"Game, Set and Match" is quite an enjoyable and well-made series about international intrigue and espionage. The acting is good and there is no lack of memorable backgrounds and striking locations. (The budget must have been considerable.) For instance, there's a fine evocation of a Cold War-era Berlin rent apart by tremendous geopolitical rivalries.
The plot, too, is good. In the past I wrote a small review for another work in which I suggested that an espionage movie (or, in this case, espionage series) should ressemble a successful striptease, meaning that it should be an artful combination of baring and covering, displaying and fleeing, promising and denying. Judged by this criterion the series certainly delivers, by providing an intricate and ingenious intrigue complete with clever clues and red herrings.
"Game, Set and Match" is also an exploration of the various kinds of betrayal and infidelity people inflict upon each other, ranging all the way from adultery within a marriage to treason against king and country, on a national level. Here the deceit, cruelty and turmoil to be found in the private sphere feed into the deceit, cruelty and turmoil to be found in the public sphere, and vice versa.
The series' tone, however, is not unrelenting grim. There are touches of satire and humour, for instance in the description of the many labyrinthine and internecine battles which blight our protagonist's working life. Part of this description sticks reasonably close to reality ; another part consists of a comical exaggeration, as in a funhouse mirror, of the various quarrels and tensions to be found in everyday office life. Many a viewer will be reminded of business meetings on themes like "How to Defeat the Opposition", with the Opposition consisting of some rival service or department within one's own organisation. And even within the very same service there's room for plotting and intrigue ; just watch what happens, say, when two or three colleagues compete for the same promotion...
Suspenseful, addictive stuff that encourages binge-watching on a grand scale.
The plot, too, is good. In the past I wrote a small review for another work in which I suggested that an espionage movie (or, in this case, espionage series) should ressemble a successful striptease, meaning that it should be an artful combination of baring and covering, displaying and fleeing, promising and denying. Judged by this criterion the series certainly delivers, by providing an intricate and ingenious intrigue complete with clever clues and red herrings.
"Game, Set and Match" is also an exploration of the various kinds of betrayal and infidelity people inflict upon each other, ranging all the way from adultery within a marriage to treason against king and country, on a national level. Here the deceit, cruelty and turmoil to be found in the private sphere feed into the deceit, cruelty and turmoil to be found in the public sphere, and vice versa.
The series' tone, however, is not unrelenting grim. There are touches of satire and humour, for instance in the description of the many labyrinthine and internecine battles which blight our protagonist's working life. Part of this description sticks reasonably close to reality ; another part consists of a comical exaggeration, as in a funhouse mirror, of the various quarrels and tensions to be found in everyday office life. Many a viewer will be reminded of business meetings on themes like "How to Defeat the Opposition", with the Opposition consisting of some rival service or department within one's own organisation. And even within the very same service there's room for plotting and intrigue ; just watch what happens, say, when two or three colleagues compete for the same promotion...
Suspenseful, addictive stuff that encourages binge-watching on a grand scale.