Last week's TV - the inthenews.co.uk view
Spooks: As strong as ever
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Monday, 09, Nov 2009 06:02
By Matt Robinson
Last night's X Factor result, which saw Lucie Jones become the fifth person to be eliminated from the competition, may have shocked and angered viewers, but there was still plenty more to talk about on the box last week, other than Simon Cowell's controversial decision.
It was a welcome return to MI5 for Spooks on BBC1 for starters. It's not hard to see why Spooks is so popular, now in its eight series; it continues to deliver edge of your seat drama right up to the closing moments. However our favourite spies seemed to spend far more time protecting and rescuing each other from danger last week than safeguarding the country.
We picked up from where we left off, with Section D boss Harry (Peter Firth) having been taken hostage. In typical Spooks fashion though this was not a simple case of holding the hostage to ransom whilst subjecting him to torture. A complex plot involving a faked death and a detailed back story was unravelled which had more twists and turns than your average 9pm drama.
Harry wasn't the only grid member in danger though as Ruth (Nicola Walker) was dredged back from retirement in idyllic Cyprus and forced to witness the shooting of her husband and her adoptive son threatened with the same horrific fate. By the time Malcolm handed himself over to the terrorists it became ridiculous, however it somehow worked.
Superbly written and acted, Spooks was fantastic. This is drama at its best. Sadly the same view cannot be extended to ITV2 drama Trinity, which bowed out in ludicrous fashion last night. Instead of the sexy steamy drama, with a complex intriguing murder mystery plot we were promised, Trinity has descended into a laughable and ridiculous display of fantasy, which lacks any believability.
While the characters' behaviour was more real than BBC3's recent university offering Off the Hook, they were un-likeable, and not to the point where they are great to watch. So much so that by the end, I simply didn't care about the fate of any of them, they were either devoid of any moral integrity or inanely pathetic.
The show's efforts to be different and distinctive are commendable but the biggest problem was that the show lacked the cleverness of Skins and the heart of The Inbetweeners.
There was plenty of heart and passion on display in The F Word though which was back on Channel 4 last week.
This time the foul-mouthed Gordon Ramsay is on the hunt for the best local restaurant. In the series five opener he pitched two Italian restaurants against each other in a bid to fight for paying customers and a place in the semi final.
Other the coming weeks we will see 16 other restaurants in 8 different categories from Indian and French to Spanish and Thai battle it out to be crowned The F Word's Best Local Restaurant 2010.
Along with the recipe challenge also back is Janet Street Porter who is attempting to rear three different meats ahead of the series finale to create the ultimate mixed grill.
The joy of this show is that it is not just a cookery show. It is full of insight into the world of food, presenting it in a variety of different ways, which incorporate passion, challenges and education elements.