Back in the day, I remember there being a lot of A-list actors who wouldn’t be caught dead doing television unless their careers were waning. For the most part, you had your TV actors, then you had your movie stars, and if you wanted to see the latter do their stuff, you had to pay for it.
And in a way, you still do, with scores of famous faces typically associated with the big screen popping up in their own TV series, the big difference being that few of them are served up for free. Seeing the likes of Harrison Ford doing turns on 1923 or Shrinking is gonna cost you a streaming subscription for the privilege.
A show like The Agency requires even more. It’s not enough to simply have Paramount+. You have to upgrade your subscription to include Showtime. Is the show worth the extra effort (and money) just to enjoy this impressive cast led by Michael Fassbender, Richard Gere, Jodie Turner-Smith and the always awesome Jeffrey Wright? Probably not, because there are times when these 10 episodes throw so much plot at you - without providing a hell of a lot of clarity - that waiting a whole week for the next installment runs the risk of having you play catch-up for half the episode.
But being able to binge it all on DVD helps, not only because the multiple plot threads remain fresh in our minds, but the show maintains the urgent tone necessary to be just compelling enough to keep the viewer charging forward. And trust me, both are important because, storywise, The Agency is all over the place and doesn’t always seem concerned whether or not we can easily follow along. In a nutshell, the series is about the London branch of the CIA and the current three crises it’s facing. The first, about the sudden disappearance of an undercover operative known as “Coyote,” is the most compelling. The hows, whys and what’s at stake eventually turn his rescue into a race against time.
 |
| "You need to leave. You're scaring away the pigeons." |
Most of these characters are pretty ruthless when it comes to their jobs, essentially forsaking personal lives and humanity for the sake of something larger at stake. A lot of the time, none of the main characters really even trust each other, which leads to the one thing The Agency does very well: It makes working for the CIA look like a terrible occupation, living in a near-constant state of stress, paranoia and fear.
Even though the viewer might need a flow chart to keep track of every character and story development, The Agency lends itself fairly well to binge watching. While a few plot threads are left open-ended, the Season One does sort of conclude with a sense of closure, making this DVD set an enjoyable evening-or-two of espionage without having to upgrade a subscription.
No comments:
Post a Comment