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流人 第二季 Slow Horses Season 2(2022)

简介:

    该剧根据Mick Herron的同名系列小说改编,故事围绕着军情五处内一个不正常的特务组,以及他们讨人厌的老板:臭名满天下的杰克逊·兰姆(加里·奥德曼 饰)。他们在真假难辨的间谍世界中努力着,以保卫英国免受邪恶势力的侵害。

演员:



影评:

  1. 冷战时代是间谍们最辉煌的时代,顶尖高手们在两大阵营间刀口舔血,一不留神就有性命之虞。

    帕特纳的死是卡丁斯基心中的一根刺,同理,斯塔西卧底的死也是兰姆心中的一根刺。

    第二季就是两个昔日高手在二十年后的再次过招,到最后两人都解开了心结:卡丁斯基知道了帕特纳是怎么暴露的,兰姆也知道了到底是谁通风报信害死了自己的卧底,最后兰姆肯定了卡丁斯基是个厉害的对手,给他留了一发子弹作为最后的尊严。

    最值得赞叹的,是卡丁斯基在被兰姆和老卡特用假情报暗算、失去上级信任后,居然用自己布局“蝉”这个事实打掩护,让MI5误以为他只是个无足轻重的小角色。故意绑架英国特工又放跑,然后利用了英国人疑神疑鬼的心理把“蝉”的信息搞成坊间传说,然后再叛逃的时候不显山不露水的透一点让MI5觉得他也就是个满嘴跑火车没什么价值的叛逃特工。而对于FSB来说,“蝉”只是卡丁斯基个人的布局,在他叛逃以后很可能被认为只是卡丁斯基拿来骗经费的幌子,这点其实卡丁斯基自己亲口跟兰姆说过。

    撒谎的最高境界大概就是这种:说真话,没人相信。

    某种意义上,第二季是卡丁斯基的个人复仇,FSB铲除寡头只是勾起了他二十年前心中的刺,他亲自布局了引兰姆上钩一是为了报复当年帕特纳的死,二是为了弄清自己到底在什么地方出了差错。

    结果是苦涩的:出错的其实是兰姆,但敏锐的兰姆立刻就知道是谁通风报信的,然后将计就计用假情报整了卡丁斯基,然后除掉帕特纳为卧底报仇。

    随着冷战的结束,原本大放异彩的间谍们老去了,兰姆自我放逐,卡丁斯基用叛逃来隐姓埋名,时局掌握在虫豸政客和勾兑官僚手里,凡事但求甩锅却能身居高位,老间谍们的生死相博也只能是一曲动人的挽歌了。

  2. Slough House小说第二本标题Dead Lions(死狮)

    电视剧第二季是根据第二本书故事改编的,前大半故事基本还原,后半部分一些情节差异较大,但故事主线还是一致的。还是做个笔记,会有剧透和书透


    1.这个系列很喜欢用动物做各种代号或者隐喻,例如标题“驽马”,以下第二本提到的几个动物相关的词,按我个人的理解整理了一下。

    金蝉cicadas:埋伏在普通人群中的间谍,平时悄无声息,一旦被启动就会高声唱歌,俄国人用这个词。

    死狮dead lions:跟金蝉的意思差不多,只不过是英国人用的。

    黑天鹅black swan:出乎意料又产生了重大影响的意外事件,但是事后想想当初本应该可以预见到。

    白鲸white whale:相当于死敌,源于《白鲸记》,Standish说Popov就是兰姆的白鲸。

    2.小说和电视剧开头都是Dickie Bow追踪然后死亡的情节。Dickie在路上的心理活动中有提到他回忆起当初因为自己的一个错误就被MI5开除的事,对比之下如今在MI5犯错之后还会有机会,就是被派遣到兰姆的破屋。

    Dickie heard occasional whispers on the Soho songlines, and these days even the useless were given a chance...The screw-ups. The losers. They called them the slow horses and they belonged to Jackson Lamb, whom Dickie had encountered, back in the Spooks’ Zoo.

    3.接下来引入破屋的方式很不一样,小说里更有趣,是以一只流浪猫的视角来重新介绍破屋的。

    这是一只短毛猫,经常来破屋里溜达,小说里从这只猫的视角观察了一番破屋的房间布局,然后介绍一下各位角色,我称之为猫猫观察日记。

    猫先是发现了两位面孔不熟悉的新人(Shierly和Marcus),新人也盯着它,好奇这只猫是不是破屋成员还是某种测试。

    Unscathed, then, our cat withdraws, to check out the adjoining office.And here are two unfamiliar faces, recently dispatched to Slough House:one white, one black; one female, one male; so new they don’t have names yet, and both thrown by their visitor. Is the cat a regular—is the cat a fellow slow horse? Or is this a test?

    Ho会把可乐罐朝猫扔过去;Louisa会撸一撸它,嘴上说着会给它找点吃的,但实际可能并没找。Min则会蹲下来看着Louisa抱起猫,但他的重点并不是看猫。

    had Ho noticed our cat’s presence, his response would have been to toss a Coke can at it, and he’d have been disappointed to have missed...Louisa would have gone onto her knees, gathered the cat in her arms and held it to her quite impressive breasts—

    Standish会故意忽视猫的存在,她其实觉得猫很可爱,但是不希望产生过多情感依赖,自己单身的收入也养不起。

    Cats are either adjuncts or substitutes, and Catherine Standish has no truck with either.

    而River看到猫的时候会思考它是穿过了几道门才到达他的办公室,做过什么,想干什么,目的是什么,有什么动机……然后猫就溜走了。作者大概想体现小河有多宅、多敏感,但是我的理解是——猫狗不和。

    Cartwright wouldn’t have thought about providing milk; he’d be too busy mapping the cat’s actions, working out how many doors it must have slipped through to make it this far; wondering what drew it into Slough House in the first place; what motives hid behind its eyes. Though even while he was thinking this our cat would have withdrawn and made its way up the last set of stairs, in search of a less stringent reckoning.

    最后来到Lamb的办公室,通常Lamb不用看都能察觉到猫进来了,然后就想抓住它丢出去。这可能是剧和书的区别了,因为电视剧第一季Lamb有一次在大街上撸猫撸得可开心了。

    when a fucking cat enters his room, he feels like it. Within a blink he’d have seized our cat by the throat; pulled up the blind, opened the window, and dropped it to the road below, where it would doubtless land on its feet, as both science and rumour confirm, but equally doubtless in front of a moving vehicle, this, as noted, being the new dispensation on Aldersgate Street. A muffled bump and a liquid screech of brakes might have carried upwards, but Lamb would have closed the window by thenand be back in his chair, eyes closed; his sausagy fingers interlinked on his paunch.

    4.电视剧里小河偷偷找工作的那段,在书里没有,至少第二本没有,后面的书我也还没有读到。

    5.到了讨论去偷监控录像的任务给谁干的时候,这段是电视剧里没拍出来的,我直接翻译出来吧,大白话描述没那味儿。

    翻译:

    “交给我吧。”River说。

    “哎呦,这可是军情五处,不是给小孩玩的,行动不是谁说想去就能去的,得由我来决策。”Lamb指着他们从右向左数了过去,“点点,豆豆,哪家,吃肉”,数到“吃肉”的时候,他的手指正指着River,接着又指回Shirley,“豆豆,就你去吧。”

    River说,“可我是吃肉啊!”

    “我可不会用小孩玩的游戏来做出行动决策,记住没?”

    “I’ll do it,” River said again.
    “For Christ’s sake, this is MI5, not a kiddies’ playground. Operational decisions don’t turn on who says bagsies. I decide who goes.” Lamb counted them off from the right. “Eenie meenie minie mo.” At mo, his finger rested on River. He moved it back to Shirley. “Meenie. You’re it.”
    River said, “I was mo!”
    “And I don’t base operational decisions on children’s games. Remember?”

    6.兰姆调侃Spider Webb(蜘蛛·网)的名字,“一看见他我就想拿报纸拍他”

    I’m under strength at the House, what with your boy Spider’s recruitment drive.” “Webb?” “I prefer Spider. Every time I see him, I want to swat him with a newspaper.”

    7.小河管自己爷爷叫OB,意思是old bastard,而且兰姆知道。

    “The O.B. told you that?” Lamb cocked his head. “That’s what you call him, right? The old bastard?” It was, but how Jackson Lamb knew passed all understanding.

    8.可能是目前兰姆对小河的评价最高的一句,“他是经过专业训练的特工,做个傻雕只是他的业余爱好”。可惜,并不是当着小河的面说的,所以小河不知道。

    Lamb said, “What everyone seems to forget is that even if Alexander Popov never existed, whoever invented him did. And if the same smartarse is making a mousetrap in our back yard, we need to find out why.” He belched. “If that means making Cartwright our designated cheese-eater, so be it. He’s a trained professional, remember. Being a fuck-up is only his hobby.”

    9.第一本就提到过了兰姆踩楼梯的脚步很轻,第二本又强调了一遍,Min一直觉得是因为兰姆对破屋的楼梯太熟悉,楼板的裂缝和松动都摸得很清楚所以才能做到这样,如果在除了破屋之外的地方他未必能做到。不过剧集第二季里似乎给出了补充,第二集开头兰姆去找Katinsky时上楼梯的动作给了特写,悄无声息。

    It was often observed of Lamb that he could move quietly when he wanted. Min Harper had suggested that this was only true on his home ground, because Lamb knew every creak and wobble of Slough House,having doctored the noisier stairs himself.

    10.有一段时间Ho把小河那次失败的演习录像截图设为屏保。读到这里我笑拉了,是不是因为在一楼办公所以哪怕被小河扔出窗户也不用担心是吧

    For a while, Ho had used a CCTV still of the King’s Cross chaos as a screensaver

    11.新来的Shirley,剧里说明了她被贬到破屋的原因是因为她被上司性骚扰之后打了他,书里这一段给了更多细节:这位上司知道Shirley已经有了同居伴侣之后,利用职务上的资源查到了Shirley伴侣家的电话,然后在一天晚上给她伴侣的家里打了六次电话,接着第二天在食堂问她昨晚睡得怎么样,才惹得Shirley最终爆发锤了他两拳。结果HR认定Shirley有心理问题,是啊,当然了。

    After a night in which he’d called six times, he’d approached her in the canteen to ask how she’d slept, and Shirley had decked him with one clean punch. She might have got away with this if she hadn’t hauled him to his feet and decked him again with a second. Issues, was the verdict from HR. It was clear that Shirley Dander had issues.

    另外书里好像有个地方暗示Shirley是通讯录,因为没有明确她伴侣的性别,然后好像是Ho有个地方开玩笑问她是不是通讯录,Shirley没有回答。

    12.小河这孩子打小就擅长记忆电话号码、车牌号码之类的,几个月前的比赛比分都能记得住。

    River had always been able to recite phone numbers, car registrations, Test match scores, months after reading them. It was a gift, Cartwright liked to think, the boy had inherited from him; certainly one he’d encouraged River to cultivate.

    13.剧集里小河和兰姆在中餐馆的那段对话,对话内容基本是还原了原著,但是原著里这段对话不是发生在中餐馆,而是在圣卢克(这是个教堂吧?)的一个长椅上。小河知道兰姆有在这个地方吃午餐的习惯,所以他点了一份泰国料理在这里等他。长椅边原本聚集了一群活泼的鸽子,但是等兰姆一来鸽群就散了。

    Like any Joe, he had his favourite spots. Like any Joe, he mostly avoided them; made his visits irregular, aborting them if there were too many people around, or too few. But like any Joe he needed a space in which he could think, which meant somewhere no one expected him to be.
    River paid for a Thai chicken with naan, and the pair walked to St Luke’s and found a bench. Pigeons clustered hopefully, but soon gave up. Possibly they recognised Lamb.

    不过剧集里那个“吉利安·安德森去厕所了”的笑话挺有趣的,这个是书里没有的。

    14.Standish直觉认为Pashkin和Popov有关联,因为首字母相同,兰姆吐槽“这又不是阿加莎的小说”,Standish回怼“哪怕是丹布朗也要考虑到”

    “And you think there’s a connection,” he said flatly.
    “Arkady Pashkin,” she said. “Alexander Popov. That doesn’t worry you?”
    “Give me a break. I’ve got the same initials as … Jesus Lhrist, but I don’t go on about it. This isn’t an Agatha Christie.”
    “I don’t care if it’s a Dan Brown. If the two are connected, then something’ll happen in Upshott. Soon. We should let the Park know.”

    15.剧集和原著差异最大的地方就在于小河在Upshott这一段,先说说跟Kelly有关的这部分。

    一是原著里小河在Upshott住了至少三个星期,而剧集里看起来从认识Kelly到最后的飞机事件只间隔了两三天,毕竟电视剧就六集,改编加快节奏可以理解。

    二是原著里没有出现Kelly父母,最后骗了小河还驾驶飞机出去搞事情的是Kelly自己,不过她搞事情的目的只是为了用飞机发传单,传单的内容只是阻止城市发展对于乡村生活的干扰之类的。

    另外,原著里小河跟Kelly真的睡了,就没有剧集里那么守身如玉,而且被兰姆一下子猜中。

    “You’ve infiltrated the community, then?”
    “I’ve, er, made some progress, yes.”
    “Oh Christ,” said Lamb. “You’re shagging a local.”

    16.剧集与原著还有一个很大的不同就是关于Katinsky,剧集里对于Katinsky搞事情的动机没有揭露完整。

    当年英国情报组织也对苏联用过类似“金蝉”的手段,编造了一些关于英国间谍已经渗入苏联的谣言,并且伪造了一些证据,让苏联情报组织误以为苏联乡下的某一个小镇就是英国间谍的大本营,之后这个小镇就在一次爆炸事故中被摧毁了,只有少数人生还。书里好像没有给出小镇的名字,但是小河从他爷爷口中得知这个小镇在英国情报组织里的代号是ZT53235。Katinsky就是来自这个小镇的幸存者之一。

    虽然没有证据,但基本可以认定这是苏联政府在相信了英国人的误导之后自己干的。“没有间谍,但是有证据”,就因为这么一个莫须有的罪名,一个小镇没了。

    Katinsky从此决心用以牙还牙的方式报复英国人,他卧薪尝胆,选定Upshott这个小镇,实施了持续20年计划。之所以选择Upshott是因为这里跟ZT53235有很多共同点,比如周围有一些军事基地。他让一些人入住Upshott,之后这些移民在这个小镇上结婚生子(Kelly应该就是当初那批人的后代之一),并且这些移民各自都在小镇的很多地方埋下了炸弹。之后Katinsky借助与Pashkin合谋的机会,杀死Dickie让英国情报组织误以为“金蝉”重新出现,并且将线索指向Upshott。

    在小说里,最终与Katinsky正面对峙的不是兰姆,是小河。小河从爷爷那里得知了关于苏联ZT53235的故事,之后经过一系列调查也联系到了Katinsky身上。最后Katinsky在小河面前拨打了能够同时引爆小镇所有炸弹的电话,结果发现没有一颗炸弹响起。接着Katinsky又打了一个电话,这次他引爆的是他自己埋下的炸弹,也炸死了他自己,小河逃了出来。

    下面这段是Katinsky和小河的对话:

    “Your own government destroyed it,” River said. “Because they thought there was a spy there. But there wasn’t. There never was. The town was destroyed for no reason.”
    “There are always reasons,” the Russian said. “The spy wasn’t real, but the evidence was. That’s how the mirror world works, Walker. Your service wasn’t able to plant a spy there because security was too tight. So itdid the next best thing, and planted evidence to suggest a spy. So the government did what governments do, and destroyed the town. What your Service would now call a result. Back then, they called it a victory.”

    17.原著结尾呼应开头的猫猫观察日记:一切又恢复平静之后,兰姆在办公室里躺平时发现了一只老鼠,这时候他意识到这地方需要一只猫了。

    Thinking such thoughts Jackson Lamb reaches blindly out for something, probably his cigarettes, and when his questing hands come up empty, resorts to opening his eyes. And there in front of him—snout quivering, whiskers a-tremble—sits a mouse. For a moment Lamb has the uncomfortable sensation that this mouse is staring into a past he has tried to bury, or peering into a future he’d sooner forget. And then he blinks,and the mouse is nowhere, if it was ever there at all. “What this place needs is a cat,” grumbles Lamb, but there’s no one there to hear him.

    18.剧集最后Min的葬礼,在书里没有,我觉得这段剧集改编得很棒。

    总的来说感觉Slough House跟以前读过的间谍故事都不一样,破屋对于间谍小说,就像堂吉诃德对于骑士小说,重点是还很搞笑。好啦,等剧集第三季出来之后再对比一下第三本~


    附:

  3. 在我们印象中,间谍这份工作薪酬很高,除了固薪以外,他们似乎有无限额度可以报销:出门必有豪车或飞机,时刻配备最先进的精密武器,随时给美女送钻石,当然他们也可以随随便便撞毁豪车和飞机,随随便便扔掉精密武器,随随便便杀掉美女。他们还有各种技能傍身、忠心可靠的同事们:IT必然可以黑进任何尖端系统,伙伴必然可以在你被敌人枪指的时刻找到并拯救你,上司把你当兄弟,组织把你当孤胆救星。

    多么美好。久而久之我们似乎都忘了,再风光的工作,它首先也是一份工作,它也有它的职场和规则,它也有活生生、充满人性弱点的领导与同事,无论你是总统内阁和车间流水工。slow horses打动我的是那份“真实”。

    一份工应该有男有女。

    伊森、伯恩、杰克,孤胆英雄们大多都是男性,而女性间谍大多以搞笑喜剧片的形式出现,再或者是男性视角影片里偶尔出现的配角,她们形象单一且程式化,美艳冷峻是首要,同时需要不输男性的打斗搏击技术,必杀技通常是利用女性优势,这是她们开展工作的第一步,即使影片不吝笔墨强调她们是如何与众不同、聪明机灵。现在你的脑海里是不是已经浮现出了一些婀娜的身影?

    slow horses里没有这样的身影,不仅没有,贯穿两季的Standish甚至是位上了年纪、头发花白满脸皱纹的女性;除了Standish,Louisa、Sid都是非传统意义上的女间谍形象:Louisa是位黑人女性,身材长相谈不上美艳(或者说影片无意强调她的外在形象),不擅社交,也就和同办公室的、性格黏糊软弱的男同事谈谈恋爱;Sid清纯可人,可是导演让她穿的和我们身边真实存在的女同事差不多,宽松的针织衫,普通的T恤,朴素的脸庞,我甚至没有认出她是《头号玩家》里的女主。

    不仅形象非传统,她们工作的方式也很“非传统”:第一季里的Standish通过一个技巧的电话,拿到了绑架团伙的车牌,让年轻傲慢的IT同事侧目;和老Lamb配合车里掏枪,抵着Duffy的脑袋成功逃脱;第二季被Krymov嘲笑是个办公室文员,却通过棋术获取有用情报。没有依靠女性优势,靠的都是勇气、胆识和多年的经验与智慧,换而言之靠的是头脑。

    一份工应该有日常的细节。

    间谍的日常工作不应该是天天追飞机、撞豪车的,他和我们任何一份普通的工作一样,都得从基础做起:盯梢、跟踪、翻垃圾、过滤监控,总要有足够大基数的人,广撒网去获取一手情报信息,才有关键时刻的追飞机撞豪车,而且不起眼的基础的跟踪、翻垃圾要做出成绩也需要训练和经验。

    办公室里有人领任务来分配,间谍的每项外勤任务也是要批预算、日常也要有人贴费用报销的。有人24小时待机,就有像slow horses一样朝九晚五的日常办公室。间谍会放屁,会蹩脚地用筷子吃便宜的路边中餐馆,会搞办公室恋爱,被上司看穿了后无情地嘲笑。

    我喜欢那些old school的细节,River跟极端分子记者,对方兜兜转转以为甩掉了他,镜头一转却是“我预判到了你的预判”;Min以卵击石般骑着单车追俄国人,没有给观众一个神奇特工的结果,而是符合常识的跟丢了;River兢兢业业地翻着垃圾,努力克制自己不要吐出来。平凡的事件之间就是生活本身。

    一份工应该有职场的生态。

    职场难免勾心斗角,间谍又怎可例外。大片里间谍们只需要做一些波澜起伏的大事儿,即使是官僚的上层通常也只存在于主人公的对话中,他们的唯一作用就是逼迫主角走上英雄的道路。

    但是在slow horses里,我们熟悉的那些普通职场在这里一样可以被找到:总部大概率是甩锅的,功劳要归自己,过失想尽办法丢给下属单位,预算总部要卡,可是对下级单位的指标要求毫不含糊;同事有像Ho那样嘴欠的,请他协助帮忙工作,他问你为啥要帮你呢我有啥好处;每个单位也都有像Min那样的老好人,看起来怯懦黏糊无功无过,甚至一生也没有任何壮阔的建树,只有不断的理由、借口和失误,每个人都不想成为他;如果能碰到一个像Standish那样的前辈,疏离淡薄,却是团队的主心骨,那将是每个人的幸事;如果不幸遇到Spider这种谄媚、自大虚荣的同事,恐怕每个人都躲避不及,轻则像River被陷害流放,重则如MI5遭遇业务重创。

    只是大概率我们碰不到像Lamb那样的老板了,即使你是loser,你也是他的loser,谁不希望有个毒舌可是会把下属名字想办法贴在功勋墙上的老板呢?他是业界传奇,行业翘楚,是你想跳槽都会被新东家打听的神秘大佬,对一个自己讨厌的人改观,这种转变后的情感是深刻难以磨灭的。只是太过个性的老板也不是每个员工可以承受的,这大概是间谍这个职业特殊的地方。

    所以,我们为什么喜欢slow horses?

    因为打这份工,真实。

  4. S2E6,兰姆和俄特工(名字太多了记不过来)办公桌前平静对话。毛?说:我就是要专业地吊打一下你和你的团队,兰姆放出了下面这句:

    一群slow horses,因为各种奇怪而羞耻的原因聚在slough house,被腻糊糊的狗爹(和他的口臭)统治着,每天疲于应对着作为特工:

    滞后的信息

    糟糕的工作环境

    被轻视的工作关系

    被拿来挡箭的部门职责

    被随时清扫的微弱地位

    被瞬间抹掉的性命和姓名

    然而却仍然笨拙而执着地从事着那些:

    危险的盯梢

    冒死的勘查

    疲劳的追捕

    徒劳的报警

    最终他们没有大获全胜,最终他们也没有拥有姓名。但谁还不是个slow horse呢?谁说slow horse can’t outrun呢?你看,我们这么努力,至少我们的humiliation也是professional级别的,是我们争取来的。

    以上