"Smiley's People" is the sequel miniseries to "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" and follows George Smiley as he faces off against his nemesis, the fanatical soviet spymaster Karla.
At the onset, Smiley is, as usual, in forced retirement but brought back in to help out his colleagues at "The Circus" (British Intelligence). Smiley is sent to make sure no scandal erupts from the murder of a nearly-forgotten former informant of the Circus, a Soviet defector known as The General. Smiley realizes the General did not die in a senile mishap, as the Circus's new order assumes, but instead had very important information.
The series is a bit tidier in format than its predecessor, and perhaps easier to understand, with Smiley spending the first half figuring out what the General's information was, and the second half exploiting the damaging information for maximum damage to the Soviets. There's even more spy thriller action in this series, which isn't saying much, but it's still noticeable (of course, the appeal of the Smiley stories is how exciting they are without any hokey James Bond kind of silliness).
This series also gives Smiley more psychological depth, and we see him resolve his glaring character defect - his tolerance of his wife's infidelity - while in the process gaining a new one - a level of cold ruthlessness which he might have described as fanaticism in his opponent Karla.
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that having more components made this a better production than its predecessor. There wasn't quite the delicious suspense building, for one thing, with each episode of the first series ending in a memorable but maturely done cliffhanger. I also think the first series benefited from Guillam as a constant sidekick to Smiley in every episode, whereas in this series he is somewhat of a caricature and played by a different actor who I found took Guillam's glibness much too far. There's also the distracting side-story of Madame Ostrakova and what seems to have been a cheaper production quality, with occasional overlong filler shots of cars driving or the camera looking out a window of a car.
I think all of these combined made for a less interesting series that just didn't grab you the way the first one did. Still, this is a must-watch if you liked the first one. It's not bad, it's jut not as good as its predecessor.
At the onset, Smiley is, as usual, in forced retirement but brought back in to help out his colleagues at "The Circus" (British Intelligence). Smiley is sent to make sure no scandal erupts from the murder of a nearly-forgotten former informant of the Circus, a Soviet defector known as The General. Smiley realizes the General did not die in a senile mishap, as the Circus's new order assumes, but instead had very important information.
The series is a bit tidier in format than its predecessor, and perhaps easier to understand, with Smiley spending the first half figuring out what the General's information was, and the second half exploiting the damaging information for maximum damage to the Soviets. There's even more spy thriller action in this series, which isn't saying much, but it's still noticeable (of course, the appeal of the Smiley stories is how exciting they are without any hokey James Bond kind of silliness).
This series also gives Smiley more psychological depth, and we see him resolve his glaring character defect - his tolerance of his wife's infidelity - while in the process gaining a new one - a level of cold ruthlessness which he might have described as fanaticism in his opponent Karla.
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that having more components made this a better production than its predecessor. There wasn't quite the delicious suspense building, for one thing, with each episode of the first series ending in a memorable but maturely done cliffhanger. I also think the first series benefited from Guillam as a constant sidekick to Smiley in every episode, whereas in this series he is somewhat of a caricature and played by a different actor who I found took Guillam's glibness much too far. There's also the distracting side-story of Madame Ostrakova and what seems to have been a cheaper production quality, with occasional overlong filler shots of cars driving or the camera looking out a window of a car.
I think all of these combined made for a less interesting series that just didn't grab you the way the first one did. Still, this is a must-watch if you liked the first one. It's not bad, it's jut not as good as its predecessor.