Series 9 Episode 8 discussion

[binkie]

(02-12-2010 07:57 PM)Byatil Wrote:  

(02-12-2010 07:49 PM)binkie Wrote:  Lucas going over the edge of the building because he realised he was a fiction - that he really was no one - represents, and requires, quite a different emotional response for the viewer than John going over the edge because he had been found out for a fantasist. The trauma of missed opportunities just keeps on coming!

That would have been a considerable deal more tragic! If Lucas had found out that he wasn't in fact who he thought he was, and had to struggle with the returning memories of a past life... that would have created so much more sympathy for the character. The should have played on the potential of Lucas-is-vulnerable, instead of murdering the ridiculous concept of Lucas-is-evil!

Byatil, are you secretly me, and should we ask Spooks for royalties? I agree, the returning memories thing is just another thing this season seems to have been confused about: a good idea poorly executed because no one took the time to consider the structural implications. How much more intriguing would it have been for Lucas - whose active memory is such a vital part of his character - to find himself recalling memories which were not his? Instead, we were subjected to illogically presented snatches of Lucas' prison experiences as a sort of will-this-do? fill for the idea of what we have to assume is John's vulnerable psyche.

It's not that I'm particulalry keen for Lucas to be presented in a shiny box with VICTIM written all over it, but I can't be the only person whose response to Vaughan's question about what it had been like being Lucas North was: "Well, it's been pretty much entirely rubbish, actually. How much time have you got?"

Another missed opportunity for the list. BoHenley, are you keeping track of these?