Becoming The Muse

The Agency Series Review

The Agency is a spy thriller television series from Paramount+ with Showtime produced by George Clooney and Grant Heslov. It is based on the acclaimed French series The Bureau (original title: Le Bureau des Légendes). The series premiered on 29 November 2024.

The show follows an undercover agent, Martian, who is abruptly ordered to return from his mission. As he struggles to reintegrate into normalcy, he encounters ties from his undercover mission, with repercussions that threaten national security as he navigates the divide between his duty, his heart and his country.

The Good

Is it spy Christmas season?… cause there’s a lot of espionage content coming out, Black Doves, Night Agent, Prime Target. I am not complaining. I am fascinated by spy thrillers, and the agents who risk it all, for King and country.

The Agency tries to differentiate itself from the other spy thrillers by trying to humanise the agents who go undercover, creating whole new identities and personas that it becomes impossible to separate who they really are from the lies, deception and subterfuge.

Michael Fassbender as Martian delivers a captivating performance as a haunted agent struggling with the weight of being abruptly pulled out of a mission he spent years undercover without time to decompress. Secret agents don’t really get to have an authentic personal life as a heated encounter with his superior hits that point home;

Martian: “This isn’t national security; this is personal,”
 Henry: “It’s the agency. Nothing is personal!”

The show is visually stunning to watch and I particularly liked Sami’s costumes and always looked forward to see what she would be wearing… Jodie Turner-Smith who plays Dr. Samia Fatima ‘Sami’ Zahir fully embodied the enigmatic character who stole every scene she was in.

The Agency is a star-studded ensemble with a cast of reputable actors that included Fassbender, Richard Gere, Jeffrey Wright and guest stars like Alex Michael Jennings and Dominic West

The Bad

If you would think they would make use of such a stellar cast… you would be wrong, they under-utilise most of the cast in The Agency, which feels like a company with way too many bosses serving to second guess the ones who actually do the work, while making dubious decisions that put everything at risk.

The shows feels a bit all over the place, giving it a jarring experience coupled by its non-linaer storytelling where you are never too sure when what happened is happening and a major plot point is in flashbacks or is it flash-forwards making it difficult to follow the point of the fragmented storylines.

The Agency does not fully consolidate its storylines leaving a lot of gaps, and ends on unsatisfying conclusion that sets up for a second season. The series was renewed for a second season.

The Ugly

Those who are familiar with the source material claim that The Agency is a pale imitation of the original show, like a badly composed cover song that sounds familiar but with none of the heart or originality.

 From the show’s vantage point everyone is puppet whose strings can be pulled with the right leverage… how far would you go for your country and the people you love…

Final Thoughts

The Agency is spy drama that could potentially make a lasting mark on the spy genre, when it finds its feet, with season one being more of testing the waters, with both feet… A gamble which has paid off  with approval for season 2…