London Spy

[kindkit]

Well, if that's Tom Rob Smith's idea of a story about gay men that's not about tragedy and death, I'd hate to see one he thought was tragic.

What the fuck. What the fucking fuck.

[ETA: Have deleted link to locked post.]

I kind of want to scrub all of the last episode, and great chunks of previous ones, from my brain. And, weirdly, the way to do that is discussion, because it lets me get some distance from my emotional reaction, which is still at the level of "ARRRRRRRRRGH NO NO NO NO DO NOT WANT OH GOD NO WHY???"

Comments

[lilacsigil]

Yeah, the show was relevant to my interests but considering the premise I just didn't trust the "not about tragedy and death" quote. I promised myself I would wait until I read what other people said and now I'm very glad I did that.

[kindkit]

There are fan theories floating around that the story is not as tragic as it looks, and which would also make sense of some of the most nonsensical aspects of the plot. But if these theories are right, the storytelling is depending heavily on a second series which is by no means certain, because as of the end of S1 it's all tragedy, death, and plotholes. And I personally wouldn't watch a second series because I no longer have any faith in the writer.

There are some very very good moments, don't get me wrong. But as S1 goes on they're increasingly overshadowed by OTT gothic melodrama and outright horror.

My disappointment is proportional to my expectations, and my expectations were very high.

[king_touchy]

I went into London Spy without prior knowledge, so I didn't know the show's creators said it was "about gay men that's not about tragedy and death." Huh. I'd say they missed that mark.

But I loved flawed shows, and I enjoyed this one. It's begging for fic (like much mediocre TV does), so I look forward to seeing what fandom provides.

halotolerant's LJ is locked, alas.

And of course Alex is alive. Keeping Alex in line is the only reason whatsoever why anyone would bother to keep Danny alive. I haven't read any fic yet because I just now finished the last episode, but I expect to see many variations on that theme.

[kindkit]

Just about the only thing I knew before watching was that the Tom Rob Smith had insisted he wasn't going to do Tragic Dead Gay Men, so you can imagine my surprise.

I normally love flawed shows, or at least some of them, but I felt too deceived by this one. Also too annoyed by the gap between the beautiful art direction and the very good acting, and the incompetence of the plot.

Alex being alive would make sense, but I'm not sure I trust the show to make sense. And even if all is going to be revealed in an S2 that may or may not happen, I personally really dislike cliffhangers. I especially dislike them when I thought I was going to be watching a complete miniseries, not a teaser for some hypothetical future season.

Er, yeah, I'm kind of angry about how the show has turned out. I'm glad it worked for you, but overall it really, really didn't for me.

Sorry about linking to a locked post, by the way.

[jb_slasher]

I had no prior knowledge of the show, I just saw a promo shot of Ben Whishaw with the show's name and read somewhere there was some LGBT content and so I happily went into this thinking "yay, gay spies in love!" Oh, how naïve of me.

I just finished watching the last episode and, while there are moments I enjoy throughout the series, I still don't see how this could be someone's version of not doing death and tragedy. A "happy" ending like that doesn't exactly constitute not-tragic. Indeed, what would be tragic in Tom Rob Smith's book?!