The show has just been renewed for a second season.
The Agency, a very addictive new spy thriller series starring Michael Fassbender, is now available to stream via Paramount+.
A remake of France’s The Bureau – widely considered one of the country’s best ever shows – the English-language version sees the Irish Oscar-nominee play Martian – a covert CIA agent.
After six years undercover in Ethiopia, he is suddenly ordered to abandon his work and return to the agency’s London base of operations.
While his superiors (played by Jeffrey Wright and Richard Gere) tell him to sever all ties he had in Ethiopia, Martian breaches protocol when the woman (Jodie Turner-Smith) whom he met and fell in love with in the African country shows up in London.
Amidst all this, Martian is also tasked with preparing a younger agent (Saura Lightfoot-Leon) for undercover work.
All the while the disappearance of a CIA agent in Belarus may compromise a top-secret operation the agency is running in Ukraine.
Having watched four of its ten episodes so far, we here at JOE are comfortable in stating that shows rarely come as packed with talent, both on-camera and off, as The Agency.
Not only is it partly directed by Joe Wright (Atonement, Hanna) and produced by George Clooney, its cast also includes such recognisable faces as Adam Nagaitis, Dominic West, Edward Holcroft, Harriet Sansom Harris, John Magaro, Katherine Waterston and Tom Vaughn-Lawlor.
And while the series starts slow, Fassbender’s commanding portrait of a man unable to leave his undercover persona behind, torn between love and his dedication to his work sucks viewers in.
This is alongside Wright’s stylish direction – where characters are often seen obscured or in reflective surfaces, metaphorically signalling their struggles with notions of identity – and creators Jez and John-Henry Butterworth’s enigmatic, darkly funny script.
You can read a sample of some of the other glowing reviews for The Agency right here:
Chicago Tribune: “I like what I’ve seen so far, with its world of operatives and handlers, of covert glances and back-channel subterfuge, laid out with a seductive urgency that gives a deceptively graceful quality to all this unseemly work.”
IndieWire: “You may have heard this tune before, but if a song has a strong melody, it’s typically worth hearing again. Here’s hoping this one plays well to the end.”
New York Times: “On the whole, it’s all very slick and overtly, pleasingly fancy-schmancy. The show’s reflective-surfaces budget alone puts some national G.D.P.s to shame.”
The Nightly (AU): “It’s a slick and disciplined spy thriller with high-end production values and, so far, a worthy follow to Eric Rochant’s French series.”
RogerEbert.com: “Some may consider The Agency overly familiar. But we haven’t seen one that balances the complexity of the world of espionage with the humanity of the people who hold it together in quite some time.
The Agency is proving to be hit for Paramount+, having already earned an early season two renewal.
Its first two episodes are available to watch on the streaming service now, with the rest of its 10-episode first season releasing weekly on Mondays.
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