The complex plot of the ‘Pegasus case’, about which, in addition, there is so much left to tell (almost everything), would perhaps give for a series of several seasons; It also remains to be seen whether in the form of a political sitcom in the style of ‘Veep’ or a dry journalistic drama in the vein of David Simon. Meanwhile we can immerse ourselves in a dozen espionage series, sometimes technological, sometimes with Israeli connections, always available to watch on streaming.
1. ‘Last notice’ (2007-2013)
It’s not technically a series about spies, but about a former spy: we meet Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) when he is relegated from his duties as a CIA man and stripped of all credit, dignity and identity. While he investigates who ‘burned’ him and why, he goes on missions on his behalf in his native Miami. The series is as distracting as it is educational: Westen often goes on camera to explain what the spy job is, his gear, his tactics. matt nix created here the missing link between ‘The Rockford Cases’, with James Garner as a private detective in Malibu, and ‘MacGyver’. Available on Disney+.
2. ‘Homeland’ (2011-2020)
Granted, it should always have ended with its first season, with which it became a critical and popular favorite thanks to its skillful mix of political conspiracy thriller and (damn) romantic drama. Former prisoner of war Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) had to detonate his vest-bomb and, with it, any possibility of a future alongside CIA agent Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes). But in the rest of the seasons there were still flashes of emotional authenticity; that is, it stayed Mandy Patinkin Like Saul Berenson, the former CIA Middle East division chief. Available on Disney+.
3. ‘The Americans’ (2013-2018)
matthew rhys Y Keri Russell shone here as Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, a Russian spy couple on American soil in the 1980s. This wasn’t just espionage, but also the secrets (of all kinds) we keep and how they affect our relationships: marital drama in disguise dramatic thriller and vice versa. Its success (above all, critical) should have encouraged the adaptation of the Israeli ‘Ta gordin’ in the short-lived ‘Allegiance’, about a CIA analyst (Gavin Stenhouse) who discovers that his parents were spies for Russia and have been recruited again for a terrorist mission on American soil. Available on Disney+.
4. ‘Office Insiders’ (2015-2020)
Behind this magnificent series we find Eric Rochent, director/screenwriter of a film to claim and recover, ‘The Patriots’ (that some platform decides to buy rights), inspired by two real operations of the Israeli intelligence service. The titular office is the department of the French General Directorate of Foreign Security (DGSE) in charge of the training and control of all undercover French espionage agents throughout the world. Starring and, at times, directed by an intense Matthieu Kassovitz, in its final stretch it had the filmmaker Jacques Audiard (‘A Prophet’) as master of ceremonies. Available on Movistar Plus+.
5. ‘Patriot’ (2015-2018)
To prevent Iran from nuclear arming, secret agent John Tavner (michael dorman) must infiltrate, with very limited government protection, a Milwaukee industrial pipe company. It seems like an almost normal premise, but Tavner is a singular hero: he records folk music under a pseudonym because it helps with his feelings, but lately they’re becoming more candid and revealing than his bosses would like. In the series they sing, say and do ridiculous things with the most serious attitude, which is enormously funny. His first theme song is, of course, folk: Vashti Bunyan’s ‘Train song’! Available on Prime Video.
6. ‘The girl with the drum’ (2018)
After the success of ‘The Night Manager’, Simon and Stephen Cornwell, sons of John le Carre, they returned to produce a great miniseries from a classic of the father. It is not the first adaptation of the 1983 book: only a year after its publication came the film with Diane Keaton. Here it is Florence Pugh (heroine of ‘Midsommar’; Yelena Belova for MCU devotees) who plays Charlie, the actress convinced by two Mossad agents (Michael Shannon and Alexander Skarsgård) to infiltrate a Palestinian terrorist group that plans to attack in Europe. directs Park Chan-wookthe South Korean master of ‘The handmaiden’. Available on HBO Max and Movistar Plus+.
7. ‘Deep State’ (2018)
In this kind of crossover of the ‘Revenge’ saga with ‘Homeland’, Max Easton (Mark Strong), a former MI6 spy, returns to work to basically avenge the death of his son Harry (Joe Dempsie), but ends up involved in a wide-ranging conspiracy seeking profit in the chaos of the Middle East and implicating the CIA and MI6. One day we will value in its fair measure the acting solemnity of Strong, always tinged with a not inconsiderable contained emotion. Other hooks of the series are its variety of locations or the tense direction of Robert Connolly, some years before the celebrated ‘Years of drought’. Available on Disney+.
8. ‘The Spy’ (2019)
Sasha Baron Cohen (alias Borat, Brüno, etc.) put aside his most comic facet to embody the famous spy of Egyptian origin Eli Cohen, recruited in the early sixties by the Mossad to train as an agent, infiltrate the Syrian government and provide valuable information . The miniseries was created, written and directed by Gideon Raff, an expert in espionage matters: he had previously been in charge of “Hatufim & rdquor ;, the Israeli series that gave rise to ‘Homeland’. In ‘The Spy’ we don’t see the same technology as in that one: in these times, microphotographs could cross borders in export vases. Available on Netflix.
9. ‘Tehran’ (2020-)
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The first result of the long-term agreement between Apple and the Israeli Moshe Zonder, head writer of ‘Fauda’, has been this great espionage thriller, full of tension and good plot twists. Good bet: The series made history last year by becoming the first Israeli series to win the International Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series. Also its protagonist, revelation niv sultan, was awarded (by the Israeli television academy) for her role as Tamar, a Mossad hacker who infiltrates her native Tehran as a flight attendant to help blow up the Iranian nuclear reactor. In the second season she joins Glenn Close like Dr. Marjan Montazeri, a psychoanalyst of British origin. Available on Apple TV+.
10. ‘Slow horses’ (2022-)
With the acclaimed Jackson Lamb series of books, writer Mick Herron gave British literary espionage a jolt of dirt and reality. The series lives up to its benchmark: a greasy Gary Oldman shines in it as the aforementioned Lamb, leader of a group of MI5 agents relegated to a decrepit purgatory where only dirty work is done, or rather, simply gray. The young River Cartwright (Jack Lowden, the pilot Collins of ‘Dunkirk’) will try to escape from all this by solving the kidnapping of a British-Asian university student by Sons Of Albion, a far-right extremist group. Available on Apple TV+.