3 out of 5

Created by: Jez and John-Henry Butterworth

covers season 1

Sometimes I watch shows and walk away with a mixed feeling, then read some positive reviews and wonder: am I being too critical? Maybe I’ve “forgotten” how to watch TV? Of course, my take is my take, but when I’m unable to exactly counter others’ praises, it leads me down this unconfident, questioning route.

But then I watch some others shows I actively enjoy and I remember: my opinions are just fine. The Agency is an okay show.

While I have not yet watched the French source of this series, Le Bureau des Légendes, there’s a comparative detail that automatically set an eye-rolling precedent for me: the codename of our lead. In Le Bureau, our returned-from-the-cold spy has the codename “malotru,” which wiki translates as “lout” and google as “boor,” but you kinda get the gist. Wiki further mentions that Bureau’s codenames are often sourced from a character in Tintin, which is all too fitting. In the American take on this show, Michael Fassbender’s Brandon Colby has the codename “martian.” I mean, maybe there was some attempted sibilance there, but given Fassbender’s commitment to presenting Colby as practically personality-less in his non-undercover guise – a behavior we might consider ‘alien’ amongst other touchy-feely humans – this felt way too on the nose. Which felt pretty American. Which I guess is also fitting. But combined with some really canned “this is serious spycraft” dialogue in the first episode, and a Jack White intro song, I was having a tough time escaping a forming judgment that the show was going to be a lot of to-do about a lot of nothing.

I was wrong about this, but not necessarily – from my “just fine” opinion-informed POV – about the way creators / writers Jez and John-Henry Butterworth and their circle of directors brought the story to screen, layering things in a fashion so as to suggest complexity when it simply wasn’t otherwise there. Interestingly, the bits that did have inherent complexity – the backroom / international politics informing the spycraft – were very well handled, and pretty gripping. And then I understand some hows and why of this coming together, as it does overlap with character arcs, but nonetheless: this felt like a lot of forced mysteriousness in order to add artificial puzzle-boxness to things, and it really wasn’t needed. Perhaps this was part of the French series as well (much of the takes have suggested many scenes are word-for-word, albeit translated, of course), but I have recent examples of shows telling overlapping interconnected stories more clearly and compellingly, as well as political shows that play their cards but still keep you edge-of-your-seat; all to suggest that The Agency definitely has solid footing, and I am mainly criticizing its presentation.

CIA guy Colby (Fassbender) is back from assignment in Africa to London Station, called in rather suddenly and so reporting to his handler, Naomi (Katherine Waterston), about how he parted ways with his cover’s girlfriend, Samia (Jodie Turner-Smith), admitting that there were some real feelings there, but the job is the priority. At the time of his reintegration into on-site agency work, another operative – Coyote – has gone missing, requiring a sticky step-by-step run of investigations and negotiations to suss out their location and, if need be, rescue. Also happening: new agent Danny (Saura Lightfoot-Leon) is getting prepped to go undercover as a student, and score a trip to Tehran with a teacher. We cycle between these latter two stories when Colby runs into – by accident? – Samia, who is in London on a teaching gig.

Due to the way the narrative is cut and the storylines intercut, there’s some internal op going on in Colby’s mind as he tries to maintain / continue his relationship with Samia – i.e. was this the plan all along? – playing up his questionable allegiances to the audience. But the downside of this is that it pushes the character beyond being a cypher to being… somewhat uninteresting. There are intended to be some “cool” spy moments where Colby outwits his minders to nab some private time with Sami, but these are followed by equally kinda dumbheaded blunders. Instead of humanizing him, or underlining the precariousness of the whole spy shindig, due to Fassbender’s muted performance, it makes these interactions feel somewhat plodding – the whole storyline is without passion, when passion is, presumably the motivation. Later, this has some payoff as we see this purposeful facade get tested, but this was also clearly a touchy point in the script, as Colby’s daughter (India Fowler) is introduced in order to give the character further ingratiation opportunities. Again, though, it falls flat – it only takes us away from what feels more relevant and interesting.

Eventually these plotlines mingle (er, some of them); the success of this mingling is mainly in the 10-episode season’s last third or so. The first third holds attention out of curiosity – trying to feel out what the show’s focus is, and then accepting that it’s mainly a character study, peering in way from the outside; the middle third is a pretty solid putting-the-pieces-together of the Coyote situation.

At points I was reminded of Sandbaggers, with Station Chief Bradley and Deputy Station Chief Ogletree given immense weight by Richard Gere and Jeffrey Wright, respectively, and adding some talking-heads flair to conference room hagglings with Colby and other operatives, but once we moved out of those spaces, the similarities faded – like the show’s runners (whether owing to the French source or US TV sensibilities) not fully willing to commit to that framing, and trying to drum up more direct intrigue elsewhere. Danny’s part of the story kind of wholly represents this polarity: she’s an interesting character; her gambit is interesting; only haltingly develop that character; and don’t really justify why her story matters.

The streaming / modern era of TV has moved past the broadcast era 22-30 episode seasons which required filler, and the 13-episode early streaming era mandates which made for lots of bloat in binge-intended shows, but we’re still getting stuff that feels like it could work better as a film. At the same time, I can see how The Agency’s attempts at slowburn will pay off – they partially do, with the season enders being pretty successful all around – so I kinda hope for a new model where some shows can do a Columbo movie-every-other-month type thing, where we have enough room to stretch out, but some limitations to zero in on what’s actually needed to tell the story.