En traître

From a magic pen that can hear caller's on a phone, to inept highly trained professionals that can't keep an eye on a boats hatch, there's all manner of idiocy in this show.

I will say, Charlie Cox plays a pretty good part. He's not an outstandingly brilliant actor by any stretch of the imagination, but he's well cast and does his best with the script etc.

Unfortunately, the rest.of the show is subpar spy nonsense with Deus Ex Machinas for every corner they wrote themselves into. It makes for a show you can only really enjoy if you turn logic and rational thought off for a while.

If it had run any longer than it does, I'd have not watched beyond episode 2 because spending 10 or 11 hours with this show would be way way too much.

I was looking forward to watching Charlie Cox in a spy thriller. Seemed promising with actors like Ciaran Hinds ad Olga Kurylenko attached to it. After watching the first episodes, it was underwhelming, to say the least.

From the get-go, the premise is not believable. Cox plays the deputy to the MI6 Control, who is thrust into heading up MI6 in a huff. Through horribly rapid pacing, everything is just a frantic, chaotic mess of storytelling, with ridiculously silly tropes that will make you eyes roll.

And it just continues from there-a lot of shouting, hysteria, and tense soundtrack to ramp up the sense of urgency and intrigue-pretty cheap theatrics. Maybe it'll settle down, but I won't make it that far.

Do you feel ready for a British spy story? Of course you do, and it doesn't disappoint and quite suitable for binge watching with only 5 episodes. Chaplin is great, those expressive eyes! MI6 story with all the usual trappings of scheming for power and a bit of blackmail (kompromat) thrown in. If you were looking for lots of gun battles including "let's get out of here" dialogue you might go elsewhere, (but we do have at least one gun battle/exchange) I would encourage Brit spy or police drama fans to take this one in......... Decent acting, suitably engaging story and I can recommend it without reserve.

So it's not the greatest spy thriller, but once you get past the first couple of episodes it picks up steam and becomes quite gripping. Throwing everything in the pot you have dodgy MI6 higher ups, Russian spies, dodgy CIA operatives, British government corruption, blackmailing, assassins, and various conspiracies. For those moaning don't take it so seriously, it's not James Bond. It was good it was wrapped up in 5 episodes. I actually preferred it to the latest Jack Ryan which is more paint by numbers and quite flat in comparison. I particularly enjoyed Ciaran Hinds as the head of MI6, Oona Chaplin as the number 2's ex military wife and Olga Kurylenko as the Russian agent.

I gave it 7 stars. Maybe realistically a 6 but wanted to balance out the stupid ones and twos. I watched all episodes back to back. Kept husband and I intrigued all the way through. Of course there was plot holes, and yes, suspend belief. I'm quite sure this isn't how MI5 or the CIA operate, but it doesn't stop it being a good story. People watch Marvel and can manage to suspend belief and still enjoy it, why so different just because you think it should be.

Excellent acting. Believable characters, even if the wife is annoying for 3 out of the 5 episodes. Fast paced and enjoyable. Give it a go.