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Rating:  - spycraft
The cold war streamlined the spy business in Europe. Before then you had at least half a dozen reasonably powerful European countries spying on their allies and enemies alike. The Soviets helped kick everything into high gear.
You'll find no secret weapons or high dollar crimes being narrowly thwarted by hero spies in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. There is very little screen violence at all. Most of the information these spies dig up seems trivial or inconsequential. Except when they are spying on each other, trying to figure out who is a spy. When they find him his motivations seem petty: he resented Britain being so reliant on American support during World War II.
Rating: - Still Mesmerizing
I was concerned this wouldn't hold up to my memories of it having first watched it as a teenager when it made a powerful impression on me. And it did seem a little slow moving at first and hard to follow as we spend a lot of time talking about characters who we don't see that much. However, when the series was over I could have happily watched it through again from the beginning -- it still works perfectly.
Sir Alec so embodies Smiley that he hardly needs to say anything to evoke the character completely. He's surrounded by an extraordinary cast without one misstep, though my favorites may be Joss Ackland and Ian Richardson.
One of the great literary adaptations.
Rating:  - Spy Mystery Fan
If you are a fan of spy mysteries, it doesn't get much better than this series.
Rating: - le Carre & Guiness at their peak
George Smiley comes out of retirement to catch a Soviet spy embedded in British Intelligence. Lots of twists & turns & betrayals. Lots of spies' tradecraft.
Alec Guiness plays Smiley. No - he BECOMES Smiley. In the book Smiley is a fat little man. So Alec Guiness, looking like Alec Guiness, becomes a fat little man. He's magic.
Rating: - Excellent
The sound quality is not as good as I would like. Otherwise, it is excellent.
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