Alphabet Movie challenge: day 23
Wish I never watched
Answer: Spooks, series 9
If you have a different answer to this one, I’d sure like to hear it 😕 I think it’s pretty universal among Richard Armitage fans that Spooks series 9 was upsetting for so many reasons.
That’s not to say that the whole series is a bust, just those last few. We do get introduced to Demetri and Beth in this series, both enjoyable additions.
And
we get to hear this
and
see this
but this
is all that is remembered…
(non-Armitage answer: The Blair Witch Project 😮 )
Nowhere in Particular RA 
Yeah, nothing like Spooks S. 9 to bring a fangirl down. 😦 On so many levels. Other than the pretty pictures above. I mean, seeing John Porter get shot in the head was a pretty big downer too. 😦 I was very unhappy with that turn of events! Although I understand that JP had to die to bring Thorin to life! A good trade-off in my opinion! 😀
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RA characters do have a nasty habit of dying but it’s the events surrounding Lucas that are upsetting, so pointless 😦
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John Porter shot was a big one and Guy of Gisborne dying but something about Lucas betraying everything that he stood for and was puts it at the top of the list.
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yes, all of the death scenes are hard to watch but most of them made sense, Lucas’ was different in that regard. his makes me sad, and angry, and confused, and disappointed, and so many other things 😐
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Yes I agree. Poor Lucas.
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poor Porter too 😦 but if you antagonize terrorists enough times you kind of expect to find a bag over your head sooner or later 😕
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LOL! You are heartless! ;(
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I agree. They could have killed him off in an honorable way. It wasn’t very believable either. I mean MI 5 doesn’t have photos, blood work, or any other ID for their agents?
I’m going to be sorry when you’re done with the alphabet. I’ve enjoyed reading your take on different movies and seeing the pics you pick!
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I have another multiple post type thing planned, so don’t despair 😀
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For me, Spooks 9 is worth having watched for the strength of the performances. It, of course, left me with unresolved issues that I had to write a freaking novel (practically) in order to work through, but it also gave me some powerful scenes to enjoy (or cry my way through, as the case may be.)
No, my answer on this is Sparkhouse. I hated everything about it. It was dark and nasty and everyone in it was such an awful character. I would rather not be carrying around the memory of Richard having played a character that I found so unattractive in nearly every way. But I know I’m in the minority on this. I’m glad he made it, since it was a big career moment for him; I just wish I could go back and un-watch it.
Non-Armitage answer? The list is endless. Some recent rage-inducing disappointments have been Suckerpunch and Immortals.
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I’m going to pretend you did not just dis my beloved John Standring *sticks fingers in ears* I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you… 😛 but I do agree that Spooks series 9 is worth watching for Richard’s performance 😎
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I know, I know. I’m a flint-hearted meanie and I’m sorry. Apologies to all of John Standring’s admirers. 😉
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I understand. he’s not exactly swoony to look at, and he’s kind of needy because of his shyness and whatnot, but I just think he’s really sweet and really loyal. he’s really grown on me 🙂
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John Standring, ‘awful’?
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even though Sparkhouse is a depressing story, I like it because I’ve known people like that in real life and I thought they were captured realistically on film. I’ve known some Carols and unfortunately her Dad as well. I’ve come across some Andrews, and befriended some Johns too; tho none were quite so adorable as John Standring 🙂
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I’ve known some John Standring type people. I guess I’ve know Carols. I’ve certainly known her dad 😦 and some Andrews.
I wouldn’t characterize the Johns as ‘awful’ in any way. They seemed to me a little clingy, but as I have relatives with social anxiety disorder, maybe I’m biased in favour of those who are shy.
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I don’t think I was *ever* so shaken by Spooks as I was in S.9. It left me so conflicted as I felt the writers had betrayed Lucas (and Richard) by writing such a story line. Yes, I agree his acting is amazing but it was hard for it to ring true for me after watching S7 & 8 so many times and loving Lucas North. I have no idea how Richard managed to get his head around being a murderer after all the risks he (Lucas) took to save others.
This wasn’t “our” Lucas at all – well maybe for the first part when he looked like JP? 😉 I too could write reams on everything that I hated about the series but suffice it to say that at no time did they take into consideration Lucas’ back-story that I believe Richard must have had in his head and, dare I say, in his heart. You just had to watch his reaction to his ex-wife to see his pain. I still can hardly bare to look at Ian Glen now, poor man! I have all 10 series on DVD but none of them compare to 7 and 8. They will always be my favourite episodes. IIRC, Richard said he left to go to “nothing” as I believe he had told them his intention to leave before they filmed S9 and therefore before the Hobbit audition, but I could be wrong.
I won’t get into what they did to JP! It still pains me to think of it. 😦
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writers! *grumps* they mess up everything 😡 I feel like the Spooks series 9 twist was just a lazy way to get rid of a character and shock the audience. I knew he was going to die sooner or later (almost all of them do) but it was the over-the-top backstory that suddenly came out of nowhere that irritated me, it was disrespectful to the character.
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Series 9 was pure character assassination on the part of the writers (no pun intended). The previous two seasons had established Lucas as a man who would have never betrayed his country, who loved his wife deeply and yet, even after having his heart ripped out of his chest and stomped on by her (I still can’t believe she didn’t give him a hug. %$^*&!), decided to set her free as a double agent so she could live happily with her husband and child.
Here was a man who – having just come back to London and to the grid, utterly exhausted in every possible way – insisted on going with Adam to rescue that soldier because he could not bear the thought of not helping someone from going through the hell he lived.
By the end of that season, Lucas was appalled and disgusted when he found out Connie was a traitor – and that was before he knew the big doozy!
In the season finale for series 8, he literally ran back into a building he knew was about to explode, desperately trying to save Ros, whom he respected deeply.
When he found out the truth about Sarah, he didn’t warn her that MI-5 was on to her. No, he put his feelings for her in the back burner and did his job. Even though it meant facing down Dasharwin yet again, he went and saved Sarah’s life. When she met her end later, he was very upset, even though her behavior had disgusted him profoundly.
After all this and more, here comes Series 9 – which negated most of what had been established about this man we were all rooting for, whom we cared deeply about because he was a HERO – and suddenly we were supposed to believe that BS story they came up with because Richard had told them he was leaving the show? Not only was it ludicrous and infuriating, it wasn’t even logical!
If you were a top-notch spy and former terrorist, a selfish bastard/cold-hearted murderer, would you have let a man like Vaughn manipulate you so easily? PLEASE!!! John Bateman would have slowly come physically closer and murdered him on the spot, then thrown his body in the river. Then he would have grabbed the “evidence” and burned it somewhere else, making sure he later checked out the place where Vaughn had been living. END.OF.STORY.
Last, but not least, Lucas told Elizabeta that his love for her, the thought of her every day was the only thing that helped him to survive eight years of torture (which, by the way, Bateman would have never suffered because he would have betrayed MI-5 in two seconds flat), and we were supposed to believe that Maya was the love of his life? Gag me with a shovel because a spoon is not large enough to contain my disgust with the writers.
Thus, as far as I am concerned, Series 9 is not canon because it never happened. Harry retired, married Ruth and moved to the cottage she loved. Lucas was head of the team until years later he was given Harry’s former position. He found a woman who wasn’t a nutcase, got married and had kids. MI-5 kept saving the world, and the fans lived happily ever after. I can live with that. 😉
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yes, it was irresponsible writing. so many loopholes, Lucas suffering from Amnesia would have even been better than what they did 🙄 the whole Maya thing irritates me too for the exact reasons you stated. Richard’s acting during her death scene was moving, not b/c it was her, but b/c it was the death of his hope. I didn’t mourn her at all.
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It’s impossible to mourn Maya because she was never actually a character. Albany wasn’t the MacGuffin of Series 9 — Maya was. She was literally just a device to, as you said, represent Lucas’s hope. Weak. Very weak.
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“it was the death of his hope” HA! I love you for that. I do have to say, though, that Richard deserved a BAFTA for playing Lucas North, especially for Series 8, episode 4, when he faced Dasharwin. If that wasn’t a Master Class in acting, I don’t know what is!
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I felt the same about that whole scene, his body language when Oleg was in his flat, scarcely able to look his torturer in the eye, the rapid blinking, his rage at Sarah after he left and how he had the “dry heaves” once he was alone in his flat. He lets you see how tense he has been and how dry his mouth has become as he doesn’t even take the time to get a glass for the water, he just uses his hand to get it into his mouth. Then the flash-back happens. I was astounded when Richard said in one interview that he had no lines for the scene where he contemplates hanging himself. They just put a camera in the room with him and he was told to take his time and just imagine what Lucas was feeling. He did that in spades. It beats me how these scenes alone didn’t earn him a BAFTA!
There are some great clips of those scenes on Annette’s site RichardArmitageOnline.com if you need a quick reminder!
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Or the infamous boiler suit scene. You can see him visibly trembling.
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Right on, Kelbel! I like your ending to the story! I wish *you* had been the writer!! I can certainly live with your interpretation of what happened after Series 8! From now on this is the scenario I plan to keep in my head rather than the travesty we were served up! And BTW, all you wrote above is spot on and I’m glad there are people like you around who are able to put into words what I have been thinking! *applauding wildly*
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Hmm…you’re welcome? 😉
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My sincere apologies to you both!! It took me a second or two to realize my goof after I saw your question mark!! I guess by brain was addled after contemplating S9! 😦
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It happens.Thank you so much for reading what I wrote, even though it was long. I think I will never get over how the show disrespected all of us fans with that season! I’m sure you know that even Richard was shocked when he read the first script. I can imagine his anger at having invested two years of his craft to create such a complex character – played with the confidence that Lucas was a hero – only to be told something completely different. Maybe that’s when he threw the chair out the window. hahahaha
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LOL! If he didn’t do it at that time he certainly should have!! If I didn’t have to pay the deductible for my house insurance I might have done it myself! 😦
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mujertropical was the one who wrote the detailed analysis, I just said having Amnesia would have been better than what did happen 😕 he could have had Amnesia tho *and* end up with the family and kids, maybe he even had an evil twin! and maybe the twin would seduce his wife and they wouldn’t know who the father of the children were, and once it was all brought out in the open she had to choose between the two Lucas’ (or is one John and the other Lucas?) b/c she had fallen in love with both of them! *dun, dun, dun* oh the angst! I watched too many soap-operas as a teenager 😛
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I wish I’d never watched that Miss Marple episode he was in. Mainly because I despise Agatha Christie mysteries, but also because the scary abusive nun from The Magdalene Sisters played Miss Marple and she was still creepy as fuck.
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the whole family was extremely odd in that Miss Marple episode. I wasn’t drawn in so much by who actually committed the murder, I just wanted to see how much creepier each of them could get 😯
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Oh boy, do I ever live in denial when it comes to Lucas, Porter and Guy.
I first watched Spooks 9 on TV and sobbed my heart out at the final episodes. I dreaded watching it each week but was compelled by Richard’s performance. Plus I kept hoping for some kind of turn around, that Lucas was undercover or something, anything but the scenario that was unfolding. It took me nearly two years before I could bring myself to watch S9 again, but it was so painful I haven’t looked at it a third time.
I have never watched Porter’s departure, the stills (which I stumbled on accidentally) were bad enough, and I won’t reblog any image of that final scene of his. But at least the storyline made sense from what I can gather, he was betrayed by another character, whereas poor Lucas was betrayed by the writers IMO. Guy at least was given a noble death.
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exactly! we may have not wanted the endings that Guy and Porter got but they at least made sense within the storyline (though Porter’s was really unneccessary IMO), Lucas on the other hand was done purely for manipulation, to be so fantastical that viewers *had* to keep watching to see where it was going, and then keep talking about it for ages to draw others in. cheap drama, not the respect Lucas deserved 😦
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