My co-blogger Kevin thinks that the British spy thriller "MI-5" vs. our "24" is an apt example of the difference between the British and us. In "24," we have a borderline deranged federal agent, Jack Bauer (played by Kiefer Sutherland) who is insubordinate and willing to do whatever it takes to complete his mission, including torturing, threats to innocents, and so on. Although there are some efforts made to show the intelligence apparatus behind counterterrorism efforts, it's mostly Bauer playing cowboy who saves the day.
"MI-5," meanwhile, started off with much less action but more insight into the investigation and planning of counterterrorism steps. It was like the first season of CBS' "The Agency," but with more normal looking actors playing the MI5 crowd.
Warning: Lots of season 3 spoilers lurk ahead!
However, things have gone downhill very quickly, and now I think that the comparison merely shows that American pop culture is corrosively addictive, such that "MI-5" is the one that is suffering by comparison, because it is trying its best to "go Jack Bauer" this season.
Not only do we have the completely implausible resolution of season 2's cliffhanger, where top agent Tom Quinn shoots his boss to get away so that he can prove he's been framed by an American CIA operative, but this season, there has been more ends justify the means operations, followed by some boring soul searching. I say "boring" not because I think government agents should have no conscience, but that the shows were poorly written (though in fairness, the fact that the American versions are missing 16 minutes could have something to do with it) -- compare the episode where Danny has to kill a British citizen using some toxin with the episode of "The Agency" where AB Stiles has to kill a Russian former biowarfare scientist, but only after getting to know and really liking the target. And then finding out he was wrong in his assessment of what the scientist was trying to do. That had much more impact than five minutes of Danny crying in the bathroom.
Things continued to get worse on "MI-5." Last week, we had a truly wretched episode where a spoiled rich couple, a former model and a past-his-prime rock star, find that their baby son has been kidnapped. They insist that MI5 be brought in. This is kind of like an American couple asking that the NSA (codebreakers) be brought in to help catch kidnappers. I realize that having every episode be about terrorism might be too much, but there was no reason given to care about this rich couple and no reason for the story to have been written.
And this week, "MI-5" shows that it just wants to be like "24." We have a former British operative who gets captured nosing around former KGB hideaways, and MI5 determines that he's part of a plot to use a laser designator to illuminate a target for a missile. MI5 sets down to trying to break him through, uh, coercion. "Stress positions," sleep deprivation, food poisoning . . . and when that doesn't work, the good old resort to threatening the guy's daughter. Having figured out which building is the target, but not where the designator or missile are, the top agent, Adam Carter, sends the suspect's daughter into the building.
Of course, we saw this type of plot handled with much more urgency and vim in season 3 of "24," when, with a lethal contagion spreading throughout L.A. from a hotel where it was unloosed, Jack Bauer, having caught the responsible terrorist, orders that the terrorist's daughter be sent into "Inn-fection."
Far from showing that it's above "24" nastiness, "MI-5" has descended to the same "anything goes" approach to counterterrorism. Only "24" remains kinetically thrilling, whereas "MI-5" has had too many "blah" episodes this season.
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