MI-5: Vol. 6
May 2009 Reviewed by: Rad Bennett Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

If asked to pick the single best show on television today, I would choose MI-5. Pulse-pounding action, intelligent scripts, superb acting, and contemporary relevance -- the show has them all in abundance. It’s better than 95% of the feature films I see each year. The real MI-5 is the United Kingdom’s counter-intelligence and security agency and stands, or should, alongside MI-6, the Secret Intelligence Service. In Britain the agents are called spooks instead of spies, and, in fact, the series itself is called Spooks as well. Its home page can be reached at www.bbc.co.uk/spooks/.

In the show, the MI-5 team is headed by Harry Pearce (Peter Firth), calm and collected, totally dedicated to protecting his country, and able to make difficult life-and-death decisions instantly and without reservation. His head agent is Adam Henry Carter (Rupert Penry-Jones), who best fills the role of leading man. He is often partnered with the enigmatic Rosalind Sarah Meyers (Herminone Norris). "Ros" is a ruthless woman who will do anything for what she considers "the common good," even if it puts her career and allegiance in peril. Jo Portman (Miranda Raison), recruited by Adam, is the youngest member of the team and in this season comes into her own. Connie (Gemma Jones) is older and wiser than most, always seeming to know secrets that help out the team. Malcolm Wynn-Jones (Hugh Simon) is the team’s tech man, a wiz at solving any computer problem with the seeming speed of light, yet modest in the way he avoids credit for his actions. New this season is Ben Kaplan (Alex Lanipekun), a journalist who gets swept into MI-5’s affairs from dating Jo.

There are some big differences between this and other spy shows. First off, the spooks are all hard workers, thoroughly devoted to doing their job and protecting the people. They have scant time for personal lives. They are deglamorized from Hollywood images, with no one in the cast being particularly gorgeous in appearance. Ros is, for instance, glamorous in the Helen Mirren mold. They are, however, people you might want to meet, if they had the time to socialize. The show is also not geared to youth. Jo is the youngest in the cast and appears to be in her late 20s or early 30s. Harry, Malcolm, and Connie, prove that life only starts to get interesting when you are over 50. Season six is very timely, dealing with Iran and its efforts to achieve nuclear power. The characters spy, counter spy, and pit agency against agency, not to mention have a thorough dislike for America and the CIA.

As likable as the characters are, a viewer had best not get too attached to them. The writers of the show realize that the genuine suspense of MI-5 is not knowing what might happen next. Characters are dispatched and replaced with regularity; sometimes they just leave MI-5, but more often they are killed in the line of duty. With most shows you can’t feel real suspense or fear because you know the featured actors will get away somehow. Not so with MI-5. I believe this makes it the most suspenseful show on the airwaves.

MI-5 is filmed in an edgy style, which enhances the suspense. Split-screen shots are used quite often as well as cropped close-ups to focus on particular facial characteristics. The cutting is quick but always makes sense. The overall picture is a bit gritty, but that is the intent -- that the show look real. Carried to a fault, that means there are no actor credits at the beginning or the end of the show. The picture rating reflects the DVD's accuracy to what you would see on cable rather than what you might consider a beautiful standalone picture. The shows on DVD are complete, with all 60 minutes accounted for. They have been cut down to 50 minutes for US cable viewers in order to accommodate commercials. The sound is excellent without calling attention to itself. The Brits favor Dolby 2.0 stereo for their premier shows; the 5.1 mix here really doesn’t add too much in the rear.

There are extras, some interviews and a production featurette. Now, here’s some bad news. There are only ten episodes in volume (season) 6, spread across five discs, which makes the show a little pricey. You might want to wait until that price is reduced. If you haven’t seen MI-5 at all, you might want to start with volume 1, which can be obtained at very low cost. But whatever you do, see MI-5. It’s the only show I can say is better than Homicide: Life on the Streets, my all-time favorite, and that is saying a lot.

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