The Game

[chocolatelife]

anyone watch this?
Liking the cinematography, the colours,
good looking lead actor, bit miscast.
not sure if it will totally grab me but so so, so far

I'm just going with the flow! I wouldn't be surprised by any number of bluffs. Maybe Judy Parfitt is the mole.

As I've said more than once on this thread The Game is not up to Le Carre standards, but I'm enjoying it. The writer is apparently not really an aficionado of spy fiction - he says not long before he wrote this somebody gave him The Spy Who Came In From The Cold to read and he was hooked. I can't make out whether his wholesale lifting of terminology from Le Carre is a tribute or just plagiarism. Le Carre has said that he made a lot of the jargon up - including mole, I think.

Anyway, for me it's all remarkably reminiscent of Len Deighton's series about a married couple who were both high fliers in MI6, which I think may have been set in the early 80s but reaching back to the 70s. I read them all with great enjoyment many years ago and can't remember much about them now except that one of the couple appeared to be a defector and there were more twists and turns than you'd find anywhere off a snakes and ladders board.

I watch it for Joe, he is beautiful.

No idea what is going on though!

Is Alan covering for Sarah? Clearly she's in cahoots with Odin but was Alan before, or is he just trying to get her put of trouble?

I'm hoping Sarah is double-bluffing Odin.

Alan was noticeably unconvincing as a traitor explaining his motives.

Odin peels those apples. Apple on Daddy's desk.

I'm suspecting Daddy too (mainly because he calls himself Daddy )

I KNEW Sarah was in it somehow - the contraceptives gave it away for me! But has Alan taken a drop for her or are they in it together?

I do not think Alan was in it, but he is now. And I don't trust Daddy. Although Bobby is a complete nob and Wendy is far too jolly to be trusted either.

Ohhhh - so unbalanced.

Everything thrown into the final episode.

That was fun.

(And "David" was funniest.)

I enjoyed it too. I don't think it made much sense but I decided not to think too much about that.

Last night's episode was completely bonkers - I loved it. Wendy and Bobby win the prize for most unlikely couple in a TV series

Why did Daddy take so long explaining the fact that the penny had dropped to the wicked deputy prime minister instead of getting on the phone to stop the assassination attempt?

Was hoping Sarah would turn out to be a sort of double mole (pretending to be a mole to the enemy but really not a mole) so she would be in the next series, I really liked her.

Bobby's Mum to replace Sarah in series 2

I've just found out from a bit of idle browsing that Rachael Sterling, who played Kate the MI6 agent, is Diana Rigg's daughter. Well I never!

Ooh I can see that now Gaspode - she looks like her Mum. I think she was also in that thing about women who worked on the enigma code and then went about solving crimes (forgotten the name of it)

Bletchley Girls ?

Joe is from Cheshire according to an interview I read but his accent sounds weird to me, almost Irish. There were a few echoes of The Fourth Protocol. I enjoyed it, didn't know what was going on half the time though! I like a drop of spies

Am surprised people think his accent's weird, he just sounds like someone from the Chester area!

I think he was quite mumbly a lot if the time

I wondered if the lack of resolution regarding Julia and the almost joyful regathering of the team points to a second series.

There's still lots to explore; Bobby's domestic life, Wendy's ambition, Alan's recovery ...

So pleased to learn why Kate seemed so disconcertingly familiar.

I loved this. Lead actor a bit miscast but so good to look at!

Plus Paul Ritter is a genius actor. See him in this and No Offence. 2 brilliant but different characters.

I hope it comes back.

Oh it was worth sticking with.
I was a bit irritated by the clear lifting of so much from Tinker Tailor but it worked.
Victoria Hamilton is one of my fav actresses and I thought Tom Hughes was slightly stiched up by the earlier episodes which called for silent and moody way too much.
I wish they had fleshed out his character earlier. The scene with his dad was really good and lost in the 'everything now makes sense' finale.

Really worth watching.

Oh wow - I didn't even realise that Paul Ritter was playing both those parts - he's not an actor I had seen before - I loved his portrayal of Bobby and I love his character in No Offence - so incredibly different I hadn't made any connection. He is brilliant - need to google other stuff he has been in now !

He's BRILLIANT in Friday Night Dinners!

They threw everything into the finale - except the peerless Judy Parfitt. It was good , a bit of a mixed bag but very watchable. I liked the stinky, smoky brown styling of the early 70's. Hope it gets a second outing (as is not cancelled prematurely like The Hour)