I am – Hercules!! While we yanks just got the fourth-season premiere of “MI-5” on Friday, our Brit cousins are getting on Sunday the fifth-season premiere. Here’s "Mr. Grey":
Spooks (or as the spies-like-US calls it: MI-5) returns to UK screens Sunday night for a new season with the second episode on Monday. Having seen the first three episodes, I thought I'd give you a quick review of the opening two-parter. Spoilers, obviously - including the last episode of Season 4. If you use this, please call me Mr Grey. Does this show pick up where Season 4 (currently being shown in the US) finished? In the S4 finale 'Diana', UK viewers saw Adam, Harry and co come under heavy fire from a psychotic ex-agent Angela Wells (Lindsay Duncan) who was after the Royal Family and Adam was obviously hit at least once... we were left with the site of him on his back , seriously wounded and blood flowing from his mouth and Harry looking to be the next victim.. We see the immediate results of that and we then rapidly move through several disorientating weeks as MI-5 rallies its troops. Wait, is Adam dead, then? Hey, this is Spooks. Nobody ever dies...oh, wait....ok, fair point. Promotional trailers have already shown that the events of last season’s finale didn’t kill him outright. But let's just say one regular face may not make it out of the first episode intact and their final scene is quite a gut-punch. So the team still have to deal with last season’s psychotic agent? Actually, last's season's finale is quickly wrapped up and disposed of in the first few minutes, though this opening two-parter spins off from her warped motivation. MI-5 are convinced that a wave of terrorist activity in the UK is a prelude to something bigger, hinted at by tons of graffiti claiming “Djakarta is coming…‘. At the same time, there's an uneasy feeling that certain people in the governmental ranks may be planning to use the bombings and threats to their own distinct advantage. What can you tell us about the key plot points? Well, in the first hour alone look for real threats made against air-craft, bombs exploding in the heart of London, a shadow cabinet that lives up to the description, an attack on the Prime Minister's son and some serious fist-fights. And not since V for Vendetta has the area near Westminster been such an explosive backdrop. The villains of the piece have lofty ambitions, but the scary thing is that their public-relations methods are as easy to pull of as they are effective. Couldn't happen in real life, though, surely? Hmmmm. So, spy-boy, is it still cutting edge spy drama? Well, on the good side, the cast are as strong as ever and each gets a moment to shine. The incoming Hermione Norris (from the UK's Cold Feet and Wire in the Blood) is a fellow agent and femme fatale who'd give Emma Frost a run for her money and is maybe only half as trustworthy. The risk seems real, the fatalities they experience are meaningful and the first episode cliff-hanger is a great moment. The second episode (which concludes the opening story) doesn't let-up on the tension. On the negative side there's definitely a step towards the higher-stakes 24 style, which is fine in its own right, but Spooks was always more down to earth and gritty. The conspiracy angles played out here go further and faster than one hopes they would in real life and while some of the story's gambits pay off fantastically well, there are others that will make you shrug. Would an agent who only got drafted into the team from her civilian job less than a year ago REALLY be charged with looking after the PM’s son? Using the character of the Prime Minister's son, but changing his age and name (Ewan becomes Rowan) also moves us a little out of the everyday world and into a fictional reality that is sometimes jarring for such a solid show. But whatever fantastical tweaks have been made... this is still Britain's top action show and the thinking man's 24. Best lines? “Would you have smiled at your wife’s killers?” “………..yes. I would have smiled at her killers if that had been necessary.” “Yes... I believe you would.”

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