MI-5:

Well, I don't usually blog about TV because I'm embarassed by the quantity of trash TV that I watch (every episode of Joe Millionaire, some Jude Judy... I think I'll shut up now), but MI-5 is something else. It was originally broadcast in Britain under the name "Spooks" and has been on for three weeks here on A&E, Tuesdays at 10, 9 central.

The hero, Tom Quinn, lives with a woman who does not know he works for Five, the UK's Secret Service. Five seems to be kind of like the CIA but with authority within Britain. In the past three weeks, he's defeated an American anti-abortion bomber, a businessman who tried to foment race wars in Britain, and most recently Kurdish rebels who were helped by a man who wanted to sell the names of every agent who worked for MI-5, MI-6, and the SIS.

Like every other show of this type, you know he's going to win, the question is how and who the show will kill off on the way. Since the show was originally made for British TV, about ten minutes have been edited out for American commercials. Usually, this just makes the show even more tense, without a second of extra footage, but occasionally it does seem to omit something important to the plot.

MI-5 is 24 on its best days. You should watch it.