In 2024, a leading team of analysts buried in the heart of GCHQ secretly works to ward off a foreign cyber-attack on the country's electoral system.In 2024, a leading team of analysts buried in the heart of GCHQ secretly works to ward off a foreign cyber-attack on the country's electoral system.In 2024, a leading team of analysts buried in the heart of GCHQ secretly works to ward off a foreign cyber-attack on the country's electoral system.
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- TriviaSimon Pegg and Mark Rylance previous worked together on Ready Player One (2018).
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How the next war might start......
This six-part television series is set in the United Kingdom in 1924. This hypothetic future (post-Boris Johnson as Prime Minister but with no mention of Brexit or Covid 19), is seen through the eyes of Saara Parvin, a 21-year-old English Muslim woman, who is taking a one-year work experience placement break from her university course to work at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the 'spy centre' of the UK. On her very first day at GCHQ, it and, subsequently, the UK suffers a 'cyberattack' upon its communications systems, apparently by a foreign power, namely Russia.
There are many positives about the series, but these are balanced by the negatives. Saara is played extremely convincingly by Hannah Khalique-Brown, with an appropriate combination of naivety and intensity, as she tries to pick her way through not only the cyberattack but also a family tragedy. Saara uses her computer skills to try to solve the problems caused by the attack; as watching someone sitting at a desk looking at a screen of numbers and letters does not exactly make for riveting television, she 'metaphorically' works her way along corridors and opens doors, which is confusing at first until we realise that we are seeing it through her imagination.
Because we follow the plot through Saara's perspective, despite her intelligence and perception we are frequently confused about the motivations of those around her, especially who we can trust to be telling the truth and who is being deceptive. As this story involves international espionage, GCHQ and FSB (the successors to the Russian KGB) lies and confusion are provided in bucketloads, with the interplay between the protagonists being likened to a chess match involving fake moves and anticipating the opponent's response in advance. To what extent that the UK government is complicit in the affair is never made clear; I do not think that the series ever takes a 'Woke' stance and blames them, but there is enough real evidence of political corruption to make it a genuine possibility.
Now for the negatives. Those choosing to watch due to the mention of 'stars', such as Simon Pegg, Adrian Lester and Mark Rylance, in the trailers and advertisements will be sorely disappointed, as their combined contribution over the series barely adds up to half an episode. Pegg, as the head of GCHQ, barely appears interested, which is strange as he is the boss of the organisation under attack, whilst Lester is a one-dimensional Prime Minister who does little more than make a few statements in a 'serious' voice. Rylance, who plays the part of an outdated 'old school' employee of GCHQ, is as amazing as ever - although I think that he is such a wonderful actor that I would be happy to watch him completing a crossword.
Saara is assisted by other young people, which reminds of those films aimed at younger viewers in which the heroes and heroines are inevitably teenagers - usually from different backgrounds - who are thrown together by circumstances and solve the problems that the 'grown-ups' around them are too stupid or narrow-minded to understand. There are simply too many lucky co-incidences that work in Saara's favour for this to be believable, which undermines the credibility of the plot.
I am too old to understand the complexities of computer programming or hacking, but I think that it is highly unlikely that the FSB in Moscow would be able to watch a live stream of CCTV from the GCHQ cafeteria and Reception areas, let alone direct the cameras to zoom in on or follow particular individuals whilst doing so.
The series builds up to a tense climax which suddenly arrives as an 'and with one bound she was free' cop-out - as if the writers had painted themselves into a corner with no sensible way out, so they gave up on trying to come up with a logical conclusion.
In summary, I think that the story is a little far-fetched in terms of the plot twists and turns, although I believe that a cyberattack is possible and could have the devastating effects shown. The acting, especially of peripheral characters such as Saara's family and work colleagues and the Russians, and script are both of high quality.
There are many positives about the series, but these are balanced by the negatives. Saara is played extremely convincingly by Hannah Khalique-Brown, with an appropriate combination of naivety and intensity, as she tries to pick her way through not only the cyberattack but also a family tragedy. Saara uses her computer skills to try to solve the problems caused by the attack; as watching someone sitting at a desk looking at a screen of numbers and letters does not exactly make for riveting television, she 'metaphorically' works her way along corridors and opens doors, which is confusing at first until we realise that we are seeing it through her imagination.
Because we follow the plot through Saara's perspective, despite her intelligence and perception we are frequently confused about the motivations of those around her, especially who we can trust to be telling the truth and who is being deceptive. As this story involves international espionage, GCHQ and FSB (the successors to the Russian KGB) lies and confusion are provided in bucketloads, with the interplay between the protagonists being likened to a chess match involving fake moves and anticipating the opponent's response in advance. To what extent that the UK government is complicit in the affair is never made clear; I do not think that the series ever takes a 'Woke' stance and blames them, but there is enough real evidence of political corruption to make it a genuine possibility.
Now for the negatives. Those choosing to watch due to the mention of 'stars', such as Simon Pegg, Adrian Lester and Mark Rylance, in the trailers and advertisements will be sorely disappointed, as their combined contribution over the series barely adds up to half an episode. Pegg, as the head of GCHQ, barely appears interested, which is strange as he is the boss of the organisation under attack, whilst Lester is a one-dimensional Prime Minister who does little more than make a few statements in a 'serious' voice. Rylance, who plays the part of an outdated 'old school' employee of GCHQ, is as amazing as ever - although I think that he is such a wonderful actor that I would be happy to watch him completing a crossword.
Saara is assisted by other young people, which reminds of those films aimed at younger viewers in which the heroes and heroines are inevitably teenagers - usually from different backgrounds - who are thrown together by circumstances and solve the problems that the 'grown-ups' around them are too stupid or narrow-minded to understand. There are simply too many lucky co-incidences that work in Saara's favour for this to be believable, which undermines the credibility of the plot.
I am too old to understand the complexities of computer programming or hacking, but I think that it is highly unlikely that the FSB in Moscow would be able to watch a live stream of CCTV from the GCHQ cafeteria and Reception areas, let alone direct the cameras to zoom in on or follow particular individuals whilst doing so.
The series builds up to a tense climax which suddenly arrives as an 'and with one bound she was free' cop-out - as if the writers had painted themselves into a corner with no sensible way out, so they gave up on trying to come up with a logical conclusion.
In summary, I think that the story is a little far-fetched in terms of the plot twists and turns, although I believe that a cyberattack is possible and could have the devastating effects shown. The acting, especially of peripheral characters such as Saara's family and work colleagues and the Russians, and script are both of high quality.
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- Stanley-UK
- Jul 2, 2022
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