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stelly38 · 2 months ago

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I thought Cambridge Spies was *the* most British thing I’d ever seen, until I watched Maurice shortly after. I’m still on my Toby Stephens kick, which explains Cambridge Spies, and lord, is he pretty in it. But I also wanted to ogle the very young, stunningly beautiful Hugh Grant in Maurice, so I watched both.

I nursed a bit of a crush on Grant back in his Four Weddings days, around the same time as Maurice, but I’d honestly forgotten how incredibly, ethereally gorgeous he was, like some androgynous nymph out of a Waterhouse painting, smooth and luscious, too perfect to be real. For the record, I do love today's older, rougher Hugh, who has managed, over time, to turn ass-hole-ish curmudgeonliness into a charming brand all his own.

My overall impression of Merchant Ivory flicks is that they are much like paintings: pretty to look at, and if you stare long enough, something in your field of view eventually moves, but it takes, like, days. Days. I don’t know if my attention span has been worn down over the decades like everyone else’s, or if these movies need some tighter editing, but good lord, at two hours and twenty minutes, not much happens in Maurice. Or is it EM Forster? Maurice is a Forster adaptation; and similarly, so is A Room with a View, which also flows like molasses. I’ll never know if it’s the writing or the editing, because I’ve never read anything of Forster’s except for Room, which I attempted when I was a teenager and quit halfway through, because what in the fuck was he going onnnnn about? And I even had a better attention span back then, in the nineties. I said to my husband after Maurice ended, perhaps he and I needed a course on Forster to truly appreciate the literature and the movie adaptations. It’s unlikely to happen, but there it is.

Maurice follows the lead character, played by James Wilby, as he discovers and wrestles with his latent homosexuality. Hugh Grant plays Clive Durham, Maurice’s good school friend and first (unconsummated) love. The two men pal around London and the countryside as they age well into their twenties, spending time together and apart, both grappling with their sexual identities in different ways. The movie also casts a very cute Rupert Graves as Maurice’s first lover, and Ben Kingsley (with hair and a weird American accent—what a hoot) appears in a cameo as a shrink who attempts to hypnotize Maurice into heterosexuality.

My bitching isn’t a condemnation of Forster or Merchant Ivory; the film was a rather pretty little trifle to look at. I thought the story was good, and I love that a major film studio was tackling the horrors of being gay in Edwardian England so long ago (1987, when AIDS was still considered “the gay cancer.” —Hats off to them.) And I’m always game to watch pretty boys cavorting about. There was a good deal of that, one scene with full frontal nudity (gasp!)

Speaking of pretty boys, several feature in Cambridge Spies, which takes place about thirty years after Maurice, shortly before WWII. The prettiest of them is Toby Stephens, who is just dashing dressed in wide leg trousers, fedoras, and the well-tailored suits of the era. He plays Kim Philby, one of the notorious Soviet spies that comprised the group known in real life as the Cambridge Five. Rupert Penry Jones plays Donald Maclean; Samuel West is Anthony Blunt, and Tom Hollander is Guy Burgess. Since American public-school curriculum doesn’t teach any history but its own, (much of which is white-washed lies, but that’s a kvetch for another day), I never knew about the British turncoats until I watched this, which was last week. Yay for me.

Spies is a four-part miniseries, the last two episodes of which are far, far more entertaining and engaging than the first two. It’s good they decided to balance the episodes thusly, as I was ready to throw in the towel after the second one. The only reason I continued on was because I’d already invested time in watching the first 50 percent—in for a penny, in for a pound. I think the writers wanted the first two episodes for back-story and character development, but there is little that reveals the principals’ various motivations for spying other than that they were all friends at Cambridge, and they shared a deep hatred of fascism. Weird that that was all it took, right? I dunno, maybe I missed something—these were the two most boring episodes.

The entire series really belongs to Tom Hollander. He steals every scene he’s in; he has the best lines, the most cuttingly funny remarks, and he’s the craziest and loosest cannon of the bunch, hence, the most entertaining. Previously, I’d only known his work from 2005’s Pride and Prejudice (the boiled potatoes), and from his creepily-repressed turn as art critic John Ruskin in Desperate Romantics. He’s great and memorable in those, but he is phenomenal in Spies.

Hollander’s Burgess, as well as West’s Anthony Blunt, are gay men, compelling because they'd opted into an overwhelmingly straight-male power structure: espionage. Spies doesn’t really speak to this much, rather than to have Hollander portray Burgess as an out and proud gay man, I suppose as much as one could be on the brink of WWII in England. But it is striking to see the difference just three decades made in how gays were perceived by English society (or not) when you compare the attitudes on display in Maurice to those in Spies. Homosexuality was the worst sin one could commit in the world of Maurice; but by the time we get to Spies, it’s barely an issue. I suspect that homosexuality was still offensive to many in England at the time, as that country’s decriminalization law only took effect in 1967, but for some reason unknown to me, the writers and producers of Spies made it mostly a non-issue.

Overall, Spies was a good series, educational for me, at least, and I got to stare at Toby Stephens for four hours, including a couple safe-for-granny sex scenes. Would I write home about the show? —probably not, but it was not wasted time.

Tom Hollander’s best scene (and they’re all good) is a tantrum he throws during a trip to the States, where he drives across suburban lawns, destroying several white picket fences, then stands atop his car screaming “God Bless America” (in a good American accent), and decries this country’s never-acknowledged social and political hypocrisy.

Brilliant. And funny.

#period dramas #cambridge spies #maurice #toby stephens #tom hollander #hugh grant #wwII england #edwardian england #movie review #tv review

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thewomenofchicagopd · 2 years ago

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Ambushed- Kim Burgess

Pairing: Kim x Reader

Summary: Reader gets ambushed

Requested: Yes by @kloy344

Words: 2535

Warnings: guns, shooting, being ambushed, hospitals, lack of knowledge of medical things- I'm so sorry if anything is wrong, and please let me know if there are any other trigger warnings that I may have missed.

A/N: I am so so so sorry this took a lot longer than it was suppose to. I was in the process of moving and signing for my house and then I had plumbing issues that weren't getting resolved and now they finally are. Thank you for your patience, and I really really hope you like this! 💜

You slowly awoke from your slumber. Slightly turning and looking over your shoulder, you saw Kim still asleep. You gently peeled the cover off and quietly went to the bathroom to get ready for the day. When you returned, Kim sat in bed, scrolling through her phone. You made your way towards the bed and leaned over to kiss Kim.

"Good morning." You beamed.

"Well, good morning to you, too. You're in a good mood."

You laughed. "I'm always in a good mood."

Kim snorted, knowing you were never really a morning person.

"What?" You asked, sitting in front of her.

"You're very rarely a morning person." Kim chuckled.

"Well, I got to marry the love of my life yesterday. What's not to be happy about."

"True, very true," Kim said and leaned over to kiss you. "Alright, come on, let's get ready for the day."

Walking into work, you weaved your way around the sea of people trying to get to the locker room to change. You barely passed your Sergeant's desk when she called you over.

"Y/L/N."

You stopped in your tracks and turned around, making your way to the front of the desk.

"Yes, Sergeant."

"You're getting a new partner today." She said without looking up from her paperwork.

"What happened to Smith?"

"Apparently, he didn't like your attitude."

You sighed and rolled your eyes. "Sarge, how many partners am I going to go through before one just, I don't know, sticks around for more than one shift."

She looked up from her paperwork, cocking an eyebrow. "Well, if you'd quit running them off, I wouldn't have to go through all this trouble finding you one."

"Hey, I-"

"And there he is. Officer Mike Jefferson, this is your partner Y/N Y/L/N."

You turned and shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you, Mike."

"You as well. I've heard great things about you." He said with a smile.

"I'm sure you have."

There was an awkward moment of silence before you spoke up.

"Alright, well, I'm going to get changed, and then we can head out."

Walking out of the locker room, you finished strapping up your vest and headed towards the desk to grab the keys to a squad car.

"Be safe out there." Your Sergeant called out as you walked out the door.

Riding around with a new partner was always awkward as hell, and you were never really good at keeping a conversation going, but Mike definitely could. You discovered more about him in the last couple of hours than you thought you would.

"So, have you lived in Chicago all your life?" You asked.

"No, I'm actually from Michigan. My wife got a job opportunity here and couldn't pass it up."

"Oh, that's nice."

"Yea, so what about you?

"No, I moved up here from Springfield a couple of years ago."

"You married?"

"Yea, I, uh, I actually just got married yesterday."

"Oh wow, well, congratulations, that's exciting."

"It is." You said with a big smile. "Just don't say anything to anyone, please. You are literally the first person I've told."

He looked at you, a little confused. "Not even Sergeant Miller knows?"

"Nope. No one even knows I'm dating someone. We'd only been dating for six months when she proposed, and then a month later, we decided just to get married. We weren't necessarily trying to keep our relationship private, but we just kept putting it off on telling people." You babbled.

"That's cool. My wife and I sort of did the same thing. Everyone knew we were together, but we got married secretly, honestly the best decision of our lives." He laughed.

"You ready to stop for some lunch?"

"Heck yea."

You parked in front of your favorite lunch spot. The aroma of the food wafting through the air made you excited. You loved stopping by here. The owner was the sweetest lady and always sent you away with some extra for the road. Walking in, you were immediately greeted with a hug from Sonya, the owner.

"I missed you, sweetie. How have you been? How's Kim?"

"We're good. We actually just got married yesterday."

A happy gasp left her lips as she wrapped you in another hug. "Oh my gosh, I'm so happy for you two."

"Thank you, Sonya."

"And who is this handsome fella?" She turned her attention over to Mike.

"Hi, I'm Mike." He said, offering a handshake.

"Oh, please, no one shakes hands around here." She waved him off and hugged him.

"Alright, you two, go find a spot, and I'll be by to get your orders."

"Thank you, Sonya."

Finishing up lunch, you said your goodbyes to Sonya and headed back to the patrol car. Before getting in your patrol car, a young kid was coming up to y'all saying he needed help. Following him a little way down the alley, there were two other kids, both with wooden baseball bats in their hands. You stopped in your tracks and watched as the kid that asked for help take off further down the alley. Putting your hand on your gun, you firmly asked them to drop their weapons, but they didn't. You pulled your gun from your holster as they got closer to you, but as soon as you did that, a gun was pointed at your's and Mike's head.

"Guns on the ground, or we blow your brains out." One of the guys behind you said.

You held your hands up in surrender and slowly kneeled to place your gun on the ground. Looking over at Mike, you both had the same look. You lightly nodded your head, and both of you spun around and took both the gunmen out from under their feet; as soon as they were on the ground, the other two men came up to y'all and started beating you with the bats. Punches and kicks were being delivered to every part of you and Mike. The last thing you heard before you passed out was a gunshot.

Fifteen minutes later, the Intelligence unit was called to the crime scene. You and Mike had already been taken to MED before they showed up.

"What do we got?" Voight asked one of the officers that were on the scene.

"Guy called and said he was going to clean up his backyard when he saw two officers laying on the ground motionless. He said he didn't know how long they were laying there before he saw them."

"Do we know the officers' names?"

"No, their badges are missing, and we can't find their patrol car within a mile radius."

"Alright, thanks." Voight turned around to talk with the team. "I need everyone to go around and start asking questions. See if anyone saw anything."

"That was Will," Jay said, jogging up the stairs as he hung up the phone. "He said both officers are in surgery and will update us when he finds out more."

"Have we been able to identify who the officers were?" Kim asked.

"Not yet, their badges were taken, and we're still waiting for POD footage to come through."

"Speaking of footage, I just got it," Kevin said as he turned his computer around.

Everyone gathered around his computer, and he hit play. They all watched intently.

"Oh my god." Kim gasped as she finally recognized one of the patrol officers getting ambushed.

"What?" Adam asked, turning to look at her.

"I know that patrol officer." She said, sitting up a little straighter, disbelief taking over her body. Kim felt like she was ready to puke. She couldn't believe you were the one getting ambushed, and this is how she found out.

Everyone looked at Kim, confused.

"You know this officer? How?" Voight asked.

"That's my wife,"

"Then who's the guy?" Jay asked.

"I don't know. She must have gotten a new partner." Kim replied as she went and grabbed her coat.

Before she could leave, Voight stopped her. "Whoa. Hey, Kim. Where are you going?"

"Sarge, get out of my way. I need to get to the hospital."

"Kim, I get it. But you won't be able to do anything there. You heard Jay. They're both in surgery, and who knows how long it could be before they're out."

Kim contemplated. She knew she couldn't do anything up at the hospital but wait, and here, she could at least figure out who hurt you. She threw her coat back onto her desk and continued watching the footage. Towards the end, they saw one of the guys pull the trigger and shoot you and Mike. Kim jumped when she heard the guns go off.

After watching the footage, Adam and Kim went to meet with one of Adam's CIs. On the drive there, Adam could tell Kim was thinking about you. Her leg was shaking, and she kept picking at the skin around her nails. He didn't know what to do except ask about Kim's relationship, trying to make her think of the happy times instead of you being in the hospital.

"Why did y'all decide to get married on a random ass Tuesday?"

"I don't know, Adam." Kim sighed. "We just did. I asked her to marry me about a month ago, and we were tired of planning and decided to get married."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"About?" Kim asked, confused.

"About your relationship." He laughed.

"We wanted to keep it private for a little while, and then we just got so used to being private we just never brought it up about going public."

"Well, then how about when Y/N gets out of the hospital and has had time to recover, we throw you a wedding party at Molly's?"

"Yea sounds like fun." Kim smiled sadly.

After they met with Adam's CI, they headed back to the district.

"Alright, my CI said he heard these two," Adam started as he pointed at the pictures of two men on the board. "Brothers, Mateo Garcia and Andres Garcia talking about roughing up some cops for 'fun.' Sarge, these two have a hefty rap sheet. Aggravated assault, battery, domestic violence, you name it."

"Do we have an LKA for these two?" Voight asked.

"Working on it," Hailey called out. "3319 S. Lowe Avenue."

"Suit up, let's go."

"Sarge, hang on a sec," Jay called out.

Everyone stopped and turned to look at Jay. He was on the phone. Kim's stomach tied up in knots. She hoped and prayed that Will was calling to give some good news.

"Alright, thanks, Will. Uh, so Mike seems to be doing good. Will said he's not out of the woods just yet, but they're hopeful."

"And Y/N?" Kim asked.

Jay paused for a moment, and Kim knew his silence wasn't good news. "Kim, I-I'm sorry. They don't expect Y/N to make it."

Kim didn't know what to do or say in that moment. Before she could drop to the floor, Kevin reached out and grabbed her. She sobbed in his arms. Everyone around her felt hopeless, as they didn't know what to do or say in that moment. She faintly heard Voight tell everyone to gear up and have Kevin take you to MED.

A week later and you were still in the hospital. The doctors had decided to put you in a medically induced coma to help some of the swelling in your brain go down. Kim lost count of all the testing and the surgeries you've had. Luckily you had only flat-lined once, but Kim dreaded it every day, scared you'd flat-line again and never come back. The unit went by every day, checking in on Kim and giving her a break so she could get food or go home and shower. She was thankful for the friends she had.

Kim slowly started nodding off. She laid her head onto your bed, sleep quickly taking over her body. She hadn't slept much in the last couple of days, and it was finally catching up. She would catch little naps here and there when doctors and nurses were out of the room and hadn't had a full night's rest.

A couple of hours later, you started slowly started to wake up. The bright lights are the first thing you see. You blinked, trying to remove the sleep from your eyes. When your eyes finally adjusted, you looked over to see Kim peacefully sleeping. You softly smiled and carefully placed your hand on her arm, just light enough to touch her but not wake her. Will walked into the room and was happy to see you awake. You put your finger to your lips, letting him know to be quiet.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" He asked quietly.

"I feel like I got hit by a train." you laughed weakly. "Could I get some water, please?"

He reached over and grabbed the cup of water, helping you get a drink.

"Are you feeling ok? Any pain?"

"Yea, a little bit of pain and some soreness, but other than that, I'm good."

You felt Kim stir beside you. She looked up to see Will in your room, and concern grew on your face.

"I-is everything ok?" She hesitantly asked.

Will nodded. "Everything's ok. I'm sure someone would like to talk with you, though." Will smiled.

Kim looked at him, confused. He pointed a finger at you, and she turned her head to look. A look of surprise on her face when she saw your eyes open for the first time in a week. She quickly got up and carefully hugged you.

"Oh my god, you're awake." She whispered.

She sat down and grabbed your hand, still shocked that you were finally awake.

"I'll come back later and let you two catch up."

"Thanks, Will." You both said.

"How are you feeling?" She asked.

"I'm ok. Just a little sore." You smiled then it dawned on you; your partner, Mike. "Oh my gosh, Mike. How is he?" You panicked as you felt bad for not even thinking about him until now.

"Good, he's good," Kim assured you. "He's got a broken rib, some cuts, and bruises, but besides that, he's good."

A sigh of relief escaped your lips. "And what about the people who attacked us?"

"We got 'em."

"Do you know why they did this to us?"

Before Kim could answer you, Mike and the Intelligence team walked in.

"There she is!" Mike excitedly yelled.

"Hey! How are you?"

"Good, good. Glad to finally see you're awake. Had us all worried there for a while."

"Had to keep you on your toes and make sure you were gone stick around and be my partner." You laughed

"Well, I'm happy to say I will be your partner." Mike smiled.

The rest of the day was spent with everyone getting to know each other. You couldn't have been happier to meet Kim's work family. And, of course, you were both drilled about how you met, your marriage, and how upset everyone was about not getting to be a part of your ceremony, all in good fun, though. You couldn't have asked for a better way to end the day after a terrible week.

#kim burgess #kim burgess imagines #kim burgess imagine #kim burgess smut #kim burgess x reader #chicago pd imagines #chicago pd #one chicago imagine #chicago pd imagine #one chicago #one chicago imagines #kim burgess edit

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