Spooks

Original characters in an original series; no established characters to swap.

Features strong, competent female officers alongside male ones, but no message diminishing men; characters of both sexes are flawed and frequently die.

• Female officers like Ros Myers and Ruth Evershed are capable but not flawless
• Male leads such as Adam Carter and Harry Pearce are central and competent

Occasional LGBTQ+ characters and storylines appear over the long run but are not a central or recurring theme.

Diverse casting that fits a modern London intelligence agency setting plausibly.

• Mix of ethnicities among MI5 officers reflecting contemporary Britain

Engages with politics, terrorism, civil liberties and government ethics but generally folds these into tense plotting rather than sermonizing, though it occasionally moralizes.

• Episodes wrestle with surveillance vs. liberty and morally grey state actions

Critiques of government, intelligence overreach and Western foreign policy appear thematically but as morally complex drama rather than blanket anti-West messaging.

• Storylines depict ethically compromised state operations and political manipulation

Original series with no source material to betray.