How did you feel about Season 9?

[JHyde]

Now that the season has finished airing, no spoiler tags for season 9 are required.

Let us know what you thought!

[the_one]

OK, comments about going forward looking at how ep9.8 closed.

My first feeling when the screen 'closed' was "this is it".
In the past, Harry has done 2 things, 'His Job', like the EMP at the start of Season 9, and the 'He got away with it' like dealing with Blake, helping Ruth and Zoe escape the first time.

But times have changed, and now Harry has to account for what he did. As Lucas said, Good people come in, and get spat out.

The line from the Home Sec about "Life after MI5" made me feel that this was the end. It felt like the HS was saying "if you leave now, we can leave the past as the past, and we will not look into you"
Not the best way to end the show, but the main people survived, and was a reasonable finale


But after finding out that it is comming back, we have a few issues.
1) Harry will be investigated. Depending on how hard they look, this will be more than a slap on the wrist. Can he lead the team if he has been disiplined
2) In the past, yes the section chief has changed, (Tom, Adam, Ros, Lucas), but there has always been Harry at the top.
With Harry in doubt, Lucas gone, that is the top 2 people of Section D gone. And as others have said, 'the kids' are not ready to lead the section on their own
3) If Harry stays, and Season 10 is to investigate him, 8 eps of going through Harrys life dosn't sound enjoyable. If they do spend S10 doing that, then I have to agree with the earlier comment of Jumping and Shark

[BravoNine]

Was it exciting and heart-racing? No doubt about it!

Was the acting brilliant and so real? Absolutely, I couldn't take my eyes off them!

Was the writing quality and plausible? HELL NO! It was a complete mess!!

How do I feel right now?

Upset and heartbroken that Lucas is gone! Angry and pissed off what the writers did!

The writing was patchy, convoluted, and just damn hard to swallow! To me, it was a retcon of who Lucas was and what he did in the last 2 series!

There were SO MANY ways this storyline could go, SO MANY more plausible ways it could have gone instead of this twisted convoluted mess it became, I simply don't understand what the writers are trying to do!!!

They want a shocking change in Lucas? I can take that, sure, just give him some mental breakdown or something!

They want Lucas to exit? I can take that too, sure, just make it a believable storyline!

Instead what I got was Lucas really being a psycho-killer, turning against his people and doing it all for a love interest that had about as much personality and usefulness as a sponge, and that MI5 is the laughing stock of the whole intelligence agency because apparently their vetting process is so bad that they didn't even notice a completely different person became their agent!!

Am I disappointed? You bet. I can't even began to describe my heart-break and sadness.

Will I tune in for next series? Yes I will, because despite my anger at the way they butchered Lucas's character, the acting and excitement level on this show is like few other. So I will stay loyal, give the writers another chance because I love watching these amazing actors act!

I like to ignore the existence of Series 9, but I doubt I ever will as I still haven't stopped crying over Lucas......

The actors, most especially Richard Armitage, Nicola Walker, and Peter Firth, were the saving grace of this mess up storyline! If it wasn't for them, I don't think I would have stayed on this long! These actors deserve all the praise they get! They delivered an amazing and phenomenal performance that almost covered the mistakes made by the writers. This show is lucky to have them!

[JohnSpook]

Overall, I thought it was one of the best we've had. Lucas being destroyed was one of the most intesnse pieces Spooks has ever done. If I'm honest, when I first saw Vaughan at the end of episode one (saying "It's good to see you, John"), I knew something major was wrong, but it took us all, I think until episode 7/8, to realise what Maya meant to him, and to what lengths he would go to be with her/protect her.

Harry and Ruth, well lets hope whatever season 10 brings, it brings them closer together (Lets hope Ruth takes Lucas' advice about marraige/her life, and says yes).

I believe, as I have posted here before, that season 10 will be a season long story about the investigation into Harry Pearce, and may see how he meets Lucas, Tom, Zoe, Danny etc. Perhaps it goes into how Connie sets Lucas up? I'll leave the rest of my thoughts until a Series 10 thread is opened. But I will say this, I believe series 10 will be the last. As other fans have noted on this board, there was a sense of finality about the ending to series 9. Perhaps series 10 will answer alot of the questions we have (Nightingale, The Contingent Events Commitee, Cotterdam etc) .

Back to series 9, it was fantastic, far better than series 8, with all characters/actors putting in a strong performance each week. I just hope the writing gets a little more plausible (i.e the team not being 15 minutes away from the bomb or whatever the threat is that week), and we have a return of Colin Salmon in a CIA role (perhaps in the investigation of Harry, he brings in Christine Dale, and all the other rotten CIA apples we've had) I look forward to seeing more of Beth and Dimitri, and I hope Alec White has a place on the Grid. Malcolm would be a very welcome return too.

I shall post more once I have had time to put all my thoughts into order, but the above are my intial impressions, now the season has ended.

[Skully]

I loved it! A return to form after series eight which I thought was weaker in many respects compared to series seven, and now nine. I loved that I was genuinely kept guessing the whole way through, and I loved the performances. The purpose of watching this show or any other is to be entertained, and that it did spectacularly!

[NightOwl]

Plot holes, retcons, a major character who isn't who or what we believe he is - series 9 was a God awful mess.

I'll repeat what I posted on another site. The series felt like a cop out by TPTB.

I feel they wanted to explore Lucas's dark side, but they didn't want to suggest that either MI-5 in general or Harry in particular were in any way responsible for it. So rather than build upon the natural story of Lucas's imprisonment and torture in Russia and how that leads to his distrust, anger and bitterness, they created this ridiculous story of how Lucas was evil before joining the Service and apparently under the influence of Harry became good. Of course, he reverts to evil again with virtually no explanation.

Harry, who has always been willing and able to sacrifice the life and happiness of the individual for the greater good, finally has to face the fact that this time the individual is someone he loves, and it's his happiness at stake. Wasn't it lucky that Albany was a failure and Harry knew it? No really tough decision for Harry to make. No need for the writers to address the selfishness and hypocrisy of Harry's action.

The show does have amazing actors, and I'm glad I've gotten to know them. However, good acting isn't enough.

[Jhokur]

I posted my comments within the 9.8 thread, so I'll only add to BravoNine's comment - looking on Wikipedia as to who was the writers of Series 9, only two previously wrote within the prior 8 series: the rest were all new. Can we PLEASE go back to the previous writers Kudos?

Also, JEEZ - I just finished my little banner and I have to edit it already!

[Adam Carter]

Still so much to digest. Could take weeks. But I thought it was, overall, a step up from Series 8.

[Deb p]

As always the actors and actresses were outstanding. Sadly I felt this series lacked something along the way. I have watched every series up to now and there has always been a point when an unexpected twist has you on the edge of your seat and your mind in a whirl trying to work out what's next. This series seemed a little predictable at times with few surprises, less shouting OMG at the end of episodes and a short one too !
I really hope that series 10 comes back with the old magic that we have enjoyed over the years. I read somewhere that this series had new Writers, it showed.
As for next year, I have a nasty feeling that it may be the last but I will be there and its gonna be a long 10 months. Will have to re-watch from the beginning again to keep me going.

[HellsBells]

I basically agree with everything BravoNine has posted here.
Loved the first six episodes, ignoring all the Vaughn nonsense. Lucas is may favourite character and just loved the way he took to being Section Chief. There was that brilliant L/H were Lucas asks if Harry could trust him the way he trusted Ros, and allow him to build his own team. I thought yes great. Then it all goes wrong and the last two series cease to exist in the writers world.
I feel totally betrayed by the character assassination of Lucas. Every other major character has gone out in a heroic style (even Connie died saving London).
The plot had holes big enough to sail battleships through.
The story was as believable as the 'man in the moon'.
Lucas stayed loyal through 8 years of 'beatings, torture and humiliation' but sold out his country for 20 million dollars and a life with a girl he met 15 years ago, please I can't believe that.

The only thing that had this whole miserable storyline anywhere near believable was the superb acting of Richard Armitage and Peter Firth.

Please writers add a twist in series 10 to explain some of the nonsense we were forced to endure in series 9.