What happened to this release?! by Gord Lacey (All reviews)
1/04/2008
Known as Spooks in its native Great Britain, MI-5 is based on the UK security organization that bears its name. The show originally premiered in May, 2002 in the UK and was brought to the United States by A&E in July of 2003.
Using stylish camera work, beautiful sets and wonderful special effects, MI-5 takes a look into the UK security organization. MI-5 deals with terrorist organizations, assassination plots, hate groups and anything else that would threaten the stability of the country. Their officers often go undercover to infiltrate organizations so they can be brought down. The show focuses of 3 of these agents; Adam Carter, Zafar Younis and Jo Portman. Their boss, Harry Pearce, is a no-nonsense man that treats them with respect, but wants results. This show is an exciting look at MI-5.
This 5 disc set contains all 10 episodes from season 5.
The quality of season 5 is visually the same as the past seasons. The anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) framing of the show gives it a nice, cinematic look. The DVDs for this series are so good that I stopped watching the A&E broadcast years ago (which is good, since they dumped the show after season 3 anyway). Just a few grainy scenes in the set, but nothing too horrible. There are chapters set after the opening of the show, and the disc features a "play all" option.
Audio
No surprises here either; the audio is on par with the first four sets. The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix sounds phenomenal, and I really noticed the low frequencies pumping from the sub. Explosions will rock the speakers, so be aware if you're in an area where others may be disturbed. The BBC defaults the audio to the English stereo track, and the set is subtitled for the hearing impaired. The 5.1 mix is quiet compared to the stereo one.
Series 5 Cast Interviews (12:19)
Hermoine Norris (Ros), Peter Firth (Harry), Miranda Raison (Jo) and Rupert Penry-Jones (Adam) are interviewed about the fifth season of the show.
Series 5 Trailer (1:06)
A trailer for season 5.
Series 6 Sneak Peek (1:21)
A very short look at season 6.
Commentary Tracks
Just TWO commentary tracks for this season!
Episode 5.9 - Katie Swinden and Neil Cross
Episode 5.10 - David Farr and Julian Holmes
Summary
Okay, what the hell happened to my excellent MI-5 DVDs?! These sets used to be loaded with commentary tracks on every episode, featurettes on each episode, long documentaries, deleted scenes, image galleries. Season 3 had nearly 4 hours of video material, plus nearly 10 hours of commentary tracks. This release has less than 15 minutes of video, and just two commentary tracks. I love the show, but I'm extremely disappointed with the quality of the DVD set (season 4 was a bit disappointing as well, but not as bad as this).
I recently caught a flight from LA to Calgary, and happened to bump into one of my favorite MI-5 actors. I was sitting in the row right behind first class when I heard an English accent and looked up to see Rupert Penry-Jones (Adam) turned around talking to someone behind him. I was incredibly shocked to see the star of a show I enjoyed, especially since I assumed most of his work was in England, not LA or Canada. I told the passenger beside me who Penry-Jones was, and we both agreed that the person he was speaking to looked familiar as well, but we couldn't quite place him. After the flight I caught up to him and politely told him I enjoyed his work on MI-5 (though I used the British name for the show, Spooks), and asked him what brought him to Calgary. He told me he was shooting a mini-series there, and I welcomed him to the country. I got home and looked on IMDB to see what he was shooting (Burn Up), only to discover the guy that Penry-Jones was talking to behind him on the plane was Bradley Whitford. Oops, sorry I didn't recognize you, Bradley!
MI-5 continues to be my favorite spy series, but I'm extremely disappointed by the lack of material on the season 5 set. These used to be exceptional sets, and now they've been reduced to standard TV-DVD fare.
