[spooks] Code 9 - My Review - Ep1

General and Episode 1:

[spooks] Code 9 then.  There's been quite a bit of bad press about this new programme from BBC Three - but for the life of me I can't fathom out why!!  I've watched one episode so far (the first one) and to be fair, I can't see anything in it that qualifies the statements of some of the reviews I've read! (Yup - I read reviews before watching!!).

I didn't think the acting was wooden (I have seen much worse, thank you very much) and the dialogue was fine.  I suspect (very strongly) that some reviewers have missed the point a tad......OK well......they've missed it a lot!!  I read a review stating that there was a lot of bad language in the show - I didn't think there was - and the language that was in there was in context!  Who doesn't say a swear word when surprised or shocked?! (Um...I do!!!)  Totally in context and didn't spoil it at all.  C'mon - it's 2013, ferchrissake!  If you only look back a few years ago, the "f" word was taboo on telly - now it's rife after the watershed and this is BBC Three, not mainstream terrestrial channels (apologies to BBC Three there!)

As I said - it's 2013, things have moved on, bombs have gone off.  As they do actually say in the programme - 25% of the MI5 "spooks" are dead and half of the others have moved on to private sector, so you would expect to have young new recruits.  It happens in wartime, after all.

Perhaps, maybe, it's because I didn't watch Spooks?  Not because I didn't want to - and I suspect that I will actually catch up with it one day - but because I've never gotten around to watching it, so maybe that lack of foreknowledge has tainted my opinion maybe?.......but no, I don't think so.  I don't think watching another programme taints my opinion - yes, Spooks might be better than this - but so is Doctor Who (Doctor Who is better than ANYTHING!).  Yes, there might be better plotlines, ongoing subplots yada yada yada in Spooks, but then they have that in Midsomer Murders and Morse and Lewis etc etc as well.  [spooks] Code 9 isn't Spooks.  It's a NEW programme with a DIFFERENT cast with DIFFERENT storylines and events!!  Get over it!!!

All in all, I enjoyed it - not because I am slightly (well....a lot!) biased because I run a website about one of the cast - but because I genuinely enjoyed it!  The plot - and some reviewers say here it had more holes in it that a sieve! - was fine, there were surprises, plenty of action and I thought the cast did a good job.....all of them.  I have seen a lot worse - on both British and American television!

I for one, am looking forward to the next episode - and indeed the four remaining ones - and just hope that some of the reviewers that gave it such a bad review will somehow come to their senses and see it for what it is......good entertainment!

Roll on episode 2!!