RA Character challenge
23.) The Character Who Deserved a Happy Ending That Didn’t Get One
John Porter
This was one of those instances that just wasn’t fair. John did everything right, or at least as right as can be humanly expected, and yet he didn’t get a happy ending. But Life isn’t a Disney movie… if it was, then John’s mom would have died at the beginning of the program 😉
24.) The Non-Happy Ending That Didn’t Make Sense
Lucas North
Do I really need to explain this one?
I thought not.
Nowhere in Particular RA 
i agree John Porter deserved a happy ending. I sometimes wonder if the powers that be were ticked he was leaving the show and it influenced the ending. Or I could be crazy 😉
As for Lucas I still shake my head when I think about it. When I re-watch Spooks/MI5 I never watch season nine. The other character I thought of was John Standring but I guess we can believe he had a happy ending?
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my thoughts exactly, Tree 🙂 I think the powers that be were miffed that Richard was leaving the show, so they killed him off the way that they did. what other reasonable excuse could there be? if they wanted to take the show in a different direction then just make a few brief mentions of Porter once in awhile.
John Standring was my first choice for a character that deserved a happy ending, but we don’t know that he didn’t eventually get one
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*So* not fair in either case. One of the things that bothered me most was the lack of consideration as to who these characters actually were, and the back story Richard would likely have written for each of them. As for John Porter, did the writers totally forget that they had given him a much-loved daughter who would be left an orphan at his death? Yes, I’m very much aware that both these men, John and Lucas are portrayed by an actor and it is “just a story” but surely if they write for series like these they must hope that in order for that series to be a success they will bring us something plausible and engaging. Not only with the story line but with the main character(s)! Surely to goodness, when the guys sent in to save John were told, “Bring John home”, they could have done just that, and let him, as was said to him in the first episode, “beat the clock”.
I think I have only watched Spooks 9 twice and it still upsets me. I own all 10 series of the show and never was there poorer ones than 9 and 10 although I believe Richard’s acting was superb throughout. After establishing Lucas in S7 and 8 as an amazing character and seeing how much Richard added to the show, to my mind they not only trashed the character of Lucas but did Richard a disservice by dismissing his incredible talent in bringing Lucas to life in the first place. I’m convinced that what they did in S9 put a lot of people off and eventually began the rot that ended in the demise of the whole thing. S10 was very poorly done IMHO and I haven’t even opened the DVD case yet. Seeing it once on TV was quite enough. 😦
Okay! Climbing down from my soapbox now!! Thanks for your patience.
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it always seemed to me that the writers of Spooks got a kick out of shaking things up with unexpected deaths. the first few seasons it was exciting but it became very cliched after awhile. there are much more inventive ways of shaking things up than killing off characters left and right. maybe season 9 was their attempt to try something different? if it was, they utterly failed at it! were they trying to be ironic? the person who is constantly pretending to be someone else is actually someone else. the person who often helps people escape their lives and makes it possible for them to blend into a new one, is so passionate about it because he’s doing the same himself? I don’t know. surely the writers realized how attached the viewers had become to Lucas so they were counting on that shock-value but either they didn’t factor in the emotional attachment, or they just didn’t care
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This.
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I think Guy deserved better than to die of a poisoned arrow.
I think Porter deserved better than to die with rescue so close at hand.
I think Lucas deserved better than a screwed up storyline.
Although I’ve heard people argue that Thorin’s final acts saved him from madness and redeemed him, it is in no way a happy ending.
I think most of RA’s characters deserved better, except Bill Chatford and Percy Courteney.
This makes me think though: how many of RA’s roles get happy endings, deserved or not?
Did Ricky Deeming get a happy ending, scarred with a blowtorch? He certainly deserved better.
Did John Standring?
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