The Little Drummer Girl

I read the favorable reviews along with the not so stellar " watching paint dry" reviews, and I think the difference is this: It is a tad slow at times, but it has to be to give you all the background on everyone and tell the story of why Khalil became how he is. Some people aren't cut out for the story unfolding slowly, with bits of backstory mixed in to fill in the pieces. It's a good story with lots of moving parts and background information that doesn't deserve the bad reviews from people too lazy to get involved in a good plot. If you like espionage type movies with mystery and some romance, and don't mind using your brain while watching, then this is for you. If you don't like involved, deep multifaceted plots then this isn't the show for you.

One needs to pay very careful attention from line one of this show to prevent getting lost. Once you get it, watching it play out is easier. You can't allow for distraction. Although some claim it's laboriously slow, it adds to the suspense. Characters are droll and lack animation, but it works. This series makes you use your imagination & tenacity. I enjoy the character interplay & putting the puzzle pieces together only to find they are in the wrong place. NO Hollywood bang-bang, shooting up buildings & wrecking dozens of cars. I love (so far) the lack of romantic interplay, that's a bonus. I wouldn't Charlie to be a hottie. She's a naive small time actress going nowhere fast, throwing in rebellion for attention. She's fascinated & intrigued by (the older) Gadi, a very believable situation in the 70s. I love her performance. This series is truly worth the try. Some things don't ring true, such as describing distance in miles rather than kilometers. Also a runner in the background in (I believe) Munich who is wearing modern day running clothes.

This series is not for a general audience who are not prepared to pay attention and appreciate nuance as the critical reception compared to general audience response shows. One example is of people not understanding Charlie's motivation in going with Becker and agreeing to her first mission even though her very first audtion scene in episode 1 shows that she is a fantasist who craves danger and excitement with her story being undercut with scenes showing the reality, people not getting this shows that most people do not want to put any effort into watching television and expect to be spoon fed at every point.

This show uses editing and cinematography to create atmosphere and to highlight the artifice of the spy world and of cinema, there are many points that are beautifully meta. For instance the scene at the Acropolis is artifice not only for the characters but also for us the audience playfully directed by Chan-Wook and elevated by the score. This show will be divisive but great art usually is, also the costumes are to die for!

I am not Le Carre reader, but for me the show is very well done. It keeps me entertained, the acting is good and although political aspect is not easy to discuss, it doesn't side specifically on either side. It is just really good spies/agents historically related action drama. Very enjoyable.

There are some sublime moments in this six part series, an adaptation of the John le Carré novel directed by Park Chan-wook. None are finer than the scene with the shadows on the ancient buildings at the top of the Acropolis in Athens, but I have to say, Florence Pugh getting rubbed down on the beach or playing acoustic guitar and singing the folk song "Murder of Maria Marten" come pretty damn close. My goodness, she's fantastic here. Watching her act as someone acting as a Palestinian sympathizer to infiltrate their ranks is mesmerizing, and she fully inhabits her character.

There is real tension as this story plays out, with the Israeli Mossad agents (led by Michael Shannon and Alexander Skarsgård) trying to track down a smart bomber (Charif Ghattas) and the organization which also includes his siblings (Lubna Azabal and Amir Khoury). As the Palestinians use young women who have been groomed to plant the bombs, the Israelis try to use the same playbook and implant a young woman (Pugh) amongst them.

The series is a little slow moving and it was probably guilty of being elongated, exacerbated by a couple of the early episodes feeling too talky. It's biggest issue, however, is in how improbable the story is, and its central premise was one I could never truly buy into. As early as episode two we can see why the Israelis have chosen the young woman, but it's certainly not clear why she would choose to go along with it, especially considering her progressive, pro-Palestinian views. To accept incredible danger and put up with a creepy backstory in the process did not at all seem plausible. By episode four we finally see her questioning it all, something that should have happened much earlier, but to have the reason be an attraction to the Israeli agent was unconvincing. It was also a little annoying when she later developed feelings for one of the Palestinians, which felt like tawdry melodrama by the author. There are other elements which didn't ring true, such as why the youngest Palestinian brother would have given up the information as he did, but the whopper is the entire arc of Pugh's character.

I also wondered if the film had a balanced view of the two sides in this struggle, seeing as how the Israeli protagonists are cleverly hunting down Palestinian terrorists, even if the latter are humanized and some of the Israeli atrocities are expressed through anecdotes. It's a mixed bag on that front, and let's just say, felt awfully tidy at the end. There were some really nice bits though, including the noxious anti-Semitism in the British Intelligence officer, and a fantastic dream sequence of the Israeli agent shaking hands with the Palestinian and the latter bursting into flames, saying 'Al Nakba' ("The Catastrophe," referring to what happened in 1948). Overall, worth watching for the production value, and Florence Pugh.