MI-5: Is It MIA?
MI-5 fans, mark your calendar. The date: Saturday, Oct. 21. The time: 11 am-7 pm ET/PT. This is when the remainder of the new season of
MI-5 will be shown. NOT on Fridays anymore.
I just opened a flood of panicked e-mails from fans of this terrific British spy import, who have waited more than a year for a new season to be broadcast, wondering why the show suddenly vanished after only two episodes to be replaced by yet another vintage
CSI: Miami episode.
The reason seems pretty obvious: I'm assuming the numbers for
MI-5's return in the inhospitable 11 pm/ET Friday slot were subpar. It's not as if A&E had gone out of its way to promote it, since a top-notch drama like this no longer fits into the channel's mandate for bottom-feeding reality. (Did you see the announcement earlier this week for a celeb-reality series about faded child stars Corey Feldman and Corey Haim? 'Nuff said.)
Anyway, for those worried about seeing episodes 3-10 of the new
MI-5 season, don't miss this mid-October marathon. I'd bet it's your last chance. (And as one of my "Ask Matt" correspondents noted, the boxed sets for this show are pretty pricey.)
I'm not sure what this means for season 5 of
Spooks (the British title), which is currently airing on BBC. Now that A&E has officially deemed
MI-5 a poor fit on this poor excuse for a cable network, I don't see why the show wouldn't find its way over to BBC America and join the ranks of that channel's excellent, edgy mysteries and thrillers.
Stay tuned on that front. For now, just focus on Oct. 21. The good news being: After that eight-hour burst, there's no reason to worry about what's on A&E that I can think of.
