I watched a bunch of MI-5 (or Spooks as it is known in the UK) last summer via Netflix' streaming service, and was impressed by its authentically gritty portrayal of a team of domestic intelligence agents, the harrowing work they perform (most often with no fanfare at all), and the toll it takes on their personal lives. In fact, it's so dark that it's a tough show to sit through multiple episodes back-to-back, but I nonetheless recommend it, and particularly the first two series.
Now Deadline is reporting that an adaptation is coming to U.S. television via ABC. More from Deadline on the background of the show: "Spooks, created by David Wolstencroft, follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service's Thames House headquarters in highly secure offices known as The Grid. The spy drama, one of the U.K.’s top series of this decade, launched in 2002, with a new season scheduled to premiere this fall."
And as an aside, another way in which I am impressed with the original is in its boldness to jettison what was essentially its main character, Tom Quinn (Matthew Macfadyen), fairly early on in its run. We got to see Quinn transition from an ice-in-the-veins super pro to a conflicted agent who has lost sight of the big picture due to the damage the job had taken on his personal life and those closest to him. Macfadyen can be seen these days as Prior Phillip on Starz' miniseries adaptation of The Pillars of the Earth.
Another reason why I enjoyed MI-5 is because it felt like an authentically British show. While terrorism, civil rights, and government efforts to combat the former while protecting the latter are obviously topics relevant to all industrialized nations in a post-9/11 world, MI-5 was very specific to British society and culture. Therefore, I'm curious and a bit nervous about what a U.S. version will look and feel like. A 24 derivative is something that no one wants at this point, I think we can safely say, while spy shows have cluttered up our airwaves for some time as well (to the point where most push into self-conscious parody these days a la Chuck or Human Target).
But a gritty and authentic adaptation that feels native to the U.S. side of the pond? Yeah, I think that would definitely be worth checking out.
