If you sat through any of The Agency Season 1 it is too late to get your money back, but like a Minivan transforming into a Ferrari, Season 2 is smart, powerful and great television (can we call it that?) so this writer’s recommendation is “Run Don’t Walk” to The Agency Season 2 – it’s a barn burner that now has real long-term series potential.
Hats off to creator’s of the show, the Butterworth’s. Like the Knicks down 29 points in the Game 4 of the NBA Championship, the Butterworth brothers have combined for a recovery worthy of Brunson and Anunoby with the final tip.
The Agency Season 1 is a Snooze Fest. Season 2 is Must See TV.
If you’re just joining us in Season 2 here is the backstory – The Agency (as the name suggests) is a small ragtag group of CIA agents and their bosses based on the Island of Misfit Toys that is London, England. Michael Fassbender, code name “Martian” falls in love with his mark, Jodi Turner-Smith (Dr. Sami Zahir) while attempting to establish US hegemony in the Horn of Africa. In Season 1 Martian is a diplomat masquerading as a spy. In Season 2 Martian gets his balls and goes into full on James Bond action mode, finally fulfilling the promise that Fasbender has been dangling in front of us an actor for many years. Black Bag and Agency Season 1 were total snooze fests, with Season 2 Fassbender comes back to the party and what a party it is!
Quite possibly one of the most interesting parts of Season 2 is the prevalence of strong female characters. At every corner we turn and find that while the men appear to be in charge, it’s really the women running the show. Correspondingly, the only real miss in Season 2 is Turner-Smith, who in Season 1 is the Butterworth’s Mona Lisa and in Season 2 is deployed as a prop for the plot line. If that is the only draw back, I’ll take it. I can always go back to Season 1 to watch Turner-Smith’s portrait dry like paint on a wall.
In Season 2 the writers and showrunners do a fantastic job of weaving together global politics across Africa, Iran, the Middle East, London and Ukraine all while maintaining an erstwhile back story of the new multi-polar cold war like the front page of the Financial Times.
Even the CIA has Office Drama
Office drama and politics, do we have some!
Jeffrey Wright as Olgletree and Richard Gere as Bosko are in their prime as Deputy Station Chief and Station Chief. In Season 2 they show themselves to be two of the most accomplished character actors in Hollywood. I don’t want to spoil the plot, except to say “watch for the shoelaces”. It’s impossible not to watch these spar without really feeling like you are in the middle of the room as part of the furniture watching how real spy shit gets done.
Season 2 has an Incredible Cast
One of the most virulent and riveting aspects of The Agency is the depth on the bench in terms of roles, characters and talent. From Keanush Tafreshi and Reza Brojerdi playing the modern and tormented Persians, to Katherine Waterston (yes, Sam Waterson’s daughter), to bad guy Clayne Crawford (who played Martin Riggs in the TV spinoff of Lethal Weapon) and Saura Lightfoot-Leon, code name Gremlin.
All their characters jump off the screen and grab you by the throat.
Season 2 Finale – Spolier Alert
But in the end it is just not possible to pass up John Magaro and Tessa Ferrer. The brewing conflict between the two as we follow The Agency from London to the Central African Republic and the brutal loneliness of the under cover spy out in the field on their own fills one with dread and horror. Magaro’s gullibility and Ferrers’ sinister innocence clarifies that true spy craft can only be learnt through experience and experience can often be deadly.
By the finale Fassbender shows us that even in spy land, loves conquers all, and that a weak and conflicted man can be resurrected by the love of a strong and good woman, to do the right thing.
The Agency Season 2 is a masterpiece that carries itself in such a way that you shouldn’t feel guilty binging it.
The Agency Season 2: Run Don’t Walk and Watch it here on Paramount+.
