MI-5 (TV Series) Thou Shalt Not Kill (2002) User Reviews

Episode 1.1

[Prismark10 · 7/10 · 20 April 2019]

For years ITV looked for a show that would be the perfect replacement for The Professionals.

Ironically it was the BBC who managed to find the perfect substitute with Spooks.

No surprise it was during the time of Greg Dyke as Director General of the BBC. Dyke was a former ITV executive who worked at London Weekend Television, the company which made The Professionals.

Dyke once famously said he would never ever work for the BBC. He then shaved his beard off to apply to be DG and later said it was one of the best jobs he ever had.

Under his time as DG, the BBC increased the long running populist dramas it had.

Spooks was a series which tried hard to remain up to date. By the time it had been transmitted it had incorporated the events of 9/11 and even borrowed the split screens of the series 24 which had been broadcast a few months earlier.

The first episode starts off with a car explosion in Liverpool. A doctor has been killed and her daughter badly injured.

British Secret Service think it could be various organisations including Irish terrorism who could be responsible. The suspicion falls on a Pro Life group linked to an American activist whose husband is in death row in Florida.

The main characters of the first episode are Tom Quinn, Zoe Reynolds and Danny Hunter. Some remain more in the background such as Helen Flynn who will face the heat in forthcoming episodes. Harry Pearce is their stoic boss at MI5.

This is a tense exciting opener. You see them acting as a team as they face a race against time to stop other explosions.

I forgot that in this early episodes there was more of a concentration on the operatives private lives. Zoe is looking for another place to stay. Tom has a girlfriend but he has not told her what he does for a living which is causing issues.

Spooks would go on to become a classic.

Great start

[grantss · 8/10 · 16 November 2022]

A bomb kills a doctor and seriously injures her daughter. The doctor and her husband are abortionists and MI-5 suspect that a pro-life group is behind the attack. Their suspicions are heightened when an infamous militant American pro-lifer, Mary Kane, is spotted in the UK. They put Kane under surveillance but political pressures may force their hand.

Great start to the series. I was expecting a slow and easy introduction as we meet all the characters but there's no time for ceremony here: it's fast-paced drama from the word go. Good, tense plot with solid performances.

There are some moments where I wished it did slow down so I could figure out who someone is but the important characters appear often enough that you can easily work things out.

There's also maybe one or two implausibilities in the plot but not a major issue.

Good show

[mardee-3 · 8/10 · 16 February 2024]

I like the show so far and look forward to watching more. I was surprised by the reviewer who said that Mary Kane had a terrible American accent. As an American, I can tell you that she sounds exactly like many people in the south. I thought she sounded, pretty good.

I think the plot moves along very well, and there are some interesting characters. Overall, I rated it an eight out of ten, and I hope to raise that reading as the show goes on. Now to wonder how long it will take me to get through all eighty-six episodes. I guess next time I shouldn't start so late watching this. But I'm looking forward to it.

Accents?

[melvinprice · 5/10 · 11 January 2023]

I want to love this show but that's the worst American accent I've ever heard. This is coming from a Blackpuddlian that has lived in the US for the last 30 years.

If you commit such a faux pas in ep.1 can I ever trust you'll get anything right?

If you can't I need to move on because there are more good shows out there than I have hours left to watch them.

I'll give it a few episodes because it usually takes a new show awhile to get into its stride but it had better hurry up.

Also, they could have done a much better job of introducing us to the show and the characters than they did. I'm confused about who is good, bad, who works for who, their agenda or do they even have one.

Location of bombing

[akaPro2002 · 3 June 2008]

Approximately 18 minutes, 10 seconds into this episode they show a building after a bombing.

After watching this episode a few times I recognized the building. It is the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK, which was bombed on April 19, 1995. There is also, in the scene, a Chevy truck with the steering wheel on the left side. I have shown this to others more expert that I and they are in agreement.

They did a good job of integrating file footage into the show. I guess that when this show was originally filmed it wasn't planned for viewing outside the UK.