TV Scoop named Spooks series seven as the best television show of 2008 out of 50 programmes. Gimmers felt the seventh series performed better than the previous, as it "lost its way slightly" with the concentration of Islamic extremists. The seventh series however, was praised for bringing back the more traditional enemy, the Russians. With the introduction of Lucas North, Gimmers stated "the possibilities for double-blinding the audience were legion and every single one was exploited to the max". Gimmers also cited the more "pacy" plots due to a shorter series as another factor of the series's success, and also said "the only problem with having a series as good as this in the bag is how they will match it next year?". David Blackwell of Enterline Media said that the series's storylines "have a grain of truth reflecting today's climate" and also "more deeply rooted in gritty realism and preying on the real dangers that terrorists and other countries pose to the UK". Blackwell also posed the storylines also "keeps the characters human and show what they go through" and reacted positively towards Lucas's introduction, stating "I like Lucas North better than Adam Carter or Tom Quinn. His dark and conflicted persona adds to the story and makes him a more interesting character than Adam or Tom ever were". Blackwell summed up the series as "as great as the first six seasons. The show maintains a high standard of quality". Following the end of the eighth series, Last Broadcast held a poll for the top five most shocking death scenes in Spooks. Two of them were deaths from the seventh series. Adam Carter's death was voted the fourth most shocking, while Ben Kaplan's death was voted third. Connie's death however, was not listed. The featuring of an actual waterboarding scene drew criticism from Guardian columnist Zoe Williams, who wrote "it's really unpleasant, [Armitage] concurred. 'I only lasted five to 10 seconds, and the sound of my voice crying out to stop isn't me acting.' Pal, that's nice that you're not showing off but this is all wrong and despicable: it's like locking yourself and 10 friends into a loo on a commuter train, to see what it would be like on the train to Auschwitz. If you can make it stop whenever you like, you're learning nothing and kicking people in the face while you're at it". Award nomination