Spy shows

This column first appeared in The Age on July 26th, 2003

To some extent the row over Cambridge Spies was predictable. It was based on real events and the good guys barracked for Stalin. Thus the column from Gerard Henderson about the evils of glamorising communism. But I am yet to read a review of some of those other spy shows flying around saying how right wing they are.

Alias (the second series begins on Monday, Channel 7, 8.30pm) makes the CIA seem too glamorous for words and its just been nominated for 11 Emmy Awards. I am addicted to the new series of Spooks (Fridays, ABC, 9.30pm). It makes British Spies seem pretty bloody sexy though out there in the real world, there are plenty of stories going about what British agents really mean by sexing something up. Then there is that Aussie stalwart about undercover police, Stingers (Tuesdays, 9.30pm, Channel 9). Spies make for gripping TV but they all work for the government and operate in racial and political stereotypes for a cause, usually conservative. Their aim, with the exception of Cambridge Spies, is to preserve the status Quo.

But forget politics. What these shows are really interested in is their hero's personal life. Does being a spy effect your love life and your family life? You bet. Kim Philby, under orders, ditched his wife in the first episode of Cambridge Spies and ran away with the wife of fellow spy Donald MacLean some 30 years later. In Alias's opening episodes, double agent Sydney Bristow gets shot by her mother, who is, as it turns out also a double agent. The problem being that unlike Sydney's double agent Dad, Mum works for the wrong side (the Russians) and many years ago, abandoned her daughter in a very unmaternal fashion. Not surprisingly, Sydney, like Tony Soprano, needs a lot of therapy to deal with her work in general, and her mother, in particular. The Sopranos (Monday, Channel 9, 10.30pm) has lots of similarities with these shows - though is better than all of them - dealing with it does, with secrets, double lives, and what that does to families. The Sopranos is hotting up as Carmela, Tony's wife, figures out she can have secrets of her own.

In Stingers this week, Chris, who in her 'real' life prefers women, almost gets killed after seducing a sadistic chef in the line of duty. The moral of the story, it seems, is stick to girls. The opening episode of this season's Spooks began where the last series ended, with Tom Quinn (Matthew Macfadyen) watching his girlfriend Ellie and her young daughter trapped inside a house about to be blown up. She doesn't die, but does leave Tom, so he goes and has sex with a nurse.

Which brings me to my point. We need a columnist to write on the family values these spies refuse to uphold. Because I tell you they put it around a bit and if we all behaved like they do no one would have babies and civilization would collapse. But perhaps I'm over reacting.

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