Au service du passé

Yes, you need to turn off your brain function, but it was definitely fast paced fun! I binged it in one day and enjoyed the silliness. The main actress did a good job. Don't overthink it, just take a ride.

I read some terrible reviews, but realised most had not actually watched more than 1 or 2 episodes at the most. I liked the premise so gave it a go. So glad I did. It was gripping, a roller coaster. Pretty violent but some great twists. Strong female characters. Give it a go, I'm glad I watched it!

The actors try, but this is just weird. The writers just strung tropes and cliches together hoping something would emerge. Nothing did. What we got is a terrible mashup of The Americans, Homeland, Killing Eve, Mission Impossible, and Manimal.

In From The Cold: US mom Jenny Franklin is acting as chaperone to her teen daughter Becca's figure skating team in Madrid where she is abducted by a CIA team and it's revealed that Jenny is a Russian assassin who adopted a new identity in the 1990s. She is blackmailed into working for the Company, the alternative being a berth in a Supermax. She hasn't lost her skills and we soon discover that she has additional talents. I won't give away all of her powers as some of them are crucial to the plot development. We enter a world of smoke and mirrors, plots, counter-plots, red herrings and conspiracies. Spy-Tech observation is ubiquitous, no one knows who really watching them not even the watchers. Some convincing well choreographed fights and flash backs to the young Jenny on her first mission. Family loyalty as well as betrayal and infighting is important to the spies and assassins across agencies and secret societies. An enjoyable twist on the female assassin trope with quite a few plot twists and surprises. Created and Written by Adam Glass, Directed by Ami Canaan Mann and Birgitte Stærmose. Eight episodes on Netflix. 8/10.

The wooden acting of Kincaid as Becca bring the action and drama To a screeching halt every time she appears on screen. The producers seem to figure this out and have minimized her appearance. The rest of the series is well handled with an obvious twist ending it's an enjoyable weekend bingeing.