Highly Overrated But Still Good

A different way of telling a story

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

As always ; the mood, atmosphere and production are top notch, as you would expect from the bbc. Brilliant character acting, good story (as you would expect) and amazing effects, camera work and editing. The impact is immediate and realism of the sets and effect grip the senses.. That is until a feeling of disappointment takes over. I would like to make a bold attempt to explain the slight dissatisfaction that comes up within some of the other reviews . Firstly; the bbc no longer really exists. Instead; programs are made by independent companies from a huge list, vetted by a managing body, chosen, kept and classified within certain 'standards'. This is why there seems to be a regularity to all new production. 'The game' is a good example of why the 'direction' of new production is becoming more disappointing. For anything to be exceptional, there needs to be a bit of genius. Sometimes wild. (as an example of what I mean - the group 'Pink Floyd' eventually lamented the loss of Syd Barrett ). And pure inspiration cannot be replaced by gimmick, style, effect or wackiness. What 'the Game' has is let down by what is missing. The bbc system may well be run by people with little creative interest and production made within limitation , simply because they don't know. The attempts a\t humour and being different , in 'the game' make me think of the kind of people with the ambition to work for advertising agencies. In fact, the production values are also similar and some people may well say, 'what's wrong with that'. Which could well be an indication of what has gone wrong with the system and of the way it is going. Were there was once rebellion against the system, it is now the goal , with larger audience, more programs, less range and tighter control. Ambition is a poor substitute for innovation.

What a welcome return to television for this genre, cold war spy thriller, so popular back in the 1980's and for many years criminally absent. The Game was an awesome five part series, incredibly written and scripted, it was dark, pacey, loaded with intrigue and thoroughly engaging.Superbly acted, I've been a little critical of Tom Hughes in the past, a guy that looks like a model I found a little one dimensional, but he silenced me in this, he was outstanding. Brian Cox, Paul Ritter, Judy Parfitt etc all fantastic, but Victoria Hamilton was on another level, always been a fan but here she was unbelievable, an awesome actress.Part 4 was without a doubt one of the best hours of television I have ever watched, outstanding.Utterly devastating that a second series wasn't commissioned, the BBC missed a golden opportunity with both this and Banished. Nevertheless The Game was a magnificent piece of drama, 10/10

The premise is this: a Soviet agent holed up as a university professor in England gets called up for a major operation that consists in waking up sleeper cells in numbers for an unstated grievous purpose. He defects and spills the beans to the MI5. The MI5 - represented, for the most part, by the love-child of Morrissey and a flock of cats (Tom Hughes) - expects the worst and stands up to the challenge, monitoring the operation in desperate hope that they may get one step ahead of the Russians. Needless to say, with 6 hour-long episodes, it's easier said than done. All this takes place in the bleak environs of early-1970s London, in cramped spaces, dilapidated housing, and persistent rain (reminiscent of "Se7en"). The series is well-made and entertaining. The pace - initially somewhat pedestrian - quickens by the 4th episode to get you panting by the 5th. At first, the drama seems very facile - seeming to boil down to a personal duel between Tom Hughes's "Joe Lambe" and a KGB killer on the loose in England. But there's enough of side story to this to keep you thinking there's more to it than that. And, frankly, you do get rewarded. On the technical side, the editing is near-perfect and the acting is pretty good, too. I was stuck on Victoria Hamilton' performance in "Mansfield Park," but she's a completely different thing here, with enormous self-assurance and power. Brian Cox is also a perfect hit as the head of MI5 ("Daddy"). If anything, it's Hughes that seems rather odd - his appearance and demeanor is somewhat out of place. On the one hand, this may be a virtue, since he does portray a far less bleak character than it initially appears. On the other hand, he's anachronistic - a poster-boy for the new romantic or a candidate for a remake of "Anna Karenina." The portrayal of "the game" resonates with all that an avid reader of le Carre will know - that it's almost never fun and games, and that it's not about the spectacular at all. The "games" we see played out in the series are not just about espionage - they are also about the personal lives of the characters who either play or get played. While it's not on level with the classic le Carre stuff with Alec Guinness, there's enough substance here to make you hope there's more to come from this source. This is really good enough to see.

Set in the early 1970s MI5 operative Joe Lambe is given the task of overseeing the defection and debriefing of Soviet agent Arkady. He quickly learns that the Soviets have a major operation planned, 'Operation Glass', but Arkady doesn't know the details. If MI5 is to thwart the KGB's plan they will have to uncover who is behind Operation Glass as well as its eventual aim. Matters are complicated when Joe learns that one of the KGB men behind the operation is 'Odin' the man responsible for the death of his girlfriend before the events of the series. A further complication is the revelation that a mole within MI5 has been leaking details of their counter-operation to the Soviets.This gripping cold war thriller nicely captures the feeling of the 1970s and more importantly the sense of paranoia within the Security Services as agents wonder who they can trust; they don't even know if Glass is real or just a ploy to make Arkady's defects seem real. The cast does a fine job making us believe in the characters while still wondering whether or not they are the traitor. The only big name in the cast is Brian Cox, who is great as MI5 head 'Daddy', however the rest of the cast more than hold their own; most notably Tom Hughes who plays Joe and Shaun Dooley, who plays DC Jim Fenchurch, a policeman brought into assist MI5. These spies certainly aren't in the James Bond or even the 'Spooks' mould; they are almost bland in their ordinariness; something that suits the story perfectly. As the series approaches its end the tension mounts nicely as we learn just how dangerous Operation Glass is. Overall I'd say this is well worth watching and hope BBC2 continues to provide us with more quality drama like this in the future.