Good morning sleeping agent

1971, Poland. British intelligence officer Joe Lam (Tom Hughes) is trying to go over to the side of the USSR. But the bearded people from the KGB do not believe him and for the ostrasts they kill his lover - a Russian diplomat. And the llama itself is captured. Colleagues from Mi 5 put the cross on the defector, but the head of the department, mysterious daddy (Brian Cokes), exchanges the unsuccessful spy for three Russians. A year later, a large game begins in London. First, the cultural attache Arkady, “having drunk a bath of vodka,” admits that it is a colonel of the KGB. Then, the sleeping agents of Russians begin to wake up throughout the country. All of them are involved in the operation "Glass". Its goal is either a nuclear blow to the kingdom, or discrediting Mi 5, or a verification of the readiness of Soviet agents. Or maybe all at once. The “scout game” is arranged so that its viewer knows the more, the less he knows. What did Lam really do in Poland? Did the Russians really kill that diplomat? Did she love the spy? Are there a mole among the British? What kind of game does Arkady lead?

Seven British samurai are looking for answers to questions at once. Despite the seriousness of the topic, a very English ensemble is assembled on the screen, which can be entered at least in the "Downton Abbey", even in "Doctor Who". At first glance, Joe is actually revenge. The women falling under his spell die one by one, and he himself, stained in their blood, is only good-like some Dorian Gray with a dossier in Mi 5 instead of a portrait. The young artist Tom Hughes does not have recognizable recommendations, but his appearance and manner of the game can be described as the average arithmetic between Camberva from Sherlock and McConac from the “Real Detective” - and it seems that in this series he will choose the self -destructive path of the second. Brian Cox plays the Patriarch of the special services with an eye on John Hert from the movie “Spy, Excuse” and Judy Dench from Bondiana - outwardly cold, but with burning heat inside. The main technician of the Alan team (Jonathan Aris from Sherlock) is so clumsy in communication that the series would be comedy - if there weren’t his wife, a first -class analyst Sarah (Victoria Hamilton). Sarah is successful, decisive and has an iron will; The cowardly Alan is both cozy and painful in her shadow. Another tragicomic character is the head of counterintelligence Bobby Waterhaus (Paul Ritter from the “Quantum of Mercy”). A cannibal in the service, at home he turns into a clogged mouse under a cap with a powerful mother. Bobby, apparently, gay, and in 1972 he has many enemies who were ready to play on this. The quiet stenographer Wendy (Chloe Pirri) clearly intends to follow in the footsteps of her American colleague from the "madmen" and curb chaos in his native office. And the detective of a special service, Jim Fencher (Sean Duli), is seconded to the detachment, performs in the series a guide function for the audience. It is easy to make your feelings on it. In the first series, he despises spies, because of the games of which people die. In the second, he recognizes Mi 5 with the necessary evil and falls under the hypnotic charm of spies. At this moment, about the same thing happens with the viewer.

First, the cultural attache Arkady, “having drunk a bath of vodka,” admits that it is a colonel of the KGB. Then, the sleeping agents of Russians begin to wake up throughout the country.

Modern spy thrillers fell into such dependence on gadgets and the Internet that their heroes only remains to wave their fists - like James Bond, Jason Born and Jack Ryan. The “scout game” recreates the conditions in which actors and characters have to mobilize their entire intelligence. Special services here communicate through newspaper ads and abandoned mailboxes. Thorshires in rented apartments are crammed with bugs. In adjacent rooms, concentrated people in headphones sit in front of tape recorders. The hero in the middle of the night takes pictures of the most ordinary notebook of a mini-camera mistress, shuddering every time her shutter clicks. Red manifold rooms resemble the confession of a particularly lush church. KGB agents travel to Europe at UAZ Bukhanka and Black Lightning. At some point, an ancient parabellum appears in the frame. Since absolutely nobody in the frame cannot be believed, the scriptwriters offer the viewer to conduct their own investigation, independent of the heroes. When Joe is asked to check the connection, having read the children's counting about a person-core-no, for some reason he looks in the mirror: does this mean that he is a double spy? As in the “seventeen moments of spring”, here you constantly follow trifles - curtains, flowers on the windows, ashtrays on the table.

In the thoroughly verified image of the “scout game” there are gaps: the Russians are suspiciously bearded here, the word “comrade” is used in situations where not to the partnership, but the main (at first) the villain leaves the peel of apples, removed by a knife, like a scalp. Unprofessional, but the British series depicts by no means the aces of its craft. The logic of the confrontation also blinded them: in the strikes of miners they see the Kremlin’s hand, and intelligence moves under news releases. In the “Intelligence Game” there are only six episodes, the storyline does not provide for continuation, but the psychological portraits of heroes are compiled for years to come. Most likely, new seasons will still form an anthology - as Fargo, American Horror Story and Real Detective.

Despite the seriousness of the topic, a very English ensemble is assembled on the screen, which can be entered at least in the "Downton Abbey", even in "Doctor Who".

The “scout game” was launched back in 2012, so any coincidences with reality in it are random. Conspirology here can be reduced to the fact that the Cold War map was played against the hot winter games in Sochi. In fact, Russia did not appear in spy series for so long that it is just right to be offended. In the "Americans" ( "The Americans" , the FX channel) in the foreground - the drama about the bucket in marriage and only then - the dying of the KGB and the CIA. In the "Homeland" ( "Homeland" , the Showtime channel) the West is in confrontation with a completely different East. “Fleming” ( “Fleming: The Man Whuld Bond” , all the same BBC America ) is the history of adventurism, and not the political struggle, and the enemy there in any case Hitler. In the recently shown television trilogy, Warricker , the PBS channel) Mi 6 agent completely opposes American imperialism. Her plot is an echo of the scandal with the participation of the Tony Blair cabinet in the global practice of the “extraordinary issuance of prisoners” of the CIA - in fact, covering abductions and torture. In general, spy series has long been not up to Russia. Even in the animated “special agent Archer ”, the FX channel) a cold war is needed only to mock Bondiana - its dendism, hypocrisy, paranoia, mania of greatness and the objectivation of women.

A similar situation is from cinema. In “007: the coordinates of Skyfall” the British special services became victims of their own irresponsible power. Not a very successful film about Julian Assange - the story is more about cybergumanism and ethics of global transparency than about special services and spies; It seems that there will be a movie about Edward Snowden. The militants like “Jack Ryan” and “November Man”, of course, bite, but it is impossible to take them seriously. And English -speaking reviewers, all November, singing praises of the “intelligence” game, do not see any sign of a new Cold War in the series. From the comparisons, the authors of Ny Times and Variety could not resist. And then for the latter this is not an ideology, but an element of marketing analysis is an industry publication.

So there is hardly a “reconnaissance game” - a sleeping agent of the Cold War, awakened by the Russian spring. But there are a lot of such agents in mass culture - both the West and Russia. They were not included in the disarmament agreements. And their dream is sensitive.