Traitors

I've watched all 6 episodes and I wasn't bored at all. In fact I hope there's a second series.

This show got off to a very good start, for me. Emma Appleton, beautiful and talented, came out of the gate strong as the sexually liberated and strong-willed Fiona ("Feef"), who agrees to help a renegade American agent ferret out Russian sympathizers in the British government. It narrows in on an important and relatively unexplored transition era in history, when the war is over, Churchill is out and Labor takes charge, and the question of who is a friend and who an enemy is suddenly murky.

The cast overall is strong, particularly Keeley Hawes as a co-worker who draws Feef's suspicion and sympathy. Hawes' gives such a fine, nuanced performance that she eventually overshadows not only Appleton but the cause Feef embraces, which is to say, "England at all costs." Hawes' and Emma's lover, an idealistic young Labor representative, make a persuasive case for their view: that the poor in England had suffered and sacrificed too much and for too long under the class system and for the Empire, and it was time for change.

This is where the show kind of lost me. Feef is strong and idealistic in her own way, but she ends up being pulled in so many directions by circumstances and manipulative people that she seems lost at the end. The pacing of the series lurches about after the first couple of episodes, and things get spread a little too thin....or thick. It's all a bit much.

There are side plots involving a young African American driver and a Jewish woman who wants to see a homeland for her people created in what would become Israel. Both are interesting and well-acted, but when the latter becomes central to the story toward the end, it feels a bit tacked on. And what Feef does at the very end "For England" seems, frankly, baffling and pretty much unforgivable. She is a shell of herself, and it's not a satisfying conclusion at all.

This stands alone as a good yarn about spying in post war Britain, the storyline is interesting and the acting throughout is excellent. I am a little surprised at the low ratings it gets but I'm guessing it does not contain the action which many people seem to crave these days. Instead of this, the drama demands your attention and makes the viewer think about the issues it raises. The cynical viewer who wants endless action should watch pieces containing Jason Statham.

Traitors is an interesting idea that suffers from extraneous subplots and some cringeworthy exposition. You'll be lectured on race relations in the USA, on abortion rights, on women in the workplace, on systemic abuse of Jews and a dozen other worthy but in this context distracting issues. That's just bad writing. At its core though, Traitors is a tale about one woman's emotional journey into, depending on your POV, adulthood or corruption and that story is very well told and very well acted by Emma Appleton. A second season? Why not.

A very good series imo and a cross between Foyle's War and Bridge Of Spies in atmosphere. Convoluted plot and very loosely based on Britain and her allies' history around the time of the partition of Palestine post WW2. Not to be taken too literally which is why some reviewers have criticised the series.

Good cast and acting and thoroughly enjoyable if you like a good spy story. John Le Carré would not have been ashamed of this.