To be really picky, I just feels that the story is missing a convincing 'big picture' focal point. While the internal machinations of a rather antiquated secret service are fascinating, the whole raison d'etre has eluded me. My concern is that it eluded the author too.
To a degree, TTSS is self-indulgent: it doesn't give any clue as to the importance or value of information that was being given to the enemy. For example, with the Enigma story, and Bletchley Park the key issue was to 'win the war' and defeat Nazism. With TTSS they key issue seems to be of how to play spymaster, but without knowing the reason why . . Is it a matter of real national importance, or just a game being played by self-obsessed wannabes? I feel that the series doesn't play against the bigger (and quite scary) drama of the Cold War: it just seems to be about the lesser drama of Oxbridge malcontents, misfits and incompetents having 'fun' for ideological reasons.
The Smiley character is quite emotionally detached - even uninterested and reticent. That doesn't signal smartness to me when we see other leading characters being portrayed as rather stupid or simply unprofessional. I can well believe that this branch of the Civil Service had its fair share of 'muppets' that reached high rank due to their public school associations, but La Carre doesn't much reveal that - at least in the miniseries.
Overall, watching this series in 2023 seemed like an academic exercise; I didn't feel engaged or entertained: I just felt that it was something I should finally 'knuckle down' and do. By the end, it just seemed rather facile.
To be fair though, a lot of the contemporary spy stuff was like that - "clever" - just a bit pretentious.
Gary Oldman did Smiley a lot better - more engaging and less 'retentive'.
To a degree, TTSS is self-indulgent: it doesn't give any clue as to the importance or value of information that was being given to the enemy. For example, with the Enigma story, and Bletchley Park the key issue was to 'win the war' and defeat Nazism. With TTSS they key issue seems to be of how to play spymaster, but without knowing the reason why . . Is it a matter of real national importance, or just a game being played by self-obsessed wannabes? I feel that the series doesn't play against the bigger (and quite scary) drama of the Cold War: it just seems to be about the lesser drama of Oxbridge malcontents, misfits and incompetents having 'fun' for ideological reasons.
The Smiley character is quite emotionally detached - even uninterested and reticent. That doesn't signal smartness to me when we see other leading characters being portrayed as rather stupid or simply unprofessional. I can well believe that this branch of the Civil Service had its fair share of 'muppets' that reached high rank due to their public school associations, but La Carre doesn't much reveal that - at least in the miniseries.
Overall, watching this series in 2023 seemed like an academic exercise; I didn't feel engaged or entertained: I just felt that it was something I should finally 'knuckle down' and do. By the end, it just seemed rather facile.
To be fair though, a lot of the contemporary spy stuff was like that - "clever" - just a bit pretentious.
Gary Oldman did Smiley a lot better - more engaging and less 'retentive'.