Spooks / MI-5

[Entsuropi]

Has anyone seen this show? It's about the British counter-intelligence agency, and it's in it's second season now. I'm curious to see if it's worth investigating.

[stacer]

I love that show. It's only in its second season? It was playing when I was in Scotland back in fall of 2002. Or was that a different version of it, the way we have several different Law and Orders? At any rate, I've found it once or twice over here, but the PBS stations keep changing its schedule. So I suppose I'll have to wait till it comes out on DVD. As far as the one I saw, if you like 24 or Alias, it's roughly the same kind of thing.

[Spriggan]

This was on TV over here about 2 years ago and had gotten good reveiws, problem was the show was on A&E which no one watchs except NPR fans.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

what's wrong with NPR?

[Spriggan]

nothing if you like talk radio that makes you feel like you're on rittalin.

[stacer]

Ah, that's why I can't find it. They shut off our A&E back when they got rid of TNT and TBS, etc. (We, along with about 50,000 other Comcast customers, were getting channels that weren't included in the basic package. They hooked us then tried to get us to pay for them. No way I'm spending more than I am now on cable--it's only $10 a month, which is then split four ways in my apt.)

[Spriggan]

ya, but it hasn't been on tv for 2 years so I doubt it was even on when you were looking.

[stacer]

Too bad. It was a good show.

[Entsuropi]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/spooks/

Turns out it's gonna be in it's 4th season soon. And DVD's for stacer:

Season 1
Season 2

Someone really needs to tell them that MI5 doesn't include a dash.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

you do realize that Ritalin is a stimulant, don't you Sprig?

[Skar]

This reminds me of a question I once had about Ritalin.  Perhaps one of you could answer.

Fact: Ritalin is prescribed to ADD/hyperactive kids, with the stated purpose of calming them down.

Fact: I was once diagnosed with narcolepsy (long story) and the doc prescribed Ritalin.  The one time I took it, it drove me into an intensely focused state (focused on one thing and one thing only, a certain passage of scripture) for three hours.

So, it's prescribed to kids to calm them down, it was prescribed to me in order to help keep me awake, the two things seem to be contradictory.

Question: WTH?

[stacer]

The idea is to so overstimulate them that they completely tire out, calming them down. Or overfocus, like your experience. At least, that's my understanding of it.

As for the DVD link, thanks, Ent!

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

no, it's not expected to tire them out, at least, not in my understanding. it gives them the energy they need to work on one thing. Often the attention focus is due to lack of energy to stay focussed. they don't have the mental alertness for it. So they bounce around.

Ritalin is now prescribed less and less. There are better drugs and therapies for ADD/ADHD.

[Skar]

Thanks.

[Jelly_Belly]

My husband has ADD so I have some experience with this. What happens is there is not enough of a chemical in the brain and the body is trying to produce the chemical by moving around (which can cause shaking or just activity and keeps the person from being able to concentrate). When a stimulant is given to this person, they don't need to be moving around and shaking etc because they have it and don't need any more and so the person is able to calm down, sit still, and concentrate. I am not sure exactly how it effect hyper-activity because my husband only has the attention deficit part, but that is how it effects him. He doesn't take Ritalin, but the stimulant he does take really helps him out a lot.