Le Voile

Elisabeth Moss is a spy specialized in undercover work to extract information from unsuspecting (or are they suspecting this time) bad guys. She is somewhat of a wild card, go with the flow, doing things her way to get things done.

This time there is a potential ISIS terror thing that might happen and she is on the case working with the French and Americans befriending and helping a woman suspected to be ISIS.

Intriguing plot, good acting, some humor, some action, plenty of tension.

The intelligence people are competent, cunning and dangerous, it all seems very realistic and not romanticized like usual.

So much promise, so little delivered. It goes from difficult to follow to incomprehensible. If you are following it, then prepare to be disappointed because nothing much gets resolved. So you'll be left wishing for a slightly more conventional conclusion instead of one that makes you wish you hadn't spent 6 episodes getting to the messy end. It's ok not to resolve every thread and to not neatly wrap things up but we are after a story and entertainment so when you leave dissatisfied the work has failed. I don't want another season despite the fact that the main character was a good one. Complex and competent. That wasn't enough.

Led by Elizabeth Moss, this Homeland-esque production unfolds over the course of a road trip between two women adept at lying. Moss leads as an agent of Interpol on a roadtrip taking a suspected former Al-Qaeda across eastern Europe. Themes of humanity, sisterhood and ethics are constantly discussed between our two leads, but the series loses interst over its pacing and lack of plot or character development. Multiple conversations delve into our leads' lives, but with too much of a lying game at play between the characters, most of their conversations fall into foggy or confusing territories. Moss holds alright in a role a little more action-heavy than is believable for her as an actress, and the cinematography is beautiful. This is an ok show to fold laundry to.

I'll start by saying I think the majority of actors did the best with what they had, especially the guy who played the American CIA agent. His delivery was pretty good.

Elizabeth Moss was miscast though. The accent. Stupid almost manic grins and cheesy one liners and quips just felt cringe and awkward.

The story is just unbelievable and pointless. The 'terrorist plot' is brain dead and I struggle to believe they needed to get the 'Djinn' to devise it. It's not clever, complicated or intelligent.

The twist is not a twist thanks to the worst foreshadowing ever. The story just plays out by numbers.

The CIA and French intelligence being fooled not once but twice with a switch was ridiculous. Absolutely unbelievable. It really ruined the story... Although I don't think omitting those parts would have saved it either.

Also it dragged out for its 6 episodes. Could have been done in 4. The last episode is basically done at the halfway mark.

Direction was actually good. Locations and filming good. Acting mostly good (except for Moss) but man... The story is just rubbish. It's like it was generated by an AI.

A lot of money went into producing this series. Great locations and scenery, decent plot, good supporting cast. What's wrong you ask? It's Elisabeth Moss trying to play a seductive, athletic, super spy. She is not capable. Her action scenes: ridiculous. Her emotions: phony. Her seductiveness: zero. Her acting: forced. She just isn't cut out for a role like this and I think she knows it. At times, she actually appears embarrassed by herself. There's a scene in episode 3 where she's following her suspected terrorist onto a plane. Her facial expressions look like someone whose feet are on fire. There's a second scene where she has to lie her way out of a situation which, of course, she does. The problem is, no one in the world would have believed what she said and how she said it. It was bad script, poorly adapted. In conclusion, if you thought George Lazenby was the worst 007, try watching The Veil for comparison. He won't seem so bad. I still enjoyed watching but cringed whenever she was on camera. Watching her is painful.