I was born in the year that production of this series ended, and am only now watching the entire back-list. What I'm seeing is such a breath of fresh air. You see, growing up in the 1970's I saw all the Bond movies as a boy and, well, it took me a long time to unlearn many of the lessons that they contained.
And in this series, even before the cinematic Bond, someone has considered and rejected those movies' facile acceptance of Cold War propaganda, western superiority, and male chauvinism.
Take, for instance, the episode "That's Two of Us Sorry" which I saw yesterday. Ahead, I will spoil this one episode, just to explain the complex way that this series runs counter to the standard narrative that I learned. The episode takes place in the Western Highlands of Scotland, where a file of secrets is missing from a nuclear facility. When Dr. Twit (not the character's real name) finds the file missing from his suitcase, it is dusted for fingerprints and the prints of a man who disappeared twenty years ago after stealing some state secrets and selling them to Russia.
Enter Drake, who investigates and follows a lead to a fishing village on an island, where other prints confirm the disappeared criminal is still living. Ever astute, he gets closer and closer until the "bad guy" realizes he is caught. This is where the Bond movie or standard narrative would end.
But the episode is not over. Even after the criminal turns himself in, although he admits to the crime of his youth he still denies the recent theft. Drake brings him back to the nuclear facility, and it turns out that the criminal and Dr. Twit are acquainted from Twit's recent vacation to the fishing village. Drake smells a rat, and it turns out that the fingerprint on Twit's suitcase was from that vacation, and Twit had simply misplaced the file prior to the vacation. The criminal, despite having redeemed himself by helping his community, was falsely implicated because Dr. Twit cried wolf about missing secrets. Drake still has to arrest the criminal for earlier crimes, despite knowing that in doing this he is hurting the fishing community.
In other words, the show is telling us, Drake's spy qualities are being used as a tool by the forces that control the society. You can appreciate his cleverness, but the show does not permit you to assume just because he's good at what he does, he is doing good.
That's what the episode is really about. Drake is sworn to uphold the security of the nation, but is aware of the fact that the way the British hereditary ruling class is running things is the real danger. This is obvious in a rather harsh conversation between Drake and the Dr. Twit near the beginning as Drake upbraids Twit for saying none of his colleagues could have stolen the secrets because they are all upright blokes. Drake ridicules the idea that just because someone plays golf, they can't be criminals.
When Drake goes to the fishing village on the island, there are half a dozen red herrings that he chases and rejects (almost like the prototype for an episode of "Castle"). In so doing, the series shows how interdependent the members of the fishing village are, and paints the village as having its own moral codes that it effectively uses to keep order. In the end, because of the machinery of the state, the machinery that Drake is cog in, doesn't work right, Drake's efficiency ends up making things worse for the people he is supposed to protect. So is Drake a "good guy"?
Worth thinking about. Don't recall being asked to think about that with the Bond movies. All in all, a level of complexity much higher than one would expect for an hour of television.
And in this series, even before the cinematic Bond, someone has considered and rejected those movies' facile acceptance of Cold War propaganda, western superiority, and male chauvinism.
Take, for instance, the episode "That's Two of Us Sorry" which I saw yesterday. Ahead, I will spoil this one episode, just to explain the complex way that this series runs counter to the standard narrative that I learned. The episode takes place in the Western Highlands of Scotland, where a file of secrets is missing from a nuclear facility. When Dr. Twit (not the character's real name) finds the file missing from his suitcase, it is dusted for fingerprints and the prints of a man who disappeared twenty years ago after stealing some state secrets and selling them to Russia.
Enter Drake, who investigates and follows a lead to a fishing village on an island, where other prints confirm the disappeared criminal is still living. Ever astute, he gets closer and closer until the "bad guy" realizes he is caught. This is where the Bond movie or standard narrative would end.
But the episode is not over. Even after the criminal turns himself in, although he admits to the crime of his youth he still denies the recent theft. Drake brings him back to the nuclear facility, and it turns out that the criminal and Dr. Twit are acquainted from Twit's recent vacation to the fishing village. Drake smells a rat, and it turns out that the fingerprint on Twit's suitcase was from that vacation, and Twit had simply misplaced the file prior to the vacation. The criminal, despite having redeemed himself by helping his community, was falsely implicated because Dr. Twit cried wolf about missing secrets. Drake still has to arrest the criminal for earlier crimes, despite knowing that in doing this he is hurting the fishing community.
In other words, the show is telling us, Drake's spy qualities are being used as a tool by the forces that control the society. You can appreciate his cleverness, but the show does not permit you to assume just because he's good at what he does, he is doing good.
That's what the episode is really about. Drake is sworn to uphold the security of the nation, but is aware of the fact that the way the British hereditary ruling class is running things is the real danger. This is obvious in a rather harsh conversation between Drake and the Dr. Twit near the beginning as Drake upbraids Twit for saying none of his colleagues could have stolen the secrets because they are all upright blokes. Drake ridicules the idea that just because someone plays golf, they can't be criminals.
When Drake goes to the fishing village on the island, there are half a dozen red herrings that he chases and rejects (almost like the prototype for an episode of "Castle"). In so doing, the series shows how interdependent the members of the fishing village are, and paints the village as having its own moral codes that it effectively uses to keep order. In the end, because of the machinery of the state, the machinery that Drake is cog in, doesn't work right, Drake's efficiency ends up making things worse for the people he is supposed to protect. So is Drake a "good guy"?
Worth thinking about. Don't recall being asked to think about that with the Bond movies. All in all, a level of complexity much higher than one would expect for an hour of television.