Service: Paramount+
Season Year: 2026
Watch: Paramount+
Your milage may vary. I’m not sure this is exactly how this term works, but I think this show could either skew super-boring for some folks and a little over-the-top for others. Depending on your attachment and love for spy thrillers. Me? I’m not a spy thriller truther. Or even, really, a huge fan. I certainly watch my share of this genre, sure, including the first season of The Agency, but I do often find the programming too stilted or inside its own head. Overcomplicated for the sake of being overcomplicated. Overly serious or overly violent. And while I imagine the world of spycraft is deadly serious, I’m just not sure it’s so deadly. Plus, this is media, not real life, and I like at least a little bit of levity in my TV shows. Who knew that it would need to come from Richard Gere, though? Whom I suppose is pretty funny-ish in Pretty Woman, but is generally not the har-har guy.
My point is that The Agency has, at times, both too much serious and too much violence in equal measure. But, unlike some of its ilk, it does a decent job of explaining what’s going on without too many info dumps. Which keeps it from getting bogged down in boring stretches of men in rooms grinding out spy jargon. My bigger concern here is Martian. Martian being the codename (or whatever it’s called) of Michael Fassbender’s spy character. If you watched the first season of the show, you’ll know his character is a cunning and very buttoned-up CIA operative working out of the agency’s London office. He has one weakness, however. And her name is Dr. Samia Zahir (Jodie Turner-Smith). A woman with whom he had an affair (she’s married) when stationed as an undercover operative in Africa. He does what spies aren’t supposed to do and gets emotionally involved with a woman. For shame! Anyhow, he is otherwise really good at his job. A true pro. But this season that goes to absolute shit. The dude is sloppy and his lying seems to go to hell. He can’t do anything right and apparently has lost all his juice. He can still manipulate people, sure, but his subterfuge and double-dealing seems really obvious. And the issue is that I’m not sure that’s supposed to be the case and maybe it’s just a glitch in the writing?
Love makes you stupid. Maybe we can just chalk it up to that. But Martian has sold his soul and his country down the river. But somehow doesn’t see how his treachery will redound. Because, again, the dude is off his game. In fact, he kind of sucks now. He undermines his own mentee and case manager at the agency, Katherine Waterston, in order to take over control of field agent, Gremlin (Saura Lightfoot-Leon), to meet his own ends in a really, really obvious gambit to shield his double-agent status. It’s truly staggering how dumb this is. His planning is so short-sighted in order to save his lovely no-longer-girlfriend, that he even throws his greatest ally, mentor and best friend, Henry Ogletree (Jeffrey Wright), under the bus. And, look, I know Turner-Smith is incredibly attractive and they had a relationship in the past and he’s hoping to have one in the present if he can free her from her dangerous predicament, but to sell out his friends and country seems like a non-starter. And even more so when you consider how careless he is when going about it. Based on what we’ve seen of him, it just stretches credulity.
But, hey, I guess this is what builds drama. Take a straight arrow and make him crooked. Even if it requires a loyalty and personality transplant. Now, if this was the one and only plot line, I guess that would be what it is. But, no, we need this other thing where an American vet, nicknamed Viking (Clayne Crawford), is working for a private Russian mercenary group and has a penchant for smashing anyone’s head with a sledgehammer on a live camera feed who they deem an enemy. A guy who is clearly dangerous and powerful, so they send wimpy CIA office worker, Owen (John Magaro), on his first field op to get him? Because that makes sense? It does not. Are all these people just bad at their jobs now? Honestly, the CIA is apparently just a bunch of clowns in this iteration, constantly doing internal subterfuge in the clumsiest ways, and making decisions that defy logic. Maybe they’re just short on spy talent, what with the current administration? I don’t know. But all of a sudden they’re the Keystone Kops. The levels of competency and control are just lacking. Which, again, I understand builds drama, but feels a little too insular and out of order. And while it is funny to watch boss-man Gere’s exasperation with all of it — acting a bit like the audience avatar wondering why everything is going to shit — it doesn’t exactly excuse the fact this feels a little too much like a TV show engineering ludicrous collapse at various times just for the lols.
This all said, The Agency continues to be a well-made program. It looks good. The acting, with a couple exceptions, is top-notch. If you are into spy stories and don’t mind some hyperbole and a touch of dumb-shittery, this is probably one of the better ones around. It certainly doesn’t feel like some sort of fascist Taylor Sheridan or The Terminal List fever dream, and is way more neutral and measured in its US and global politics. You do have to follow a couple different storylines — one involving the exploitation of African communities, illegal diamond mining, Russian mercenaries and international gem markets — and wonder if, perhaps, these spies aren’t the best of us, but the balance of the character portrayals is there and the narratives compelling from one episode to the next. Even when these ice-cold pros are occasionally acting like flawed humans. And dummies.
MORE SEASONS OF THE AGENCY
