Not much gets your heart pumping faster than a spy thriller. From high-stakes missions to cat-and-mouse chases in exotic locations, these glossy dramas have all the ingredients for a gripping watch. Here are some of the best.
The Night Manager
The Agency
This “deeply engrossing” adaptation of Eric Rochant’s acclaimed French series “The Bureau” examines the “profound personal and psychological turmoil” that comes with covert work, said Aramide Tinubu on Variety. The show follows a CIA special agent codenamed Martian (a “riveting” Michael Fassbender) as he struggles to adjust to his life back in London after six years under cover in Ethiopia. At first he appears “stoic and unmoved”, but when he finally settles into his new flat “things aren’t quite as they appear”. We soon learn he was forced to “sever ties with his lover” Sami (Jodi Turner-Smith) – a romance he has “significantly downplayed” to his handler. Most espionage shows neglect the “mental toil” that comes with the job, but “The Agency” tackles these hazards head on, warning that “even well-trained deep cover agents can’t evade their own imperfections and desires”.
Paramount+
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Down Cemetery Road
Based on a novel by Mick Herron, the author of the “Slow Horses” series, this absorbing show doesn’t quite reach those heights, but “there’s still plenty here to sink your teeth into”, said Kelechi Ehenulo on Empire. The drama begins with a “literal bang”: a dinner party hosted by art restorer Sarah (Ruth Wilson) and her husband is disrupted by a gas explosion at a neighbouring house. When a little girl vanishes following the mysterious accident and the police are oddly “silent”, Sarah joins forces with a local private detective Zoe (Emma Thompson) to unearth a “shadowy conspiracy”. It’s a “compelling” watch.
Apple TV+
The Assassin
Keeley Hawes shines in this “stylish, witty, tightly written” tale of a retired assassin going on the run with her adult son, played by Freddie Highmore, said Lucy Mangan in The Guardian. “A menopausal assassin has been a long time coming,” despite there being “literally no more perfect pairing in the world than a woman rapidly emptying of oestrogen and a gun”. Julie and her son are dragged into a “bloody, murderous caper” in which she tries to avoid a sniper trying to kill her and find out what’s happened to her old handler. It’s “perfectly crafted preposterousness”.
Amazon Prime
The Eastern Gate
This “fast-paced” Polish spy drama is “surprising” and “intense”, said Margaret Lyons in The New York Times. The action follows Ewa (Lena Gora), a burnt-out intelligence officer who wants to leave her espionage days behind, but must rethink when her partner, also an agent, gets outed by Russian operatives. From “eyeball squishing” to “wrist-wrenching”, there’s plenty of violence. However, none of it feels “gratuitous”; instead the brutality adds to the show’s “percussive insistence”. A gripping watch, released back in January, “The Eastern Gate” is “lean and mean in the best ways”.
Apple TV+
Carême
This “flirty” French-language show stars a “seductive, single-earring-wearing spy who also happens to be a founding father of haute cuisine”, said Alison Herman in Variety. Set in Napoleonic Paris, the series follows Marie-Antoine Carême (Benjamin Voisin), who is often hailed as the first celebrity chef. It’s less clear whether the culinary master was involved in espionage, but that’s the premise of this “frothy”, fictionalised tale. While the show is “ahistorical” at times, the “twisty plot is endlessly entertaining” and, above all, it’s a lot of “fun”.
Amazon Prime
Rabbit Hole
Fans of the TV series “24” are guaranteed to love “Rabbit Hole”, starring a “granite-jawed” Kiefer Sutherland, said Stuart Heritage in The Guardian. His character, John Weir, is a “corporate espionage expert who finds himself neck-deep in an enormous conspiracy”. Framed for murder, he lurches from “crisis to crisis, singlehandedly trying to stave off disaster”. Weir is not your run-of-the-mill smooth spy, however. He “bickers” and “wisecracks”, bringing “an unmistakable lightness” to the series, which became available to stream on ITVX earlier this year.
ITVX
The Sympathizer
Adapted from Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer prize-winning novel of the same name, this “stylish” mini series follows a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy (Hoa Xuande) who flees to the US following the Vietnam War, said Louis Chilton in The Independent. Much of the cast is Vietnamese, with the exception of Robert Downey Jr, who plays four roles. Between the Hollywood star’s “character-juggling” and the show’s “snappy, hair gel-slick aesthetic sensibility” it would be easy to dismiss “The Sympathizer” as style over substance. But, “make no mistake”, the series gets to grips with its “expansive” subject matter with “clarity and verve”, justifying its existence “emphatically”.
Sky
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Donald Glover and Francesca Sloane’s take on “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” flips the “frothy” Hollywood movie on its head, said Olly Richards in Empire. In this “dark, smart” 2024 remake, the action follows two strangers (Donald Glover and Maya Erskine) who are hired by a “shadowy spy agency” and must take on new identities as a married couple to help them complete a series of dangerous missions. The leading pair are excellent, bringing “romcom charisma shot through with something verging on sinister”. However much you start to warm to them, it’s hard to shake the sense of unease. It’s this blend of “mystery and madness” that makes these Smiths so “strangely seductive” to watch.
Amazon Prime
The Night Agent
The “no-frills, unpretentious spy thriller” is back for a second season, said Forbes. Peter Sutherland (Gabriel Basso), a “dispatcher” for a top-secret team of US spies, spent the first season investigating corruption at the heart of government from his office at the White House. This time, we are treated to more “high-octane action” and “nefarious terrorist plots”. Admittedly, it’s “over the top a lot of the time” – don’t expect it to be “super smart” – but it’s entertaining from the off and “carries out its spycraft with workmanlike efficiency”.
Netflix
Black Doves
This slick spy thriller from Netflix did not disappoint, said Stylist. Helen Webb (Keira Knightley) is the perfect wife-and-mother figure as proceedings kick off at magazine-worthy Christmas drinks receptions with her beautiful children and politician husband. But things, as always, are not as they seem: Webb is a spy and has been passing on secrets to a shady organisation, the Black Doves, for years. Sam Young (Ben Whishaw) is her long-standing friend and sidekick, a “suave, champagne-drinking assassin”. This “sexy, action-packed and emotional thriller” of a series will have you inhaling it all in one binge-watching night.
Netflix
Killing Eve
Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s “darkly comic” spy thriller made an “instant splash” when it “blazed” onto our screens, said Michael Hogan in The Telegraph. It is a “deadly game of cat and mouse” between Jodie Comer’s “psychopathic assassin” Villanelle and “bored” MI5 agent Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh), which soon unfurls into a “mutual obsession”. The series, which ran for four seasons before ending in 2022, is packed with “shock twists”, “city-hopping locations” and a series of killer Comer outfits. It’s a “stylishly subversive treat”.
BBC iPlayer
The Day of the Jackal
Eddie Redmayne’s “innate slipperiness” makes him perfect for his latest role as an “unknowable and deadly assassin” in “The Day of the Jackal”, said Esther Zuckerman in The New York Times. Based on Frederick Forsyth’s 1971 novel of the same name, but set in the present day, the show follows MI6 officer Bianca (Lashana Lynch) as she “runs around trying to uncover the Jackal’s identity”. The two leads are the “twin engines propelling the plot”: while Redmayne’s portrayal of the Jackal is “fascinatingly coy”, Lynch tackles the role of Bianca with a “stirring mix of impulsivity and cunning”.
Sky