Two-time Academy Award nominee Michael Fassbender and silver screen legend Richard Gere headline George Clooney-executive produced spy drama The Agency, coming to M-Net from 20 April at 9pm. CIA officer ‘Martian’ (Fassbender) is ordered to abandon his undercover life and return to London Station. A past love unexpectedly reappears, putting his mission and his real identity against his heart, hurling them both into a deadly game of international intrigue and espionage.
Based on the critically-acclaimed French series Le Bureau des Légendes – hailed as one of the greatest spy TV series of all time by global critics, The Agency is adapted by brothers Jez (MobLand) and John-Henry Butterworth (Edge of Tomorrow). The series marks Fasssbender’s return to the small screen for the first time since 2008’s The Devil’s Mistress and bears more than a passing resemblance to another American adaptation of an international spy series, Claire Danes’ Emmy-winning Homeland.
The series stars several other heavy hitters, including Jeffrey Wright, fresh from an Oscar nomination for American Fiction, Jodie Turner-Smith (The Acolyte) and Katherine Waterstone (Fantastic Beasts).
Writing for Indiewire, Ben Travers calls The Agency “Stylish and solidly built… genre-fare elevated by its impressive cast and polished presentation”. He continues: “When we first meet Fassbender’s lead character, he’s being debriefed by Naomi (Katherine Waterston), his London-based handler, after a six-year mission in Eastern Africa. “How did it go?” Naomi says. “How do you think it went?” he replies, giving away Martian’s defining trait right off the bat: resentment. He resents the job, with all its secrets and lies, and he resents what it’s done to him — most recently, what it’s taken from him.” He’s been forced to leave behind the woman he considers to be the love of his life, Sami (Turner-Smit) – who, along with being an academic and advocate, may also be a spy.
Travers questions: “Might the Martian’s personal predicament be mixed up with his team’s professional plight? Could the agency be to blame for more than they’re willing to let on — more, even, than Martian already blames them for? Is there an even bigger twist looming in the 10-episode first season? Beyond these initially compelling yet hardly original mysteries, “The Agency’s” somewhat distinctive hook actually rests with Martian’s self-aware dissatisfaction. His job has already cost him six years away from his only daughter.
Presumably, it’s at least partially responsible for whatever fallout happened with her mother (who has yet to appear). And now it’s threatening to keep him from Sami, a woman he loves unreservedly. Even if they can find a way to be together, his persistent suspicions, brought on by a life where death could be lurking around every corner, may even spoil the love he once considered pure.”
The Agency premieres on M-Net on 20 April at 9pm, running for ten episodes – and will also be available on DStv Stream and Catch Up. For more, visit the M-Net Website and join the conversation on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
