Talk:Spooks series 3/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Glimmer721 (talk · contribs) 23:14, 1 December 2011 (UTC)

I will be reviewing this shortly. Glimmer721 ^talk 23:14, 1 December 2011 (UTC)

Okay, you know the drill, I'll be reviewing this in sections and leave comments. Overall it looks very good. Glimmer721 ^talk 23:30, 2 December 2011 (UTC)

Lead

• Looks like the DVD boxset image has been deleted because there was no source; please upload another and give a source.

• Well this sucks, I could've sworn I did give a source. Anyway, re-uploaded it with source (http://www.bbcshop.com/crime+thriller-dvds/spooks-series-3-dvd/invt/eo10735/). -- Matthew RD 01:13, 3 December 2011 (UTC)

• The image was literally deleted while I was reviewing; I reloaded the page and it was gone, so I never got to see if there was a source or not. That was just what the deletion notice had said. BBC Shop is a sufficent source. Glimmer721 ^talk 20:42, 3 December 2011 (UTC)

• I'm thinking espionage should be linked, but if you feel this would be overlinking don't.
• Give the actor's name in parenthesis after their character, like "Tom Quin (Matthew Macfadyen) is...". Then in the sentence listing the main cast just give their last names.
• "Though the producers were sure Macfadyen, who played Tom, would leave the series, they were unsure whether or not he would return in the first two episodes, so they were initially written without him." Kind of a wordy sentence. Try something along the lines of "Though the producers knew that Macfayden would leave the series, they did not know when he would do so, and so the first two episodes were initally written without him."
• "In any case, the producers created a new character, Adam Carter." Shouldn't this be "either case" as it is referring to the two cases previously mentioned?
• "The producers also took information from advisors who are ex-MI5 officers." The tense flips here; the "are" should be "were".
• "Filming started in January 2004 and took place up to seven months." Up to seven months? I'm thinking this should be "over seven months".
• "The third series was seen by an average of 5.77 million viewers, which saw a general decline in ratings from the second series, with viewership going below five million at one point; however the BBC still renewed Spooks for a fourth series before the third even began broadcasting." This is a run-on...I would split it in two saying "The third series was seen by an average of 5.77 million viewers, which saw a general decline in ratings from the second series with viewership dropping below five million at one point. However, the BBC had renewed Spooks for a fourth series before the third had begun broadcast." Notice how I changed to "still renewed" because that implies they did it even though the ratings dropped, when in fact they did it before there were any ratings.
• "The third series was released on DVD on 23 May 2005 in Australia, 5 September 2005 in the United Kingdom, and 31 January 2006 in the United States." Shouldn't we use region numbers here as Region 1 is not just the UK and Region 2 is not just the US? You could specify which region is where (Australia, Europe, North America).

Episodes

• Why are the ratings only for BBC One if episodes 2-10 were originally broadcast on BBC Three (which is also avaliable in the source)? (Never mind, apparently BBC Three sort of a test run before actual broadcast, as explained in the "Broadcast and ratings" section.
• "Adam decides to meet the source of the image (Harriet Walter), however because Mace knows if this, he has MI6 watchers shadow him." This sentence needs a rewrite.

Cast

• The first pargraph gets a little repetative: "Keeley Hawes returns as Zoe Reynolds...David Oyelowo returns as Danny Hunter...Peter Firth returns as superior Harry Pearce...Nicola Walker returns as Ruth Evershed..." Surely there are different ways to say it that makes the paragraph flow more.
• Why did Firth's mother want him to smile more? (How does this fit into his character?)
• "Indian actor Anupam Kher appears as Harakat in "Who Guards the Guards?"" Does this sentence need a period as the ? is part of the title of the episode and does not end the sentence?
• "Andy Sirkis" isn't a mispelling of Andy Serkis, is it? (Just wondering)
• "Jaffrey's first day of filming required him to tell a difficult speech he had to "launch into"." Tell a speech? If this was part of his script, then wouldn't it be more accurate to say "performing"?

Crew

• Much of this is written in the present tense, but it should be past because this is referring to the third series which was produced several years ago (and Spooks ended this year anyway).

Writing

• Why are Keely Hawes and David Oyelowo wikilinked in the caption of the picture?
• "Brenton went through a "nightmare" writing the first episode as he "dug this enormous hole, and [he] had no idea how to get out of it." Shouldn't it be "rewriting"?
• "Overall, the series is more character driven." According to who?
• "Raymond Khoury felt that because the length of a Spooks episode is one and half times longer than the average American television series..." Is that supposed to really mean the average American television episode?
• "...while Spooks only has 10 and hence all of them contain some character development." Do all Spooks series have ten episodes, or is this just a reference to the third series?
• Who is Sam? She has not been mentioned before.

• Sam Buxton, the girl mentioned in the cast section. Added last name again. -- Matthew RD 18:54, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

• "By the time the series began filming, Oyelowo eventually decided to leave the series as well between filming episodes four and five..." Did he decide to leave by the time it began filming or between filming episodes four and five? Or did he think about it when filming began and eventually decided when filming episodes four and five?
• "Writing "The Sleeper" sees the characters in a different light. Although they are the protagonists who work to prevent terrorist threats, the episode sees the team going to great lengths to get the sleeper agent, Fred Roberts, to do what they want him to do so that the audience sympathises with the character...." Is the team referring to the production team or the MI5 team of characters? If it is the latter, then how can they, fictional characters, make the audience sympathize with another character? This seems a decision of the poduction team.
• "Another example of the characters going to great lengths is Adam's interrogation methods in "Frequently Asked Questions"." Why is this an example? What were his methods?
• "He previously did it before with the death of Helen Flynn in "Looking After Our Own", but do it in the point of view of the killer, not the victim." The "do" should be "did", but which was done in the point of view of the killer: "Looking After Our Own" or "Love and Death"?

Filming and editing

• "Filming began in Lonon in January 2004,[23] and took up to 140 days[14] spanning across six to seven months.[34]" How can filming take "up to" a time? Doesn't it begin on one day and finish on another? Did it take six or seven months?
• Why isn't Fujifilm capitalized?

Stunts and effects

• "The production crew considered having Oyelowo wearing sunglasses to shield his eyes from any possible glass shards." Did he or did they decide against it?
• Looks like a lot of overlinking; namely soup, tea, wine, and beer.

Critical reception

• Might be worth mentioning that the Enterline Media reviewer is American which would explain why he uses MI-5 instead of Spooks and "season" instead of "series".

Accolades and viewer polls

• What other BAFTA nominations did it receive? Only one out of seven is mentioned.

• The other six are Craft and Interactive awards, also part of BAFTA. -- Matthew RD 18:54, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

• What is Spooks Interactive?

• Source doesn't specify, but this source I just discovered when googling "Spooks interactive", says it provides Spooks' viewers "an extra dimension to the television experience, the interactive service invited digital viewers to train as a MI5 agent by undertaking a series of 'training sessions' through their remote control." Anyway, that source says it won another award, so I can add that into the awards sections. -- Matthew RD 18:54, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

• Why suddenly use the first names of the actors again?

That's it to my review; I will place this on hold for 7 days. Overall this article is very good and once these minor issues are fixed it should pass. Glimmer721 ^talk 22:46, 3 December 2011 (UTC)

I think I'm done. Thanks for taking the time to review the article. If anything else comes up let me know. -- Matthew RD 18:54, 4 December 2011 (UTC)

You're welcome. I just found a minor error concerning the Austrailan DVD release and have fixed it; I will now pass. Glimmer721 ^talk 21:27, 4 December 2011 (UTC)