The Veil

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.

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.

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.

Moss's English accent is a little dubious. But I'm warming to her characters charm. The scenery, so far, is beautiful. The story is very well put together. The acting is flawless.

So far, by episode two, it is turning into a game of multilayer chess. Between 2 women on a road trip. Both trying to discover each others roles and motives on this journey. And between two different countries US and France, attempting to establish control over the "mission".

As spy thrillers go, this one is one of the most interesting that I have seen in a long time. No Hollywood BS. Well worth the time, energy and focus.

I write this because it would have helped me. It's a well done mini series and at the 3rd episode I might have thought it was an 8, but it's one of those series that is all based on the ending and how everything comes together. I just didn't find the ending very satisfying, not worth going through the 5 episodes to get there. My rating is "fine", but I would have skipped it if I had it to do over again.

Compared to some other reviews, I liked Moss's accent.

I liked the initial premise.

I thought some of the later story lines fell apart.

I wasn't convinced of why she'd believe so much in this woman to risk it all.