The Agency

A story that unveils the humanness of tradesmen and women in the most controversial business of all time. By the way the characters are built and portrayed any wild guess can be true. Great dim visuals for indoor scenes screams it's all business. Excellent work with camera and visuals. Great work with audio and background music. Intro music is very relatable and mood setting. Performances by the whole cast felt very natural, and it was well chosen group. This is not the regular spy drama we come across but rather a portrayal of the toll it takes for operatives to serve their countries while surviving.

I must say that I was lucky enough that a couple of years ago I bindge-watched The Bureau and to be honest is probably one of the best things I have ever watched. Nothing up until this point was even remotely close to it. There is a correlation between the two series, obviously it was mentioned that it was "influenced" by it, but tbh I wasn't expecting similar storyline. Don't get me wrong, the series up until this point is amazing, great cast, good cinematography, but it wasn't something I haven't already seen in the French version. It's too early to say how it will turned out to be, but I highly suggest to anyone who hasn't watched the Bureau to watch it. You won't regret it. After Fassbender played professional hitman in David Finchers movie The Killer, and I saw he was in the cast, I immediately knew he is a great choice for the role. Those type of series actually require certain amount of concentration while watching them, so you can keep up with all the characters in the storyline and the little details about them. It's not something you would watch, while riding your bike on the indoor trainer. Some would even consider them slow paced, maybe even boring, but exactly those characteristics and complicated personal battles that the characters have, plus the slow buildup of tension, is what makes them great in my opinion. Those type of series you either love them, or you don't like them at all, there isn't a middle ground.

Don't believe the reviews that claim this is masterpiece nor those that claim this is bad. This is thoroughly engaging drama that meanders into the psychological stresses of being an agent more often than not. If you are looking for shoot 'em ups, you're on the wrong train. There is action mind you but that is second to storyline which is as it should be. This is more along the lines of Tinker Taylor rather than James Bond. If that is your cup of tea you will enjoy it.

As others have said the cast is quite good with nary a weak link. There are some traditional tropes throughout relating to the spy game and its role in international intrigue but you can't have it all.

A well-made series where Richard Gere and Michael Fassbender are wasted on it and play at 40-55 percent of their abilities and instead of the latter, though playing nicely and convincingly good, I would have liked to see Richard Armitage in his place and rank. The Russian and Ukrainian situations and visuals are mostly good as well as are the scenes with Sami Zahir and Danny.

A little suspension of disbelief here and there and you got yourself ten convincing episodes of high value targets drama.

Please bear in mind that it's mostly done right without stellar realism that are impossible to reach at a fictional level without making fuss, creating conflicts and deteriorating the storylines' plots.

• Screenplay/storyline/plots: 7.5
• Production value/impact: 7
• Development: 8
• Realism: 7
• Entertainment: 8
• Acting: 8
• Filming/photography/cinematography: 8.5
• VFX: 8.5
• Music/score/sound: 7
• Depth: 7
• Logic: 6.5
• Flow: 7.5
• Political/Drama/thriller/psychology/sp i: 7
• Ending: 7.

I have not seen the original to compare. However, knowing it was a remake of a French original I approached this with some trepidation as US remakes are usually pretty poor on the whole.

This though I was pleasantly surprised by. It offers something different to the usual spy thrillers focusing more on relationships to agents, colleagues, and loved ones that are often not touched on or rarely developed. Whilst this could still go further than it does those elements are just as important to the story as the main plot line. It's that plot line that is the slow burn as it takes it time to unfold but it is refreshing in a US remake that there is no reliance on action sequences. Action sequences are few and far between and only introduced when necessary. Instead we get a greater focus on the who what and why of the of the various plots and sub plots.

I found it compelling, with Michael Fassbender as Martian/Paul excellent in the main role ably supported by an excellent cast.

There is one thread throughout that seems to have little relevance to everything else that is going on but I suspect it is there because it will become much more important in subsequent series. However, it appears as a little padding to this series, although it is an interesting and watchable side plot. That and the slow burn stop it from becoming a 10/10 series but overall it is well with the watch.