Archive for category: Spies and Spying

Genre: Spy Thriller

Platform: Jio Hotstar

Time: 10 episodes x average 50 minutes

Cast:    Michael Fassbender (Martian). Jeffrey Wright (Henry Ogletree). Katherine Waterston (Naomi). Harriet Sansom Harris (Dr. Blake). Saura Lightfoot-Leon (Daniela aka Danny). Jodie Turner-Smith (Samia Zahir). Richard Gere (Bosko, Head of London Station). India Fowler (Poppy).Hugh Bonneville (James Richardson).

 

Plot:  Martian is under suspicion for multiple reasons – his continued interest in retrieving Samia Zahir from Sudan, his supposed liaison contacts with MI6 officer Richardson, his plans to turn a vicious mercenary using an untested back office analyst. All these and more come to Henry’s attention starting an internal mole hunt. Danny is getting closer to the higher echelons of power in Iran, in their nuclear program. Various strands are in the air…

As mentioned in season 1, The Agency is an American remake of the French 4 season TV Series The Bureau where the acting was so good that one had to remind oneself that these are NOT INTELLIGENCE AGENTS BUT PROFESSIONAL ACTORS . It’s a very tall act to follow and Season 1 of The Agency did it very well.

Season 2 is – ahem – a tough one and it is easy to see why. The over clever plotting is perhaps the main culprit as too many things are happening. The internal leaks, Martian’s suspicious behaviour, Henry’s suspicions – all these and more, take up more of the time and could have been easily reduced from 10 episodes to about 8 or so . Samia’s imprisonment stretches longer than the original one in Syria and so that too drags. It’s the Iranian scenes with Danny that come through very well – the abject terror that a NOC has to and MUST go through is shown well in the Iranian scenes. That Danny is addicted to danger is something that Martian identifies and keeps her in place , despite everyone telling him to pull her back for her own safety and so the consequences are but natural. There are couple of surprises that one doesnt see coming at all (at least I didnt) which is somewhat different from the original.

The middle of the season drags very much due to Henry’s molehunt and the resultant surprises are somewhat different than the French serial.  The ISIS terrorist who is targeted by French intelligence is replaced by an American ex Marine working with a Russian mercenary group controlling diamond and other rare earth mines in Central African Republic but the end results are the same and  these scenes work amazingly well . Thanks to the “Russians” and “Islamic Terrorists” there are many acts of (off screen) brutality which thankfully are in our imagination. The geopolitics is also spot on with all the major new players in the play – China, Russia, Iran and the British. As befitting any “American” TV series with more budget, the look is very stylish and high end compared with the somewhat sparse French looks.

In short the series starts well, lags in between but reaches a fitting and superb climax, with the end guaranteeing a Season 3 and 4. Despite that middle segment dragging, the series is STILL ONE OF THE BEST that shows intelligence work mainly being collating facts from various sources and analysis the final result – with the odd gunplay here and there :) .

Despite all these limitations, it is still an engrossing watch.

Script – 4 out of 5

Story – 4 out of 5

Direction – 4 out of 5

Photography – 4 out of 5

 Total – 4 out of 5