Spooks and the good public servant
Oct. 25th, 2006 11:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altarielSo season 5 of Spooks is well underway, and it's been great, and didn't this week's episode on BBC Three have many things to rejoice about? Adam's temptation of Rose-Tyler's-dad-Sean-Dingwall was an amazing scene to have in a drama at the moment: positioning Adam as the Devil tempting the Christian with a view out over St Paul's, which was standing in for the whole of Christendom, Christ's kingdom. Ending the scene with Adam, arms outstretched, mimicking the crucified Christ, offering the world, was knockout. Dammit, I love telly.
Adam's state of mind is utterly compartmentalized in a quite alarming fashion. Little boxes. Completely different from the fragmented but ultimately unified kaleidoscope that is Sam Tyler's mind in Life On Mars. I don't fear for Sam's sanity anywhere near as much as I fear for Adam's.
But what is interesting me most about this season of Spooks is the enemy that it has chosen to identify. The "villains" so far have all been enemies within. Not some external threat - some "Othered" terrorist. (I was going to say faceless, but we know what face we're meant to see, don't we? Various politicians and parts of the media are pointing it out to us all the time, damn them.) What Spooks has showed us instead are the various kinds of enemy produced by responses to that perceived Other. It's a very provocative theme. Don't look out there, Spooks seems to be saying. Look in here. Open up those little boxes.
In the opening two-parter, there was an attempted coup by a constellation of corrupt corporate, political, and bureaucratic interests. In the second, mid-season two-parter, a siege unfolds at the Saudi Embassy, and it turns out that the hostage-takers are not Arab terrorists, but Mossad.
What about individual episodes? Episode 4 transfers the basic theme of how to respond to corrupted government to the context of an African nation (Our Heroes assist in an assassination against the interests of other G8 partners). In last night's episode, the religious terror threat is from Christian extremism and involves a high-ranking bishop and a senior civil servant. And in episode 5, Ruth sacrifices herself to reveal a conspiracy to cover up rendition. God, this was an amazing hour of television. (Only one episode so far has directly addressed Muslim extremism, and the focus of the narrative was chiefly Our Heroes: the extent of Zaf's involvement, and also Adam's choice to pull the trigger and shoot someone when he wasn't entirely certain they were a suicide bomber.)
But the overriding theme is that the chief assaults on our institutions are assaults that come from within. And, in this context, homegrown suicide bombers are positioned as one of series of threats to our public institutions that come from within.
In all of this, Harry is cast as the Good Bureaucrat: the public servant striving to maintain the integrity of public institutions. And I think this is all terribly interesting in the context of contemporary discourses about bureaucracy. Bureaucracy - certainly in modern mainstream management discourse - is frequently constructed as being past its sell-by date. We are moving into a Bright New Shiny (Modern) World of post-bureaucracy: flattened hierarchy, networked organizations, dialogue-based consensus over rules-based authority. Influence over impartiality.
Because part of the point of bureaucratic systems is that they aspire to impartiality, and they aspire to fairness. They don't always work this way, but that was the ideal: to replace systems of patronage with something fairer, to maintain these fairer systems in the face of partial interests. Harry was positioned exactly this way in the opening two-parter, when he took on that constellation of interests wanting to replace (allegedly) creaking democratic institutions with something a lot closer to good old-fashioned feudalism. And I think that's been the major theme of the season so far: Harry's attempt to maintain what integrity these flawed and ageing systems have in the face of multiple internal attempts to subvert them.
If I were Harry, though, I'd be pretty worried: the drive of the series so far seems to have been one of increasingly isolating him. Colin has been murdered (noooo!); Juliet has been injured; Ruth (surely the best and most loyal public servant of them all) has gone (Jaysus nooooo!). Adam seems to be heading for meltdown. Ros is Harry's best foot soldier right now, and she hates his guts for what he didn't do for daddy.
Anyway, that's my reading of this season of Spooks so far. Make of it what you will. Obviously they'll do something in the remaining episodes that will totally undercut everything I've written here. More power to them.
Adam's state of mind is utterly compartmentalized in a quite alarming fashion. Little boxes. Completely different from the fragmented but ultimately unified kaleidoscope that is Sam Tyler's mind in Life On Mars. I don't fear for Sam's sanity anywhere near as much as I fear for Adam's.
But what is interesting me most about this season of Spooks is the enemy that it has chosen to identify. The "villains" so far have all been enemies within. Not some external threat - some "Othered" terrorist. (I was going to say faceless, but we know what face we're meant to see, don't we? Various politicians and parts of the media are pointing it out to us all the time, damn them.) What Spooks has showed us instead are the various kinds of enemy produced by responses to that perceived Other. It's a very provocative theme. Don't look out there, Spooks seems to be saying. Look in here. Open up those little boxes.
In the opening two-parter, there was an attempted coup by a constellation of corrupt corporate, political, and bureaucratic interests. In the second, mid-season two-parter, a siege unfolds at the Saudi Embassy, and it turns out that the hostage-takers are not Arab terrorists, but Mossad.
What about individual episodes? Episode 4 transfers the basic theme of how to respond to corrupted government to the context of an African nation (Our Heroes assist in an assassination against the interests of other G8 partners). In last night's episode, the religious terror threat is from Christian extremism and involves a high-ranking bishop and a senior civil servant. And in episode 5, Ruth sacrifices herself to reveal a conspiracy to cover up rendition. God, this was an amazing hour of television. (Only one episode so far has directly addressed Muslim extremism, and the focus of the narrative was chiefly Our Heroes: the extent of Zaf's involvement, and also Adam's choice to pull the trigger and shoot someone when he wasn't entirely certain they were a suicide bomber.)
But the overriding theme is that the chief assaults on our institutions are assaults that come from within. And, in this context, homegrown suicide bombers are positioned as one of series of threats to our public institutions that come from within.
In all of this, Harry is cast as the Good Bureaucrat: the public servant striving to maintain the integrity of public institutions. And I think this is all terribly interesting in the context of contemporary discourses about bureaucracy. Bureaucracy - certainly in modern mainstream management discourse - is frequently constructed as being past its sell-by date. We are moving into a Bright New Shiny (Modern) World of post-bureaucracy: flattened hierarchy, networked organizations, dialogue-based consensus over rules-based authority. Influence over impartiality.
Because part of the point of bureaucratic systems is that they aspire to impartiality, and they aspire to fairness. They don't always work this way, but that was the ideal: to replace systems of patronage with something fairer, to maintain these fairer systems in the face of partial interests. Harry was positioned exactly this way in the opening two-parter, when he took on that constellation of interests wanting to replace (allegedly) creaking democratic institutions with something a lot closer to good old-fashioned feudalism. And I think that's been the major theme of the season so far: Harry's attempt to maintain what integrity these flawed and ageing systems have in the face of multiple internal attempts to subvert them.
If I were Harry, though, I'd be pretty worried: the drive of the series so far seems to have been one of increasingly isolating him. Colin has been murdered (noooo!); Juliet has been injured; Ruth (surely the best and most loyal public servant of them all) has gone (Jaysus nooooo!). Adam seems to be heading for meltdown. Ros is Harry's best foot soldier right now, and she hates his guts for what he didn't do for daddy.
Anyway, that's my reading of this season of Spooks so far. Make of it what you will. Obviously they'll do something in the remaining episodes that will totally undercut everything I've written here. More power to them.
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no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 11:40 am (UTC)Oh, and to really enjoy it, I constantly have to tell myself to forget that in reality, MI5 agents tend to look more like this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Shayler). ;-)
no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 11:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 12:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 01:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 01:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 01:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 04:16 pm (UTC)As for Roz, I've got this horrible feeling that they're going to come back to the mention of the "Fox" MI5 agent from the start of the season, and for her to turn out to be a double-agent, still working for nasty elements in Six. I hope not, but it would explain the casting. Mind you, I'm also expecting Jenny (or whoever the nanny is - I forget) to be a plant, too.
I really wish they'd do more with Zaf, though.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 05:17 pm (UTC)Ooh, now that'd be great. Mr A. and were convinced that was going to happen with Ruth, but we shouldn't be so damn cynical. (Or maybe it still will. Argh!)
I've decided that the problem with Zaf is that the actor just isn't good enough. Everyone else manages to work wonders, even with small parts. I like Jo a lot, for example, and her part is tiny. Zaf really is the Jenna of the piece.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 05:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-25 06:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-26 10:56 am (UTC)My sky digital box recorded a lovely blue screen and a very friendly message informing me there was in fact no signal to record. TWICE.
*sniff* Anybody have a copy?
no subject
Date: 2006-10-26 11:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-26 12:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-10-27 08:03 am (UTC)I think it's interesting that ep 9/10 is going to be the one where Adam falls to bits and then gets cured (or not). Presumably this leaves 10/10 for SOMETHING MUCH WORSE to happen.
I am incredibly stupid. I couldn't think where I'd seen Dingwall before, and got very confused for the first 10 minutes because he looked a lot like Colin. Der.
It will all be fine, honest. They'll beat all the bad guys and Harry will be able to retire in peace. The scene when he finds Ruth will be better even than when Carol left ER and flew off to find Doug.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-31 09:53 am (UTC)They certainly did some more of that falling to bits stuff last night: "Oh, by the way, did we mention that - when not having his wife murdered and getting shot - Adam was once tortured by his childhood friend?"
BBC Three seem not to be showing the final episode next week, which - if true - is not bloody fair. I want my SOMETHING MUCH WORSE.
They'll beat all the bad guys and Harry will be able to retire in peace. The scene when he finds Ruth will be better even than when Carol left ER and flew off to find Doug.
I wish I had your faith. I am seeing: "Ruth! Have you betrayed us? Have you betrayed meeeee?" but then I see that everywhere, like the afterimage of a nuclear explosion burnt permanently onto to my imaginative retina.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-31 11:14 am (UTC)