TV is the New Reading

‘MI-5’ a great spy drama

It’s a tough life for post Cold War spies. The enemy is no longer a monolithic bloc state with an exotic, compelling and seductive accent. Instead it’s fragmented and much harder to get a handle on. It’s unpredictably destructive and liable to lash out from any corner in any direction. It’s rogue spies working for the highest bidder in a multinational worldview in which treason has complicated definitions.

And heaven help the spy who on top of all of this is trying to maintain a relationship.

Welcome to BBC America’s new season of “MI-5” premiering in its new night, Wednesday at 8 p.m.

Not as campy as “The Avengers” or as histrionic as “24,” as domestic as “Scarecrow and Mrs. King” or as fanciful as “Alias” or even as unlikely as “Chuck,” the show may in fact have discovered the perfect balance of espionage and character development.

“MI-5” focuses on the life of a handful of spies who seem to coordinate the more interdisciplinary activities of the ministry. That is, if MI:5 is roughly analogous to the FBI, then these are the operatives who coordinate most closely with MI-6, the British version of the CIA.

This keeps them constantly in trouble, working outside and without defined parameters, spying even on their own country’s operations as they try to figure out what’s going on – given the earlier references to rogue spies and double agents.

Also, because it’s mostly set in the UK, the problems seem to hit less close to home than, say, rogue operatives transferring nuclear armaments in shopping centers and releasing nerve toxins on mass transit systems in larger American metropoli. You can appreciate the devastation and the countermeasures employed without getting so frightened you don’t dare leave your home.

Meanwhile, one gets a sense of what it must be like to live a cover story and to keep hidden one’s identity as a spy. Dating within and outside the office both present unique perils, but with the story centered on such youthful operatives, it certainly happens and it’s usually written into the feature with just the right touch.

At the same time, they generally don’t get themselves into untenably violent situations. Sure they get into scrapes and get beaten up and knocked around some as a matter of course, but they tend to survive to spy another day.

Overall the show is plenty enjoyable – light enough for an hour’s escapism and not so outrageous as some more “blow-’em-up” fare.

Features Editor Terry J. Aman compiles the Best Bets for The Minot Daily News.

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