In 'The Agency,' Spy Work Is Deadly... Deadly Dull

You have to hand it to The Agency. It must have taken a lot of effort to make a series starring Michael Fassbender, Jeffrey Wright, Jodie Turner-Smith, Richard Gere, and executive produced by George Clooney this boring.

Based on the French drama Le Bureau des Legendes, this ten-episode Showtime on Paramount+ series follows Martian (Fassbender), an undercover CIA agent who is unceremoniously and without warning ordered to leave his assignment in Ethiopia and return to London. His sudden departure means he must abruptly end his relationship with Samia (Turner-Smith), a Professor of Social Anthropology.

“I went for a spineless, dash of a pathetic, sprinkle of selfish,” he tells his handler Naomi (Katherine Waterson) of their breakup. “She got angry, yelled, the usual bullshit breakup scene, only a touch more brutal.”  Except we see a completely different scene than the one Martian is describing. Samia is melancholy but not angry. “It was dangerous. It was wrong. It had no future. But I wouldn’t have missed it for the world,” she says of their relationship. Samia is married, and it becomes increasingly clear that Martian cannot let on to anyone how deeply he still cares for Samia. Things become more complicated when she suddenly appears in London under the auspice of being a guest lecturer. Is she a professor, or has she been working with Martian, who she knows as Paul, as an asset? Or is something else entirely going on?

Once back in London, Martian is reunited with his CIA colleague Henry (Wright) and his perpetually cranky boss Bosko (Gere). He also sees his daughter Poppy (India Fowler). Martian’s life is a guarded one. He searches his apartment for bugs, speaks in stilted code to almost everyone he interacts with, and, no surprise, has a fractured relationship with Poppy. He describes his job to his daughter as making “acquaintances” to procure information. “So you left us for six years to make acquaintances,” she says. 

His undercover work has so psychologically damaged Martian he cannot even fully trust Poppy. “I’ve only been a dad as long as you’ve been a daughter. We are both making things up as we go along,” he tells her after they have one particularly intense interaction. 

Martian also has no idea why he’s been called back, and no one will tell him exactly what is happening. But he’s immediately thrust into a crisis in Belarus. “The Cold War is back. It’s chilly as fuck,” Henry tells him. He’s assigned to train a new agent, Daniela (Saura Lightfoot-Leon), who is being prepped to be sent to Iran; there’s also Coyote, a CIA informant in the Ukraine, who has gone missing. Did he plan his disappearance, or did something happen to him? Oh, and let’s not forget about CIA  therapist Dr. Rachel Blake (Harriet Sansom Harris), who shows up to evaluate everyone’s mental fitness.

If all this sounds confusing, it is. It’s almost as confusing as how The Agency is a Showtime show currently only available on Paramount+ “with a Showtime plan” (please, someone make it make sense). These are all characters trained not to give anything away; however, somewhere along the way, executive producer Joe Wright, who directed the first two episodes, decided that perhaps viewers should be kept in the dark, too. That sometimes can work for a series; who doesn’t love political intrigue? Netflix’s The Diplomat is an excellent example of a show that kept viewers guessing until the second season’s final moments. 

However, that strategy doesn’t work when the action plods along at an excruciating pace. Fassbender’s delivery is deadpan and often emotionless, which fits for a character who has spent years pretending to be someone he is not, but again, does not work for trying to engage the viewer. The moody music and the long lingering shots of things like a sink drain make the series overly dramatic. Frankly, there are just too many TV series on right now (and always!) for Showtime to think they can try viewers’ patience like this. If a show doesn’t grab your attention in the first, let’s say, 15 minutes, you will most likely move on. 

Daniela is one of the more engaging characters. Perhaps because she is so new to the CIA, she’s not as practiced keeping her emotions close to the vest. Her assignment is to get hired as a research assistant in Iran. “How do I get a research job at the Institute of Geophysics,” she wonders. “That’s your problem,” Naomi replies. Her storyline is charged with intrigue that is so much more engaging than the rest of the series. I would rather watch a whole show about her. 

The Agency’s first two episodes are currently streaming on Paramount+ (with Showtime). The series will stream one episode a week through the end of January 2025.