MI-5: Series Four/Volume Four (BBC DVD Set)
Picture: C+ Sound: B- Extras: C+ Episodes: C+
It used
to be a guarantee that you could get a good Spy series on TV, but the genre
started to show signs of wear by the early 1980s with the Robert Conrad miss A Man Called Sloane. A Mission:
Impossible revival was poor enough to make the Tom Cruise films possible
and Alias was very overrated to
begin with, only to wear out quickly in anything it had going for it. Back on British TV, home of classics like The Avengers, the BBC has a hit in MI-5, but is it really as good as its
hit reputation would have one believe?
Maybe it
too was good in the beginning like Alias
was, but by this fourth season, whatever it had is just not there. Instead, it feels like any other generic
techno-thriller TV show or feature production, often just above a first-shooter
videogame and just as colorless. Known
as Spooks in England, sounding more
like a Horror show than espionage one, the original title suggests these agents
are like ninjas and so mysterious and undetectable that we should be in shock
& awe.
Instead, that
latter tired and failed term can only connotate my disappointment at a series
that is still on as of this posting and is more often like 24 without the excitement of that series’ early seasons. Any twists here are just twists unto
themselves without any substantial storyline to back them up. This is a five DVD set of hour-long shows. Start at the begi9nning and if it stays
interesting, get this set. Otherwise,
skip it.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 is obviously shot on digital High Definition
with all of its flaws and limits apparent in this tradedown. The Dolby Digital 5.1 has enough healthy
surrounds to be the highlight of this set.
Extras include audio commentary tracks on every episode, An Elusive
Peace documentary on this season, Regnus
Defends: an interview with series producer Andrew Woodhead and A View From The Grid: interview with
episode director Julian Simpson.
- Nicholas Sheffo
