 'in its prime'.
Spooks: the final series will focus on Harry Pearce, played by Peter Firth. Reuse this content.
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