I have only watched the first episode of the first series. I normally wait until the final episode of any series before putting finger to keyboard, but for some unknown reason I felt I needed to put in an early comment or two. Perhaps it was the bizarre comments of one of the reviewers on here, concerning 'police departments' that egged me on to write this.
Firstly, and probably my biggest issue with previous comments. I really don't think it matters much which police department is being featured in a drama. At the end of the day, it's the story that is important, followed closely by scripting. This drama has fast paced dialog, with facts coming at you at lightening pace, and more than once I had to press rewind on the remote in order to try to absorb the information being spoken. The fact that it was identity theft, for me, only made the whole thing more interesting, which is why I specifically sourced this box set, purely on it's subject matter...oh, and Keeley Hawes, who for me, could be the present generation Joanna Lumley! (sorry Joanna, that's not saying that you're not still a huge star and a most engaging orator...smiles).
The series could have been about murder, rape, corporate espionage, or perhaps just burglary, and it with this kind of script, and with the acting quality on show, it would still still have been interesting. It's good to see that Aiden Gillen is doing so well since his excellent performances in 'Queer As Folk'. I have a feeling his career is going to continue to move on upwards, and it might not be too far in the distance when his name will be a household name. As for Keeley Hawes, this lady surely has a huge future. Her performances in Spooks should alone have carved out an international movie career, and why they didn't have her play Lara Croft in the movies, I'll never know...her voice will always be the true Lara! On a more serious note, I feel sure Keeley also has a big future, as her beauty and speaking voice will land her international fame before too long.
Finally, just on the first episode, I can see that this was ITV's attempt to have a 'Spooks' of their own, and to some degree it works in that respect, although 'Spooks' is definitely the superior article, and focuses on an entirely different subject matter anyway. 'Identity' does succeed though, in bringing to ITV a more involved and complex story line, together with good acting, which I'm sorry to say, ITV doesn't generally compete with the BBC on. For those of us who like their stories more complex, this should certainly appeal. I really hope there's another series planned!
