How did you feel about Season 9?

[conniesachs]

Having taken a few days to come to terms with the ending I've tried to look more objectively at the series as a whole.

I liked the individual storylines. My favourite, like for many, was ep 6, with lockdown and Lucas at his best. Least keen on the middle east one. Final episode best left forgotten.

The acting of RA, NW and PF was brilliant as always. Dimitri, Beth and Tariq didn't get enough to do, but with the series themes of trust and betrayal it was always going to be about Harry, Ruth and Lucas. And I can see the parallels with the Israeli father and daughter, and scientist father and daughter, which is why Harry phones Katherine before he meets John/Lucas.

The main problem for me was the arc. What happened to Nightingale? Harry killing Nicholas Blake was a stunning start to the series, but Blake wasn't the only member of Nightingale, although he was the most likely to be involved in the bombing which killed Ros. But what about the other members that he was so keen to track down in series 8? Does Harry have ADHD? - Can't concentrate on one subject for more than one series?

I appreciate it must be difficult for new writers to take over and maybe having to tidy up some loose ends left by their predecessors before they can start setting up their own arc but something was needed to close the previous one off. Lucas' past made him an obvious choice for a trust and betrayal theme and his past coming back to haunt him was fine. I enjoyed getting more and more clues to a murky past and trying to guess what it was all about. Never got so involved in Nightingale. But instead of using the obvious vehicle of Lucas' Russian prison past, with scope to take many betrayal routes; brainwashed into being an unwitting traitor to turning traitor to take revenge on Harry letting him get caught and/or leaving him there too long, as well as answering some of my (and it seems others) questions about why Lucas was sent to Russian and how/why did he get caught in the first place, the writers came up with a convoluted backstory which had so many plot holes that it didn't ring true to the Lucas we had seen in eps 7 & 8. - I still can't believe that the "if I don't have the trust of MI5 I won't be home, just back in England" speech and those to Connie and Elizabeta could be made by someone just trying to act the part of hero - There are too many plot holes to go into here but the ones that annoyed me the most were;
*We're expected to believe that Vaughn has kept a suitcase of momentos for 15 years just
on the off chance that he might be able to use it to blackmail its owner. What if John had decided that Dakar was too much excitement, and went back to England and became a plumber or milkman?
* MI5 vetting procedures - nuff said.
* If John knowingly blew up the British Embassy and killed his friend just for a passport so he could escape justice he would have killed a dodgy character like Vaughn without a qualm as soon as he threatened to reveal his past.
* Even getting John/Lucas to the position he was in at the end ep 7 there was still room for some sort of redemption, if only partial. I'm sure we can all come up with plausible endings.
But the writers were hell bent on making Lucas evil and keeping him that way.

Were the writers being brave taking a popular character and changing his identity? I don't think so. I think the writers were arrogant, thinking they could come into a series like Spooks, turn it on its head, and think they could get away with it. They broke the cardinal rule of writing; know your audience. All they have achieved is alienating supporters and ruining eps 7 & 8 for many Lucas fans.

Will I be able to watch eps 7 & 8 again? Only if I wipe 9.8 from my mind and replace it with my own version. Will I watch season 10? Don't know. If they use it to go back over Harry's career and fill in some of the gaps then probably. It would be good if they could bring back some of the previous characters, dead or alive, in flash-back. I still want to know how Harry explained away shooting Arkady Katchimov. Which reminds me, what happened to the Russian and Chinese agents captured at the end of ep 6? Are they even now being swapped for other hapless MI5 agents languishing in Russian and Chinese jails as a result of other missions bungled by Harry? Have I solved the problem of where to find the next Section D leader?