I absolutely loved "THE GAME"...while it was on. Why not more than just one season, I'll never know. I love this genre and the 6 episodes drip in espionage as if it was written from the pen of John le Carré's monozygotic identical twin. It has a certified fresh rating of 95% for a reason. I suggest you watch it with closed captions on to help you understand the British accents better. I would also suggest you watch this on your DVD player so you can rewind the parts that might confuse you too much. The show reveals ways in which the USSR would plan out espionage years in advance and how it infiltrated into top positions of government. Deliberately paced and brooding in tone, yet laced with caustic wit, personal tragedy and sinister inference, The Game keeps us wondering how far will a foreign government go to disrupt and destroy our way of life in the west. It is a first rate production of the Cold War terror that we all feared at times growing up in the 60's and 70's.

I thought this series was a great show and want to know when or if you are making another. I enjoyed watching how the characters were built and unfolded and trying to work out who was what (baddie or goodie) in the characters. Also enjoyed the slower pace of the story as opposed to one and a half hour movies that squeeze as much out of the time as possible without portraying the 'real life' pace and how in 'real life' it is the bringing together of lots of small pieces of information that result in collating the whole picture/story. Hope you make another one.

As always ; the mood, atmosphere and production are top notch, as you would expect from the bbc. Brilliant character acting, good story (as you would expect) and amazing effects, camera work and editing. The impact is immediate and realism of the sets and effect grip the senses.. That is until a feeling of disappointment takes over. I would like to make a bold attempt to explain the slight dissatisfaction that comes up within some of the other reviews . Firstly; the bbc no longer really exists. Instead; programs are made by independent companies from a huge list, vetted by a managing body, chosen, kept and classified within certain 'standards'. This is why there seems to be a regularity to all new production. 'The game' is a good example of why the 'direction' of new production is becoming more disappointing. For anything to be exceptional, there needs to be a bit of genius. Sometimes wild. (as an example of what I mean - the group 'Pink Floyd' eventually lamented the loss of Syd Barrett ). And pure inspiration cannot be replaced by gimmick, style, effect or wackiness. What 'the Game' has is let down by what is missing. The bbc system may well be run by people with little creative interest and production made within limitation , simply because they don't know. The attempts a\t humour and being different , in 'the game' make me think of the kind of people with the ambition to work for advertising agencies. In fact, the production values are also similar and some people may well say, 'what's wrong with that'. Which could well be an indication of what has gone wrong with the system and of the way it is going. Were there was once rebellion against the system, it is now the goal , with larger audience, more programs, less range and tighter control. Ambition is a poor substitute for innovation.

A good old-fashioned Cold-war thriller that resembles Len Deighton more than John LeCarre (especially as one of Deighton's books was entitled Berlin Game.) It certainly has the slow pace of the masters in order to facilitate character development as the personalities of the people that play the game are intrinsic to the plot. It's beautifully shot and the scenery is very 1970, although there are far too few cars in shot for it to resemble central London. Still, can't complain as these things cost the cash that the Beeb is usually strapped for.A few anomalies in the script could have been avoided, though. Why did the KGB pretend to kill Julia instead of making Joe do their wicked will by pressing a gun to her head? Why wasn't Joe chief suspect from the start? But these pale into insignificance beside the scene in the last part where Sarah meets her husband in the safe-house without thinking that the room is certain to be bugged. Beans spilled all over the show after 25 years of great care to ensure against such mishaps. In the annals of great TV dramas, this rates as a schoolboy-howler.Still an enjoyable, pleasingly-retro, thriller. Those of us who enjoyed LeCarre and Deighton will have a nice glow of nostalgia whilst watching this one and the youngsters can learn how TV drama should be done.